Last Minute Leaf Gathering, Etc.

It started as a walk around the immediate yard and surrounding fields last evening as the sun was starting to set. 

Various seed pods, leaves, and flower petals hit the basket.

We keep a table of found seasonal pods, cones, nuts, grasses and such, which gives me a purpose on walks when the seasons change.

The seedpods from Balloon Flowers remind me baby birds waiting for a meal.

Before long, I was busy gleaning new growth on herbs that had been harvested a couple of weeks ago.

Lemon Verbena was cleanly harvested 2 weeks ago, but it wasn't done yet.

These will be used in the house over the winter rather than being blended into teas for others or distilled into hydrosols.  This final push as the light diminishes is clearly a gift for those of us out looking. 

The Passionflower vine was full of beautiful tendrils.  I gathered enough of them to attempt a small quantity of tincture made with only the tendrils, just to see how I like that.  2 ounces - just to play with.

The nettle sends out young shoots, there is a small harvest of fresh, new red clover, and the echinacea doesn't want to be forgotten, sending out a few stray blossoms.  At the same time, mushrooms are popping up and nestling in against tree trunks. 

The Turkey Tails are just starting to grow.  Soon they will be everywhere.

It is an interesting time out there, and today I will go further - into the woods to plant a couple paw paw trees that have been patiently waiting on the shady porch.

Paw paw trees ready to be planted.

Originally, the guy from Go Native (where I got them) suggested Halloween would be a perfect time to plant them on the creek bank, but I ran into him at the store the other day and he said that the weather is changing quickly and they should probably go in by mid-month.
Maryanne and I both need to harvest our comfrey.  We'll cut the best leaves and lay them out carefully on sheets covering most of the upstairs.  It takes a lot of space for a week or two, but the effort is entirely worth it.  The result is nearly emerald green dried comfrey for use in all of our herbal endeavors over the winter.

Regrowth of the harvested White Incense Sage.  We'll burn this one leaf at a time, while the previously harvested sage was grown specifically to be distilled for the hydrosol - our Liquid Smudge (on the website)

If you can, find a wild or diversely planted place to wander over the next few days.  Look at the changes and appreciate the offerings of the flora and fauna.  Here where the seasonal changes are so apparent, we don't have much more time to say goodbye for the year.

The final Lavender spikes and leaves of Rose Geranium along with a few Vitex berries (that still has lots of harvesting to come) sparkled when I tried to walk past them.