Fall Color in the Neighborhood

Hola!  Yesterday (Sunday) it was beautiful outside.  The temperature was close to 60, it was sunny, the sky was very blue and the leaves are changing.  When I got back from the hike to the Pick 'n Save I grabbed my camera and took a walk around the neighborhood, snapping photographs.  Several neighbors looked at me like I was nuts.  Well...

There is still some color in my backyard garden, too:

This photo doesn't do this low-lying plant justice.  The flowers are intensely purple!

There are a few daisies left, too:

This hydrangea flower just opened up!  To join this one:

And my million bells hanging planters are still going strong:

Except for the Roses of Sharon setting their seed pods and some plants yellowing (or already gone brown) for the season, I could almost forget that autumn is here.  But I can't avoid seeing what's coming - this is the view out of my patio door:

We haven't had a real hard frost yet, but I've been covering the planters on the front porch at night, and the sheets are wet in the morning.  The African daisies and asparagus ferns in the planters are still going strong, though, which I find absolutely amazing. I don't know how much longer I will have them.  I will miss them.  I am thinking about getting two artificial topiaries to hold the space on either side of the front door through that season that we don't say out loud around here. 

But first, Halloween!  The neighborhood has a big trick or treat at night and already I can see decorations are up - ghouls and goblins and Frankensteins galore -- and skeletons seem to be very big, too.  I don't have anything for Halloween and frankly, not exactly in the mood to turn the inside of my house autumnal or my front yard into a fake graveyard!  I will move the planters before the 31st so there is more room on the small front porch and I've stocked up on lots of candy.  I wonder if I can find an orange lightbulb somewhere for the porch light, and some kind of ghoulish depiction on a sheet of plastic I can tape to the door temporarily -- that will be the extent of my Halloween decorations :)