fall flowers

Today we woke up to a cool breeze and rain. I have had the doors and windows open all day and it has been glorious. A glimmer of hope that fall has truly arrived.

And again, opposite of most places, where flowers start to die off getting themselves ready for the winter hibernation, here they are waking up from their summer-heat-induced-slumber. The leaves are turning green again and the flowers are daring to show their faces.

It is like spring in autumn!

Even the hummingbirds are celebrating that summer is over!

The air conditioners are quiet for now, the birds are chirping again, and I am wondering...where are all the falling leaves? I'll take what bit of fall I can get. Even though I'm still wearing shorts and sandals most of the time.

This quote says it best:

"Autumn is a second spring where every leaf is a flower." ~Albert Camus

evidence

Autumn colors do exist in Arizona. Although I've had to look a little more closely than what I'm normally used to to, I do see a little hint of fall, albeit a bit late.

We had an abundance of cottonwood trees in our yard in Colorado and millions of leaves would cover our yard waiting to be jumped in each year. It was something that we looked forward to and also dreaded. It was ever beautiful to watch the leaves turn many shades of yellow before giving up their hold and relenting to the force of gravity. I loved to watch them fall on a windy day. It would literally be a deluge of leaves falling just as a rainstorm or a fresh snow would fall to the ground. I loved it and I miss it. I do not miss the big job of raking them up and bagging them to be hauled away. We could bag upwards of 60 bags of leaves each year. We discovered though, by putting the bags at the end of our driveway with a sign that said "free garden mulch", the bags would disappear within the day. Sometimes, we even had people come to our door asking for them. It is nice to know that our leaves were satisfying the soil and encouraging gardens to grow plentifully.

So imagine my thrill and excitement when I spotted these cottonwood trees high above the other trees and cactus in this yard. I wanted to go up to this persons door and ask if I could wallow in their leaves. Really I did. I'll let you know if I do.

And I spotted this little burst of color along the side of the road. Just a little happy bit of orange and gold.
The ocotillo are changing from the bright green to different shades of gold and brown. Who knew a cactus would show signs of autumn?
And our grapes in the backyard. They didn't produce much in the way of edible grapes, but they are giving me a little parade of color.
And this cactus-thingy in front of the house. Nice orange tips.
And look! A bush that isn't staying green! Lets all clap our hands and say...yay!
This plant blooms off and on all the time in a variety of shades ranging from bright pink to orange. I felt it was worthy of being in my autumn color line-up since it is showing its orange right now.
We have leaves that are "falling" from the ocotillo cactus. I don't think I will need to rake and bag anytime soon, but there are leaves on the ground at least.
And I know I won't have to worry about getting them raked up before the snow falls.

Autumn color is good for a girl to see.