Purple Autumn

When it comes to fall colors, I think of orange first and foremost. With the range from nearly-brown rust to bright and festive Halloween decor, there are orange leaves, orange pumpkins, and orange cableknit sweaters. (I need one of those.) This is followed by the brown of bare trees and dead plants, exposed earth and crushed leaves. To a lesser degree there is red in the season; I've not lived many places where there is an abundance of red in the fall foliage. Then there is the yellow of harvested wheat and faded corn stalks, a color which is the most prominent seasonal marker here in the midwest.
But there are other colors that go with fall that I frequently fail to consider. The steel gray and sleet blue of a cloudy drizzle on the horizon. The misty white that becomes of our breath as the weather starts to crisp and pale the world. And there is purple, which up until now I had only considered a Halloween color. I've seen it paired with flurescent green on costumes, or with black for Elementary school bulletin boards, but I had never acknowledged this royal hue was to be found in nature this time of year as well.
I first noticed it in our little garden. All of the summer flowers were beginning to fade, but this great big flowering plant was just beginning to flourish come September. I don't know what kind of flower this is, (do you?) but I think it is one of my favorites now. Purple has never been one of my favorite colors, but after seeing these flowers everyday as I sent the kids off to school, I have become a fan.



yay pretty flowers

 Then we have our commute to Faith for church on Sunday, and the grocery store once a week. In the past, I've mostly kept my eyes peeled for the occasional bunches of trees we pass, which are made more beautiful for their scarcity.





The whole time we've lived here I have also noted that the grass and shrubbery has it's own fall transformation, as it turns various shades of yellow and brown. But it seems this year there is a wider variety than ever in the colors as we drive, most of it concentrated along the roadways.
And you guessed it: much of this autumn growth is appearing in shades of purple! There are many magenta varieties, in the form of grass and sagebrush-like bushes (in my mind, magenta is much closer to purple than red):


Yep, this road is always this busy.




Doesn't this look like those plants they grow in the newer version of War of the Worlds?




And every once in a while you can come across a bush that is a true, rich purple! (I had the hardest time finding one somewhere that I could pull over to take a picture.)



too bad the camera couldn't capture the exact hues of these plants

These unexpected bursts of violet are sometimes complimented by equally surprising pops of orange and brown, randomly distributed through the sea of yellow grass:


These are the husks of flowers that were previously bright yellow




These were a lot more orange than they look here



moooooo



when I got out of my car to take this picture, all the cows turned to look at me in unison. Funniest thing ever.


On those occasions when one can view these colors standing together, perhaps with the rare form of a colorful tree in the midst of it all, then autumn in the grasslands can be a uniquely breathtaking experience.


yeah, those bushes in the front should be more gray than blue, but at least the other colors look right here!