Fall Yard Work

There are a lot of fall yard chores! I’ve been trying to do a little on every sunny day recently.

Raking leaves always takes a lot more energy than I remember. Our trees are 20+ years old and big enough to have a lot of leaves….too many to leave on the grass since there are enough of them to form thick mats and kill the grass. Actually – the raking is easier than carting them back to the forest where they can decay into thick mulch on the forest floor. The yard crews use high powered mowers to blow them into piles and into the forest but the noise is overwhelming; for me it negates the pleasure of being outdoors on an autumn day…so I rake.

Cleaning up the deck takes some time too. This year, I am cutting the dried summer stalks and transplanting day lily bulbs (taking them from the beds where the deer always find the buds before they can bloom) into pots and planting native flower seeds (False Indigo and Joe-Pye Weed) that require overwintering before they can sprout. Our deck should attract even more butterflies and hummingbirds next summer! I’ve also harvested the celery stems and leaves that rooted last spring from the base of purchased (organic) celery. I’ve already enjoyed them in soup!

My husband will do a final mowing of the yard sometime this week to mulch the leaves still on the yard…and we’ll declare the fall yard work ‘done’ – ready for winter.

Intimate Landscapes – November 2015

This is the second month for my Intimate Landscapes series (after reading Eliot Porter’s Intimate Landscapes book (available online here)) featuring images from the month that are: smaller scale but not macro, multiple species, and artsy.

A dance of colorful leaves on green grass. Tulip poplar and maple leaf shapes are easily spotted.

Sturdy fronds of a fern among, mostly brown, leaves. Maple and tulip poplar leaves again…maybe some beach and oak too.

The zinnias died back at the first of the mornings in the 30s but the sunflower continues to be green…and blooming among the dried stalks of everything else.

The onion seed pods had lost most of their seeds – rattled way by the wind. The trunk of the sycamore and its huge leaves provide no shelter for the wind.

Zooming – November 2015

The ‘zooming’ collages for this month all about views of fall:

• Colored leaves
• Mushrooms and puffballs
• Seed pods
• Geese over the treetops
• Ferns and moss surrounded by died leaves

Enjoy the slide show!

Big Fall at Mt. Pleasant

This past week has been the peak for falling leaves at the Howard Country Conservancy’s Mt. Pleasant Farm. On Monday it was breezy and leaves were flying. On Wednesday, I decided it was sunny and a good day to photograph the trees that still had some leaves. Today I am posting this before I make my trek there…and anticipating that there will be fewer leaves left on the trees.

It was relatively calm and the leaves were drifting down. This maple has a thick carpet of leaves that has fallen recently

Since the carpet still had a lot of color.

The sunshine and clear sky made the color seem all the more brilliant although the foliage was thinning.

Even the gingko has started dropping its leaves.

But in almost every direction there were some trees that had already lost their leaves – like the maple in the rain garden that was so brilliantly red just last week. I always think of the brilliant leaf colors as the last hurrah of the season before everything is hunkered down for winter.

Fall at Centennial Park

I missed the peak of fall foliage at Centennial Park. In mid-October there was still a lot of green (see post here). This past weekend, some of the trees had already lost quite a lot of their leaves…although there was still plenty of color. When we first got there on Saturday morning, the sun was in the treetops and there was a mist rising from the lake because of the temperature differential between the water and the air (it was a cold morning).

There were a few clouds in the sky and contrails across the sky.

I walked around a little to look around and let the sun come more. I noticed: dew on fallen leaves. This one is a tulip poplar.

Drifts of leaves in the parking lot. Many of the red ones were from a nearby maple.

The view straight up to the sky shows both color and that some trees are already in winter form.

Flocks of Canadian Geese took off from the lake – circling over the trees and into the brighter sunlight.

And finally the sun came all the way down the trees on the opposite shore.

The Great Blue Heron that had made a ruckus when we first arrived had retained his perch in the colorful trees there.

Intimate Landscapes – October 2015

I enjoyed Eliot Porter’s Intimate Landscapes book (available online here) enough to think about my own photographs from a similar perspective and will start a monthly series this month with my ‘picks’ that fit the criteria: smaller scale but not macro, multiple species, and artsy.

I liked this first one because of the colors…and the tenacity of the plants growing on the rocks sticking out into the lake. The colors from the landscape are a blurry reflection in the water surrounding the plants.

The next one is close to a macro image. It is beech nut hulls and lichen in the mulch. Again the colors – golden brown and pale green – were what drew my attention.

The newly fallen leaf – surrounded by older leaves and pine needles (some of which were shed after the leaf fell since they over it) - appealed to me as did the hint of a red leaf peaking from under one of the brown leaves.

I was surprised to notice so many plants growing in this scene – moss, lichen, shelf fungus. That may be a rhododendron at the back. This intimate landscape is teaming with plant life!

Ten Days of Little Celebrations – October 2015

Noticing something worth celebration each day is an easy thing for me to do. The habit of writing it down reminds me to be grateful for these and a myriad of other things in my life. Here are my top 10 for October 2015.

Several celebrations involved the volunteering I do with the Howard County Conservancy:

A rainy day hike with 1st graders – It could have been a disaster…unhappy wet children…but instead we moved quickly from covered are and to covered area when it was only sprinkling and the children were very happy all during their field trip. I celebrated their resilience (and my own)!

The snake and second graders – The response of children to snakes is hard to predict. I had a group of eight second graders and three chaperones that simply enjoyed watching the small snake move through the grass and then moved away from the direction the snake wanted to go, allowing it to escape. Fascination rather than hysteria…something to celebrate.

The 25th birthday of the Howard Country Conservancy – I am celebrating that the non-profit I enjoy volunteering with has been around for 25 years!

There were a lot of things at home to celebrate in October too:

Bringing the glass bird bath indoors – We had a first frost and that triggered the retrieval of the glass bird bath. I cleaned it thoroughly and it now is in its winter role: holding potatoes and onions on the dining room table. Making this change is always a celebration of seasonal change.

Bountiful CSA shares – Wow – we are getting full bags each week at the CSA season comes to an end....celebrating a riot of fall veggies!

80 daffodil bulbs planted – I actually celebrated when the job was done. The bags did not seem that daunting when I purchased them but 80 bulbs requires some effort to get in the ground! I am already anticipating how pretty they will be at the edge of the forest next spring.

Zentangle® on a soft drink bottle – I saw an article about making the patterns on Christmas balls and decided to try it on soft drink bottles as a practice. The first one did not turn out so well; the curved surface is very different than a paper tile. With practice – I now have some that I like…and I still have a few more weeks before I’ll switch to ornaments. I’m celebrating my developing skill.

Blue jays in the maple – The small flock of blue jays that I’ve noticed the past few fall seasons is back and visiting the maple I see from my office window. I am celebrating their return.

Our October road trip had at least one celebration each day…but I chose 2 to not overwhelm the list for the month:

Staunton River Star Party – I did not know what to expect…but it was fun and comfortable. I am celebrating the beginning of a new tradition since I am sure we’ll go again next fall.

Fall foliage – I suppose I could have listed this in the ‘home’ category too. October is the month to celebrate the beauty of deciduous trees preparing for winter.

Fall Road Trip

Last week we made our annual fall road trip. Last year we went to Chincoteague and Blackwater National Wildlife Refuges (blog post here) which is southeast of where we live. This year we went south into Virginia and southwest into West Virginia.

Our trip started with 2 days at the Staunton River State Park for a star party. The park is in south central Virginia…and has very dark skies. Our car was completely full with telescopes and camping gear!

Then we drove into West Virginia along very curvy roads. It was a step back in time with little cell service and gas stations with only one grade of regular gas….but the drive was scenic – up, down, around, all the colors of fall.  There are rhododendron and pines to provide a dark green backdrop to the yellows and reds along the way.

We noticed that some of the mountains had trees already bare for the winter…some with brightly colored trees…and some that still looked like summertime. Altitude and the direction of the slope make quite a difference.

We enjoyed Beartown State Park, Cranberry Glades Botanical Area, Cass Scenic Railroad State Park and the Snowshoe Ski Resort. I’ll be posting more details over the next couple of weeks.

Dogwood in the Fall

I first became familiar with dogwoods when we had one in the backyard of our house in Virginia over 30 years ago. It grew by the patio under the tall oaks. We moved to the house in July so I first saw it with its graceful branches full of green leaves undulating in the little breezes. And then came the fall. The leaves turned red earlier than most and the red seed clusters were so vibrant they glowed even on cloudy days. Dogwoods became a ‘tree to note’ from that time forward for me. The one I chose to photograph this year grows at Mt. Pleasant Farm along the drive to the farmhouse. It is very similar to the one I remember.

Of course – the white blossoms in the spring (see post from last spring here) are pretty spectacular and I probably photograph them more than the fall foliage. I appreciate the fall foliage as a celebration of the season – the grand finale of the dogwood’s year.

Centennial Park Reflections

There were thick clouds the morning I walked around Centennial Lake; the light made for muted reflections rather than crisp clean lines in the water and blue sky above the line of trees…but I enjoyed the challenge and got a few images that I like well enough to share.

There was a pile of rocks that has been extending into the lake long enough for vegetation to take root. The reflections of the plants growing on the rocks are reflected as well as the trees from the opposite bank of the lake. I liked the muted fall colors.

The trees are still mostly green but there is an occasional bright red. I wondered if the fishermen thought the fish were lurching in the water near the bright color!

The bridge over an inlet to the lake can always be counted on for color – and again there was a fishing boat nearby. The trees appear to be on the verge of losing their green; it should be all the colors of fall by the end of the month.

Centennial Lake in the morning has a good orientation for reflections. My challenge is to go back on another morning toward the end of the month when there is no breeze….to get the glory of fall foliage in the trees and reflections.

Fallen Leaves - Old and New

Back in August there were already hints of fall in the New York State Parks we visited….a few freshly fallen colorful leaves. I noticed instances where a newer leaf as meshed with older ones and thought about how quickly most leaves begin to decompose once they are on the ground - particularly in wet environments.

Notice the tip of the maple leaf (below) that has already cracked off the main body of the leave and how faded the color seems to be.

Leaves that are actually in water probably don’t last long at all.

Fresh leaves on old leaf mulch and wet rock stand out because of their contrasting color.

 A fresher looking leave under the brown leaves…how did that happen?

Sometimes green leaves fall. Was there a storm or did this leave simply fall from the tree in the same way leaves do this time of year?

I’m primed for the big show where the majority of leaves on the deciduous trees turn from their summer green - hang on to the tree for a little while - then swirl away. Fall is never long enough to be boring! 

Taughannock Falls State Park - August 2015

After passing through Montour Falls, we stopped by the overlook of Taughannock Falls. They were renovating the facilities at the overlook so parking was somewhat limited…and thunder was rumbling. We only stayed for about 15 minutes. We had been to the area (both the overlook and the trail at the bottom of the falls) many times when my daughter was living in nearby Ithaca.

The water falls from a great height (on the same order as Niagara Falls…but much less water). The overlook is from several levels.

I walked took the stairs down to the railing in the picture to the above and looked to see the bridge over the river below - part of the hike to the bottom of the falls.

I also zoomed to see the top of the falls. There is a curve in the stream not far from the rim…and I always wander where it goes.

There was one branch of read leaves that stood out in the otherwise green background….fall is on the way.