End of season sunflowers

Hi folks!

Did you have a nice and pleasant weekend?

After a challenging workweek, an ordinary Saturday and a pleasant encounter with some British friends at Rothenburg on Sunday morning; my sweetheart and I enjoyed a quiet and enjoyable Sunday afternoon.

Quite accidentally we stopped by a field where you can pick various flowers.

All the bigger sunflowers were already harvested,
but close to the ground or hidden behind some other field crops
I was able to find some scattered species.

 One of the small sunflowers I took with me and placed it on the front window of my car to get the car keys out of my trousers pocket...

..and last but not least we arranged one of the sunflower heads on a plate filled with water.

The late summer season is definitely one of the most beautiful and productive seasons for ambitious photographers of florets... :-)

In the cottage garden...

Today afternoon: the cottage garden of the botanical insitute of the University of Wuerzburg.

 

Some flowers in (mainly) yellow and pink, take a peep and enjoy!

Cosmos flowers of different species

 American species [Coreopsis pubescens] of the tickseed / Mädchenauge.

Rudbeckia fulgida / Gewöhnlicher Sonnenhut / orange coneflower

Jerusalem artichoke [Helianthus tuberosus], also called sunroot, sunchoke, earth apple or topinambour

Echinacea purpurea / Purpur-Sonnenhut / purple coneflower

 

„I see you...“

Garden Days at Langenburg Castle

Gartentage auf Schloss Langenburg

05. - 07. September 2014

 

Have you been to Hohenlohe once before? 

 Hohenlohe is located in the Northeast of the German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, but the boundaries of this charming region with many castles and lovely valleys are not clearly defined.

Langenburg is one of the gems of the Hohenlohe region with an impressive castle on a hill / headland high above the river Jagst.

Enjoy some of my impressions I took during the popular Langenburg garden days one week ago.

They took place in and around the Langenburg castle.

Any idea what kind of flower I took here?

-->  Echinacea purpurea "Now Cheesier", what else!?  ;-)

Not only Indian elephants I was able to find on the castle walls...

 ...even real alpacas you were able to experience on the exhibition.

An apple a day keeps the doctor away???

Here are plenty of them - each a different species / strain.

But you know: I can't see a beautiful flower without taking a photo of it (or two, three or seventeen).

Here: Japanese anemone / Anemone hupehensis / Herbst-Anemone

 Last but not least:

Topinambour / Helianthus tuberosus / Topinambur

I hope you enjoyed my walk through the garden exhibition!

Floral hodgepodge

...taken on the "DONAUGARTENSCHAU" / Danubian horticultural show in

Deggendorf, Bavaria.

Evening stroll...

...in a small preserve area close to the Tauber Valley.

Today it's raining cats and dogs.

But yesterday my sweetheart and I enjoyed one of these perfect summer evenings with perfect mix of temperature, wind, sunshine and great nature.

Strolling along a narrow foot path of our small natural reserve was like a short getaway from daily routine.

As a reward making a stand against gravity and getting up from our sofa we had plenty of accidental meetings with the local "population": grashoppers, butterflies and various beautiful floral gems.

Here's a pair of Marbled White (Melanargia galathea) butterflies we call 'Schachbrett' (literally translated into chess board) in German.

The umbels of this species of grass glowed in the light of the low evening sun.

And here comes a trio of purple beauties...

brown knapweed - Centaurea jacea - Wiesen-Flockenblume

I assume this might be one of the Gymnadenia orchid species, but I'm not absolutely sure...

...and even here I was not sure what kind of beauty I had I front of my lens.

Does anybody know????

Ok, even the most beautiful evening must come to an end.

I hope you enjoyed our evening stroll.

A pleasant weekend to all of you!