No Surprise Really

I finished the second coat of the haint not blue Spruce Pine on the basement patio ceiling today. I even stacked a few more stones on the wall. More anti-mouse caulking was done just to be on the safe side. They shouldn't be able to get in the floor or walls through the gaps I saw, but you just never know. Eventually progress is made on many processes.



Now that the ceiling is done and the world is turning blue there is that nagging thought that I should have chosen the real blue color, Eddie Bauer 'Sky Blue'. To late now.

It is getting late and the blue asters are arriving in waves. The five foot tall, floppy and annoying New England Aster, Symphyotrichum novae-angliae blooms on the ground where most of them end up.



The tiny flowered Blue Wood Aster, Symphyotrichum cordifolium becomes more and more noticeable as more and more of them bloom. Eventually the mountain top will be awash in waves of blue from the masses of tiny little flowers.



It was no surprise really when I stumbled upon a third species of blue aster. It was too short and erect to be a New England Aster. The stems and leaves did not look right. The flowers were too big to be the Blue Wood Aster and too small for the New England. What have we here?



This appears to be the strangely named White-Topped Aster, Symphyotrichum retroflexum. It's not white. It's the same bluish hue of the other blues. There must be more than one of them out there in the tall flower meadow. I have just never noticed the difference before. Can you blame me? I'm buried in asters at this time of year.

Life in the botanical convergence zone makes my head spin at times. I may be forced to give up all this ID nonsense. I can become like the resident gardeners. "It's pretty. Who cares what the name is? Should we collect seed?"



I will collect the seed of the Pink Muhly Grass, Muhlenbergia capillaris and spread them along the edges of my gravel drive. Babies will be easier to find and transplant from there and just maybe if I keep at it the entire driveway could end up being lined with pink clouds of grain in the autumns to come. Just envisioning that in my head makes me smile.



The colors of autumn encroach into the shrubberies.



The time of vegetation has started to wind down.