Serendipity

I have been in quite a funk all week.  I finally reached a point where i knew I had to do something to help myself and I packed up my camera gear and headed over to the botanical gardens, hoping to find some autumn colors. There were a fair number of people there because they had some beautiful displays of chrysanthemums and pumpkins that many brought their Halloween costumed kids for pictures.  

When I rounded the corner by the Conservatory, I gasped as I saw the butterfly garden which was a mass of these beautiful Cosmos. I had seen this garden several weeks ago, and there had only been three or four flowers which I thought were late-season stragglers, when in fact they were early bloomers.  To top it off, even though it was quite cold, in the upper 40's, (~8 degrees C), there were a few bees.  Yay!  It's much better seen in Large. 

I came home feeling like a new person and have vowed to keep all news off until the election results start coming in on Tuesday evening. 

As I am way behind on posting extras, (48 left), I have uploaded an image of the Japanese Tea House in the gardens with some nice autumn color.