Sunflower Seed Color Variation

My mom gave me some sunflower plants earlier in the year, and the ones I planted outside my kitchen window, on the South side of the house, did quite well.  I got three large flowers, and amazingly, this is the first year the squirrel didn't completely strip the seeds while they were still white.  So I just picked them about a week or so ago, since we had some frosty nights already in Vancouver.

Here are the flowers :

I found it very amusing that the color of the seeds from each of the flowers was very distinctive.  The one almost reddish, the second one very pale, and the other with the more characteristic black and white markings (except a bit pale since they were not fully developed) :

I would think my Mom got all the seeds from the same source, so I was amused to find such variation.

Beautiful and Deadly Amanita Muscaria Mushrooms

I was delighted to discover a large number of Amanita muscaria mushrooms (the classic fairytale "toadstool") growing in the small islands in the parking lot at work, when I went for a walk today at lunchtime.  They are so incredibly photogenic, so I took a lot of photos.

What do you think?  Aren't they delightful?

After Hallowe'en...

My 15-year-old gave our pumpkin two faces this year.  One was a happy one, greeting the children as they arrived at our door.  The other, knowing his fate after Hallowe'en.  But his sacrifice will make some yummy pumpkin seeds, and many pumpkin loaves.