Autumn treasures in my garden today

This morning I had a lovely walk around the land to see what treasures I could take photos of. I decided to give my cell-phone camera a try with some close ups, and I'm so happy with the results.

The weather started off cloudy, then, shortly afterwards, the sun came out and it was glorious. The temperature is 24 C at the moment, which is great for Autumn here. It feels more like Spring!

Some of the orange red hot poker, kniphofia, flowers are starting to open. Most of them survived the Summer drought that we had. We have only lost one plant as far as I can see.

The stinking iris, iris foetidissima, seed pods are bursting open with their bright red berries.

The ground is covered with prickly chestnut cases. Unfortunately this year the chestnuts inside are tiny and shrivelled, I think due to the drought.

Fly agaric mushrooms, amanita muscaria, are popping up all around the chestnut tree. They are just starting to open. Their creamy white veils are slowly breaking apart as the red mushrooms grow bigger. The veil will form the classic white spots on the red mushrooms.

Our feijoa, acca sellowiana, hasn't fruited well this year. Again I blame the drought for this. And what friut has fallen is quickly gobbled up by greedy pukekoes. (Feijoas are also known as pineapple guavas in some countries).

Japanese anemones, anemone japonica, are flowering by the house showing off their bright pink petals and yellow fluffy stamens.

The snowball viburnum bush, viburnum macrocephallum, has turned a beautiful russet red colour. I can't wait until Spring when it is dressed in its large white pom pom flowers.

The hydrangea flowers have turned a deep purplish pink colour and are looking very pretty.

This is one of our yellow buttercup trees, senna corymbosa, coming into flower. They look lovely when all of the buds have opened. In the background you can see purple tibouchina flowers. The tibouchina bush flowers all year round here and survives our light frosts in Winter.

I had fun walking through the fallen sycamore leaves, crunching them under my feet. They remind me of when I was a child in England when I used to do the same thing!

And finally I discovered that my Jerusalem sage, phlomis russeliana, has survived and is starting to push up its furry green leaves! I planted it a few years ago and am still waiting for it to flower. Hopefully next Spring I will be lucky and be rewarded by seeing yellow whorls of flowers. Fingers crossed.

What time of year is it where you are?

Lots of smiles.

Hugs.

Rose x