A lonely rustic park bench in a dreamy autumn landscape with orange leaves scattered on the ground and red and orange trees in the background.

A Surprising Colour Treat

Wearing my wooly Knitter’s Dude sweater, a long navy blue rain jacket, and a wide brimmed hat over a toque, I hiked up a grassy hill in the rain. I was visiting a location to scope out good photography spots, assuming that our shoot might also happen in the rain so I’d need to find covered spots. I didn’t realize just how glorious that area would be, but I’m relieved I brought my camera! Now I have to share these autumn colours with you because I can’t stop staring at them.

The turning leaves did not disappoint. I don’t think it’s quite reached peak colours here yet, but every year when I see that red it feels like it can’t quite be real. But there it is! The project I’ll be photographing is a dark teal blue, so I’m very excited to contrast it with some autumn in the background.

A gnarly tree with spreading branches. The leaves are green on bottom and turning to orange on top. Trees with turning leaves are in the background and a picnic table is under the tree.

The Built Environment

I’m mostly drawn to plants and animals, but I’ll photograph human-built structures too, especially if they’ve got nature growing on and in them! Yes to lily pads, lichen, and moss-covered concrete!

A heavy concrete staircase beautifully stained with dark green moss and splotches of golden lichen.

And then, just around the corner

I heard hummingbirds! So many hummingbirds were zooming from flower to flower, chasing each other around and buzzing mid-air. I didn’t have a lens that could capture them with me, so I’m sorry, no hummingbird photos, but the garden itself was worth documenting! (Here’s a blog post with lots of Anna’s hummingbird photos.)

We’re proceeding through the rainbow from yellow to green with this verdant garden and courtyard that was empty of people, probably due to the rain pouring down. Just look at those pillars! The cascading greenery!

A garden bench with a lush secret garden vibe. Green vines are draping aggressively over a concrete bench that’s surrounded by wild magenta flowers, trimmed round trees, and dark green kale.

Those purple flowers above seemed to be what the hummingbirds were so excited about, but I couldn’t get over just how pretty kale is as a garden plant.

Remnants

I’m fascinated by plants at all their stages and the leftovers after the petals have fallen off and everything has dried up. The sweet roses below are wind-blown and wet and those alien-like sepals had almost neon purple petals attached before they blew off. See the whole plant in the photo above.

A wild garden scene with magenta purple flowers waving in the wind and pale pink roses with most of their petals gone.

Leftover hot pink hairy sepals after the petals have all fallen off the flowers. Bright purple threads stick out from the centres like tongues.

A Rainbow

Scroll back up and down this post to enjoy the rainbow of colours! I sometimes want to be cool and focus on neutrals, but I always come back to saturated colours. I hope they bring you some joy and rest. Here’s an encouragement to take a deep breath before going on with your day.

I’ll be back to this place for a real photo shoot and then I’ll bring my long bird lens so I can see about capturing some of the many, many hummingbirds in that garden.

Since this is a nature post

My latest sock pattern, A Checklist of Birds, is a celebration of some Vancouver Island birds in collaboration with Catherine at Gauge Dye Works. If you’re a nature-lover and a sock knitter, I think you’ll really enjoy this project!