Leaf Me Alone! (groooaaan)

Today I'm doing a little FotoFriday on Saturday. Hey, last week I did Self-Portrait Tuesday on Wednesday, so what the heck! Today's theme is Leaves. When I went for a walk yesterday evening, I saw a sycamore leaf in the driveway and thought it was very interesting looking, but I like the photo even better this way: I also saw some wild fall asters peaking out through the leaves of a gum tree at the edge of the woods. (Maybe a gum tree, that is! I should know what tree this is, but I'm not sure I'm getting that right!) Anyway, I tried this shot both with and without a flash, and I messed with it in Photoshop, but I still can't find a way to get the color just right. The asters were more periwinkle than shown here. But if I get the red of the leaves right, the asters look washed out. If I get the asters right, the leaves look too purple. Never mind! I went for getting the color right on the leaves at the expense of the asters: This morning I stepped onto the back deck and noticed how bright and glowy my volunteer fall leaf lettuce looked in the morning sun: Then I decided to take a close-up portion of the photo and abstract it in Photoshop: I think I have an idea for next week's Self-Portrait Tuesday, so I'm going to try taking some photos today and maybe that way I can actually post them on the right day. Yeah, baby! And finally, before I go, would anyone out there like to adopt a 9-year-old, 100+ pound, golden retriever-mix dog who enjoys giving herself wet, slurpy tongue baths right next to the bed at 5:30 AM? She's very sweet. Really! Really!! And I wouldn't really give her away. But this morning? I was not amused. My final Pet Peeve of National Pet Peeve Week: I hate it when I have insomnia and don't fall asleep until sometime after 3 AM and the dogs decide I need to be awake at the crack of sparrow fart.