Halloween Sunday

October 31 was a glorious finale to the month, perfect weather and an opportunity to shoot some autumn color. Covering the neighborhood first I found a couple of funny pumpkins. Placed at the end of a long drive, I thought they looked like hitch-hikers trying to flag a ride. Shades of 'It Happened One Night' with Colbert and Gable - only here the pumpkins most likely would like a ride to Franklin Street for the Halloween doing's later that night. Just call them "Claudette and Clark."



Next I headed to the North Carolina Botanical Gardens to look for colorful leaves. The nature trails leaves were mostly dry, crushed and brown but there were some great shots of the creek, the shadows beyond the trees and some leaves.

Below find the entry gates (a sculptural competition commission), and some leaf patterns from the gardens. The chance to get some walking in the woods, breath the cool air and look for textural patterns took longer than expected.

The scattered leaf images will work for the seamless tiling exercises in Photoshop, for which I need a lot more practice. Using the Offset filter allows one to make continuous, or seamless images such a used for 'wallpaper' on your monitor. Or wallpaper as in the wall type - repeating in segments. Perhaps I just need more imagination (?).
Really wanted to find leaves of every color - red-oranges-yellows etc. but the NC western mountains may be the best place for that and I do not expect to get there this year.






Have been munching on my favorite apples stuffed with peanut butter but the apple harvest is in and I am ready to make Apple Crisp. Or have some fresh cider. Or maybe some sweet potatoes with apples and spiced sugar.
Or maybe not.
BB