Late summer

Days are getting shorter. Nights are getting cooler. Fall, as they say, is in the air. It's the season of early-morning dew and fog, reminding us just how beautiful dawn really is. There's an aural shift from the dawn chorus of the birds to the evening chorus of singing insects. And there's a last hurrah of large, showy wildflowers, many exploding with huge pom-pom like heads to feed the butterflies and bees and myriad of other insects who are racing the clock to reproduce before the first frost hits.

What follows is a photo essay paying tribute to flowers photographed in the month of August. All hail late summer.