Late Fall at the Botanic Garden

This is the time of year before the weather has shifted

into winter, but also can be colder than I prefer when I

am outside. The weather was comfortable yesterday,

so today I went to the Botanic Garden in my fall leaf

quest to see the process of fall.

The trees were shifting colorfully into reds and yellows,

with some trees having lost most of their leaves.

Ella stopped to play in the leaves that had fallen.

 One thing different about the Botanic Garden today

is that the light sculptures they have been assembling for

several months are mostly up. The night time event

called the River of Lights starts on November 28th and runs

through January 2nd.

I was most interested in observing fall

on this beautiful day.

The windmill in the model train exhibit area

was surrounded by fallen leaves.

Next to the model train exhibit is a new bug exhibit.

The BUGarium is an exhibit building.

This is the first time I had been inside of the building

I had watched being built as a periodic visitor to the

Botanic Garden.

The first inside area had desert bugs with a radiant

painting on the wall and surrounding dirt area.

There was a tropical waterfall I did not look

at too closely other than the plants around it.
I wonder if anything is living in the water.

 There were more bugs up a ramp.
The tarantula and similar spiders were interesting!

A Flat Rock Scorpion from Africa 

was large and fascinating.

As we left the bug exhibit,

I continued to be most interested in the fall colors

and the process of the trees and plants.

With the leaves falling from the trees,

the produce barn on Heritage Farm

can be seen again from the walkway.

 Our next area was the Japanese garden.
The Japanese garden did not have the lighting sculptures

for the River of Lights. It did have beautiful fall colors!

I really enjoyed photographing the fall colors of nature.
Then, another subject of interest came up for me.
I have had a new camera since the end of September.
During the summer months, I can best photograph Ella outside in the shade.
The photos now taken in the shade are darker. I don't know how much

of this is the change in season, and how much of this is a setting on my camera.

 The light is noticeably changing.

There are darker shadows in the middle of the day.
It is another aspect of seasons. We are moving into the light

and the darkness in a way that is different than summer.

Our last area to visit was Heritage Farm.

It did have lights set up around it for the

River of Lights.

The large trees were changing,

but not quite without leaves.

When I tried to put Ella in the pocket of the small overalls

as I had done for Voir and Autumn she rolled her eyes at me.

She would not even begin to fit in the small, stiff pockets.

Then, she smiled and said she would pose in front of
the clothes line between the house and the barn.

Behind her, the crops and fields 

had been harvested and cleared.

We returned to the adobe farm house

with the Christmas lights on it.

The battery on my camera was flashing,

and finally died with the last photo. I had my other battery

with me, but had left it in my car.
So, ending our outing for today was that 400 photos

was quite enough in enjoying and appreciating fall.

And with the Christmas lights set up,

we observe that fall is transitioning into the Christmas season.

Happy Thanksgiving!