Flowers, mushrooms and colorful leaves

During this past week, the birches have turned all yellow. Yesterday was a very beautiful, very warm autumn day, today was a bit cooler, though mostly sunny. Yesterday we went hiking through some forests for a few hours, today our dogs were tired, so we only went walking around here a few times. Despite the autumn pushing, there's still flowers blooming here and there - yesterday we walked past a meadow full of flowers - with bees and other insects buzzing around. Mushrooms are popping up and climbing ivy on the balcony railing of our neighbor looks fantastic in its magentas and purples.

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Colors of Autumn

Our autumn this year has been a rather warm one so far. Still, the dropping night temperatures have slowly but surely started to turn nature into autumny colors. On Sunday we went outing in Nuuksio National Park, where there were still some blueberries (bilberries, really) in the bushes. Streets and trails are covered in fallen leaves - even though the trees still look pretty green. Aronia (chokeberry) is of the most beautiful autumn sights, with its leaves turning bright red and mauve, in contrast with the near black berries.

Foliage and mushrooms

Autumn around here is starting to be at its best, with trees and undergrowth, like blueberry bushes, changing form green to yellow, orange and red. Many trees have lost all of their leaves already. Mushroms are everywhere, a lot of them already decaying.

 

Frosty morning

This autumn was half of an autumn for quite some time, until last week leaves started to fall, and this week the temperatures dropped, at least temporarily. This morning was the first frosty one.

 

 

 

 

 

Decaying frosty leaves

Another frosty morning today, after a week of rain. Leaves have started to decay, but today they were covered with frost. A couple of oak and buckeye leaves have found their way to the the otherwise birch and maple leaf ridden sidewalk by our house, from trees a little way down the street.

 

Frost

It's been below zero again the past nights. Yesterday morning we had no sun, and it actually snowed a bit in the day time (though melted as it touched the ground).

 

This morning we woke up to a frosty sunny day, the night's freeze having been enough to freeze the water in some garden containers. The colorful leaves on the deck and lawn, and the tall salads and that last flower standing were glistening in the sun.

 

 

 

Grilling

It was a beautiful sunny day today, and not all that cold. Since we were home instead of out hiking or something, we decided to do a bit of grilling on our yard. There won't be too many occasions for that anymore this year; the grill needs to be stored away soon for there's no telling when the snow will start falling.

 

Autumn yard

Different plants react to the cooling of the weather so differently. Our tomatoes died long ago, and the pepper plants have wilted recetly. The chilis are still going strong, though, and the bell peppers have started to change color, despite being soft and wrinkled, probably due to the frost.

 

Basil has wilted (ok, we have neglected the watering too, and it has been a rather dry autumn), but oregano is doing good. Probably finally this weekend we'll get around to drying it. Parsley has gone into a new growth spurt, alongside with the chives. Thyme and rosemary are doing good too; actually, the rosemary never looked all summer long as good as it does now! Red salad has grown into 40-50 cm tall flowering salad towers.

 

The neighbors' cherry tree has become quite beautiful, with green, yellow and red leaves, all at the same time.

 

Autumn on our home street

The trees have finally turned all colors of foliage, and the first proper rain in weeks has set in. Our neighborhood is looking like autumn.

 

Fallen leaves

Maple leaves all fallen on a yard at Nurmijärvi, at the stables where my daughter goes horse back riding.

 

Quite many cattails were still brown, but some had turned into white fur already.