Purple - The "In" Color For Autumn

Every season has it signature colors.  

Autumn is known for earthy shades of red, orange, gold and brown.  This year, however, those colors are coming through a little more muted than usual.

I believe we are finally at peak color;

but, for the most part, this year autumn's finery is just a little bit underwhelming.

Unbelievably, the grass is as green as it was in the spring (and we just mowed it again yesterday!)  It would not surprise me to still be mowing before Thanksgiving.  There's no frost in the extended forecast.  An autumn without frost would be the perfect ending to a most unusual year, here on the farm.

As for this year's most popular autumn color - it would definitely be purple! 

Purple salvia, purple buddlea,

 and purple Beauty Berries are the predominant color in our gardens.

And… no one wears the season's signature color better than our own Ollie.

Yes, it looks as though Oliver Twist has been rubbing his neck against the poke berries and staining his mane a lovely purple (it's all the rage!)

You might notice that this purple patch also lies next to an area of mostly-missing mane... the result of our chubby little friend spending hours with his head between the boards of the fence.  And if you walked along the pasture fence, on the pasture side, next to the dry lot... you would notice that all of the grass has been chewed down to the dirt by this small, white, obviously hungry horse.

Yes, chubbiest of the herd, he would have you believe that he is under-fed and over-worked.  In true Oliver Twist style, he often says, "please, sir, I'd like some more..."

    If you have had the pleasure of making this little horse's acquaintance in real life, then you know that he is a bit of a rascal.  Having been orphaned at a very young age, he had no mother to keep him in line and teach him good manners.  And being that he was so very tiny at that age, his human mother (me) was not tough enough on him to instill good behavior.  I have lost count of the times that I have admonished this little man, saying that if he were a large horse he would be headed for the glue factory!  (Kidding, of course... well, sort-of.)

His half brother, Red (same father) is the opposite.  I have always wished that Red had been a full sized horse.  He would have been a dream to work with and we would have had many adventures together... riding off together in the sunset.

And yet, I love both of them equally and can not imagine farm life without my little blue-eyed, miniature, and slightly purple horses.

For me, Autumn is baking season.  Of course, bread-baking happens all year long.

I also baked some pumpkin/chocolate biscotti... perfect for dipping in your hot beverage of choice.  For me, that would be tea.

I used two recipes... one for pumpkin spice biscotti with pecans, and one for chocolate with chocolate chips.  I made both and layered them so that each biscotti would have two stripes of each flavor.  They are quite yummy - nice and crunchy and perfect for dunking!

Unbelievably, it's Friday once again.  We are predicted a somewhat rainy weekend which may dampen our planned activities a little.  We'll be back on Monday with weekend tales to share.  

Here's hoping your weekend is Booo-tiful!

👻