Gardens and Travels

The light’s begun to shift, and autumn colors appear in blooms, if not on leaves yet. Last Saturday afternoon, my friend Paula and I went to Meijer Sculpture Gardens. She grew up in Michigan and is even more of a CPL (Crazy Plant Lady) than I am. When she told me she’d never visited the gardens, I knew we had to go together. We logged over 4 miles just wandering around the art, plants and trees. So much fun and so much beauty! This gorgeous amaranth amidst sunflowers, squash and corn made me so happy:

Back at Dra’Faven, we also see hints of Fall. The sedum has just begun to blush …

… and our resident CPL found nine(!) mum’s to tuck among the marigolds, dianthus, snapdragons, veronica, flowering mint, and pin cushion flowers.

David’s daughter Allie took this photo of our backyard hibiscus next to the evergreens. Even at lower blog resolution, you can tell who’s got the upgraded phone! She caught the color just right:

In addition to Meijer this past Saturday, David and I took a last minute day trip to Traverse City two Saturday’s ago. We always go during the off season and wanted to see how insanely populous it would feel in peak season. It was lovely! As always, we felt like we spent much longer than our linear time there. I couldn’t believe it was the same day when we returned home. So much water and so many trees leave this urban faery quite content, indeed!