Local Sights and Fall Color

As the last vestiges of fall were upon us, Laurie captured that feeling…as well as some of the final bits of color that popped out here and there. 

Note: When we lived in Chicago, all of these similar sights would have been gone about a month earlier!

Laurie spotted something a bit different about the magnolia tree at the left side of the house, especially for so late in the season. (Looking from the driveway)

There was just one magnolia blossom to be seen, at the very top of the tree.  Perhaps it was seeking just a little more sunshine!

Here she captured a couple of our burning bushes in our back yard.  As colorful as they were when she took the photo, they are even more scarlet red now!

On a walk around the neighborhood, she stopped and took a photo of these pretty pink flowers around the base of a tree.  We don’t know what they are but they sure stood out among the fallen leaves. 

Laurie keeps some herbs growing in pots on our deck.  In this case, our Thai holy basil was giving us a bit of late season color.  Interestingly, many of our herb plantings have survived winters past and just keep on keeping on…

Thai holy basil has a spicy, peppery, clove-like taste and it may be the basil that Thai people prefer.  This plant is native to the Indian subcontinent and it’s widespread as a cultivated plant throughout Southeast Asia.

We also spotted this butterfly-bush on our walk through the neighborhood.  Not only was it blooming but despite being as late in the season as it was, it was still attracting butterflies as well as some small bees.

This is a species of flowering plant that is native to central China and also Japan.  Widely used as an ornamental plant, it has been classified as an invasive species in many countries in temperate regions.  In the USA, it is actually classified as a noxious weed in both Washington and Oregon states.  Still…it does make butterflies happy!

We thought that the berries on this nandina bush in the woods deserved mention too!  Nandina is also known as heavenly bamboo or sacred bamboo and it’s native to eastern Asia from the Himalayas to Japan. 

Despite its common name, nandina is not a bamboo but rather an evergreen shrub.  It is especially toxic to birds and animals.  This plant is commonly used in rabbit and deer resistant landscape plantings.  It is considered as an invasive species in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee.  With some  exceptions, many of the nandina we saw on our walk were growing wild along the edge of the woods.

This colorful maple tree is just up the street about 2 lots from our home.  Very pretty indeed…

I thought that I’d end this short photographic post with a few shots of part of the upper portion of Tellico Lake in Monroe County Tennessee.  With 351 miles of shoreline, there are plenty of scenic photo ops along the way.  We always love seeing the Smoky Mountains in the distance.  

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Stay Safe and Take Care, Big Daddy Dave