Sunday Stroll - Between the Rains

It drizzled for much of the morning, but when the sun came out briefly, I grabbed my camera and slipped out the front door. A was greated by a arch of rainbow across the western sky. Here it is: south end in one photo, north end in the next.

I picked up two pears that had fallen off one of our little trees and tucked them into my pocket. I made my way past the vegetable garden. After several frosts, the green leaves are intricately entwined with gold and brown.

The butterfly garden seems to fade to silver before drying to shades of gray and brown. There is still freshness amid the drying stalks however, such as this campanula, or blue rain flower and these silver leaves of garden sage.

I had to snap my photos between raindrops. By the time I got back to the front door, the drops were falling faster and the wind was whipping the branches of the thundercloud plum in the front garden. I noticed that the little johnny jump ups, these tiny violas, were blooming again after laying fallow in the warmth of late summer. One more photo then, and I came back into the house. The heat of a wood fire warmed me as I loaded these photos. Since that time, hail and hard rain, with a few early flakes of snow, pelted the windows and rooftop. At this moment, the rosy gold woods are glowing in sunlight and the garden, just outside the windows, is sparkling with the fallen rain.