Back to the Botanic Garden today.  Every visit yields different sights.  These leaves were carpeting the hillside under the ironwood, whose bark was deeply ridged and most of whose fern-leaves were green — except for the fallen ones.

And today it smelled deliciously pungent and spicy.  I don’t especially notice the scents each time, but they were demanding my attention this afternoon.  It was hot and humid (relatively speaking; this is southern California, after all!) and the heaviness of the air may have magnified the effects.

These leaves look like autumn and were a visual exception among all the bright flowers, whose colors included deep pink, purple, magenta, lemony yellow, deep plum, white, red-orange, lavender, lilac, pale pink, deep gold, coral…perhaps some of those flowers will appear here in the blog — later.