Garden of earring delights

It's not often that I happen to be wandering around in the garden first thing in the morning, but on this dewy day in early autumn it was fascinating to see all the little changes taking place as nature gets ready for the big chill. Some animals and insects need to store up body fat so that they can make it through the winter, for instance. Look what I found feasting on the geraniums! Alright... so it's actually a Givenchy earring that just happens to look like a snail... just like these other earrings which are like a bigger, fancier snail...

And then, above a huge outcrop of orange fungus, there's this rare variety of fern with beautiful red berries like currants dangling from it... otherwise known as "earrings that were a birthday present from Nicole".
There's so much amazing fungus growing in the backyard at the moment. In fact, I shouldn't be complaining about being single when there's fungi just outside my door.
OK, so bad puns aside, this really was a beautiful little landscape just begging to be photographed. It looks like a fungi version of a rockpool... and these golden leaves with sapphire-esque jewels in the centre have just fallen in there, because of course there's a tree next to the rockpool which grows these leaves. In my fantasies, at least. In reality, these earrings are also from Nicole, who does actually do things apart from buy jewellery for me, it just doesn't look like it! ...Getting back to the earring tree idea though... how fabulous would it be if you could just walk into your garden and just pluck a beautiful pair of earrings from a tree like a plum? Until those smartypants get around to inventing such botanical necessities though, I'll just have to keep on rummaging through the op shops and markets... and keep being friends with Nicole!!