The Last of the Espalier Apples

I thought I took a photo of the last basket of apples I picked from the espalier apple tree, about a week ago now.  They were more ripe than when I picked the previous basket, since the seeds inside are now brown, not white.  However, they are still a bit more tart than I like.  Fortunately, I discovered that if I slice and dry them, the dried apple slices turn out sweeter, and quite delicious.  So my counter has been full of apple slices, air drying, every since :

As they shrink and we keep eating the dried ones, I keep adding more.  Perhaps I should have spent the time to dry them in the oven on low heat, but since I haven't been in a rush, this method has been working for us.  I think this is now the last of my fruit, other than a few more Autumn Gold raspberries, which will probably be turning moldy now that the weather has turned to light rain.  I will miss this steady harvest coming from the garden this past month or two.

After I visited my Mom Wednesday, and saw her sunflower buds, I came home and noticed that one of mine was already in flower.  I had not noticed from the kitchen window, since the flower was facing in the other direction.  I should have taken a photo then, so I didn't need to step out into the rain this morning, to take a photo for the benefit of (bragging to) my Mom.  The two taller ones on the left of the photo are also in bud :

Another one is much shorter, but has a large bud also:

I have a fall crocus (which I didn't intentionally plant originally, but it has been popping up for a number of years now).  It looked better before the rain hit it :

My dahlias weren't impressive this year.  Again, they got off too a slow start due to slugs, and perhaps are a big crowded out now with my other plants.  My banana did re-grow since it was cut down, but didn't get very big.  But at least I was able to create some ceramic leaf platters from it :