Late October

I found ten kinds of wild flowers growing
On a steely day that looked like snowing:
Queen Anne’s lace, and blue heal-all,
A buttercup, straggling, grown too tall,
A rusty aster, a chicory flower ---
Ten I found in half an hour.
The air was blurred with dry leaves flying,
Gold and scarlet, gaily dying.
A squirrel ran off with a nut in his mouth,
And always, always, flying south,
Twittering, the birds went by
Flickering sharp against the sky,
Some in great bows, some in wedges,
Some in bands with wavering edges,
Flocks and flocks were flying over
With the north wind for their drover.
“Flowers,” I said, “you’d better go,
Surely it’s coming on for snow,” ---
They did not heed me, nor heed the birds,
Twittering thin, far-fallen words ---
The others thought of tomorrow, but they
Only remembered yesterday.
---- Sara Teasdale

After reading the Sara Teasdale poem "Late October" I grabbed my camera, wandered down the stairs and began exploring - trying to see those "flowers of Late October."

At the back edge of the property, nearly hidden in the russet bracken ferns and tall pines, I discovered a huge clump of monkshood in full bloom... It has ignored the frost, wind and rain and blooms as though it were expecting spring.
In the middle of our small pond a waterlily bud is hoping for one more sunny day so it can burst into bloom before winter arrives.