Tag: fall

leaf lines

When it’s after 11, and you really need to get to sleep, you struggle to come up with what to post for your daily post. You’ve toyed around with all kinds of post ideas during the day, but then you’ve run out of both time and energy. Ultimately, you decide once more to post a bunch of photos of leaves. In this case the leaves in the photos had all caught your eye for their striking pattern of lines, with veins contrasting with the body of the leaf. And also in this case you are really me. And both you and I should really get to sleep.

a walk in the woods

While my daughter was off on a hike of her own with friends, my son and I headed out for a walk in some woods in a neighboring town. We both enjoyed the fresh fall air, and I especially enjoyed the glow of the late afternoon light.

various variegated leaves

I did promise leaf photos. Here are several leaves that caught my eye for their variety of color and pattern.

In my part of New England, this fall has been a strange one, foliage-wise. Well, weather-wise, which affects the foliage. First, the cool weather of fall was late to kick in, and we only had our fist chilly nights pretty late into October, which meant that most of the leaves stayed green up to that point. When those cold nights hit, we had a sudden dramatic change to the warm side of the spectrum. Then we were hit by a big storm a couple of weeks later, with high winds that pretty well cleared the trees of leaves. As one friend put it, we had a “pop and drop” foliage season.

curling up

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This weekend was largely uneventful, but somehow also neither productive nor relaxing. I think what I need to do now is just curl up and go to sleep. (But I’m still posting something. This curled up little leaf caught my eye a few days ago, catching some late afternoon rays in a parkling lot.)

leaves and ice

img_4629It’s time of year when my phone fills up with photos of ice. This time of year is, naturally, close on the heels of the time of year when my phone fills up with photos of leaves.

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It may not shock you to know that in this transition from late fall into winter, I sometimes also take photos of leaves and ice together.

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What was left of the leaves

This summer we had an infestation of gypsy moth caterpillars in this part of New England. The little buggers were especially partial to oak leaves, and left the oak trees in some neighborhoods almost completely defoliated. Other trees were more mildly affected, whether by the gypsy moth caterpillars or other critters. Come fall, the leaves that fell from these trees displayed a range of damage, sometimes creating quite fascinating designs in the remaining bits of leaves.

stalking the stray leaf

As you may have noticed if you have seen me post lately, my eyes are often drawn to interesting leaves. On this morning’s walk, a curled leaf on the sidewalk caught my eye for looking like some sort of creature. And then once I stopped to photograph it, the puppy naturally had to check it out.

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late fall color

Even thought the temperatures are dropping, and we’ve aleady had our sampling of snow, ice and frost, it is still technically the fall here in New England. And while the most dramatic fall colors are seen in the trees through the month of October, bits of bright color can still be found here and there well into November. Especially in the bushes and small plants in the undergrowth. Here are a few bits of color I came across in the last couple of weeks in November.

 

first snow

This morning we awoke to the surprise of a world blanketed in white. (I suppose I could have checked the weather last night, but I didn’t.) In any case, I found myself drawn to the details of snow and the various plants it landed on and around. The last of the colorful fall leaves peaking out into the snow were particularly eye-catching.