In photos: Fallen leaves past their peak

Yesterday I posted photos of fall foliage spotted here in Northern Virginia, so today I wanted to post images of leaves past their peak. While no longer brilliant in color, there is still beauty to be found as nature begins to settle in for the winter.

Frosty leaves

I thought this leaf had beautiful shape and texture

Macro shot of a dried up leaf. I was so intrigued by its details

A few oversized leaves must have blown in from elsewhere, it was so much larger than the others in my yard

Curled up leaf going to bed for the winter

I'm not sure what kind of flower this is, but I planted it about a year or two ago. This is what it looks like after it settles down for the season, in the summer it was a bluish-purple

In photos: Fall foliage in Fairfax County

I just love the brilliant colors to be found during September, October and November. These are a few shots captured here in Fairfax County during the 2015 season.  

I just loved the multiple colors to be found in this leaf

This leaf literally stood out to me on a frosty October morning

The dogwood tree in my yard showed off its brilliant color this year

Frosty leaf in the shadows as the sun began to shine

Busy bees at Ticonderoga Farm

Last week we had such beautiful weather, it felt like summer - yet looking around the visuals were all about fall. We spent at day at Ticonderoga Farms and I spotted a number of bees working and decided to take a few shots.

I spy with my eye...lots of butterflies!

The last few posts I did on this blog about butterflies were taken at the Smithsonian's Butterfly Pavilion. It's a fabulous experience! But today I wanted to focus on butterflies spotted in the wild over the past year.

In photos: Fall foliage on Skyline Drive

Last weekend we decided to take a ride down the beautiful Skyline Drive. We started at Front Royal (mile marker 0) and drove down to Rockfish Gap (mile marker 105). I wrote a more detailed post on my other blog which included the landscape photos, so on this blog I wanted to focus more on individual items I photographed.

It started off as a bit overcast, but as we traveled through the park the sun came out on some of the mountains. The weather was fantastic and the colors were still very diversified. A couple of mountains were past peak, but the bulk of route contained a nice variety of color.

Pumpkins of all sizes at The Corn Maze in The Plains

Earlier this month we traveled out west on I-66 and visited The Corn Maze in The Plains for some fall family fun. We had a great time! 

In addition to the corn maze, play area, hay ride and other fun, there is also a market. Today's post shares some of the pumpkins we saw.

Pumpkins close up

These were some huge pumpkins! I think they looked larger in person than what they appear in my photo

A bin of smaller pumpkins

Another angle of the super large pumpkins

In photos: Mushroom villages found in my yard

It's been a while since I've posted, but I'm still steadily snapping away. Today's post is about mushrooms - I've gotten some interesting looking mushroom communities pop up in my neighborhood over the past couple of months.

These were all taken in my yard - with the exception of the one that looks like a golf ball on a tee.