The end of the summer

No new purple thistle-flowers would be left were it entirely autumnal, but the seeding-out thistle heads are both an end-of-summer/early autumn thing and making the goldfinches very happy.
I am inexplicably aesthetically fond of Scotch Thistle, despite having spent many a weary afternoon in my youth trying to eradicate them from the upper corners of the front hayfield. (Correct solution to this problem: get a goat. Just be aware that if it's a milk goat, the thistles affect the taste of the milk in ways certain to develop character.)