Tag: photography

A gallery of damaged leaves

This seems to have been an especially good year for caterpillars, because I’ve noticed that almost all of the leaves that fall (as well as those still up in the trees) have quite a few holes or other evidence of having been munched. In spite of these flaws, I still find the leaves to be quite beautiful. Many of the holes even add to their character. (This is not the first time I’ve made that observation.)


An orange leaf (or what’s left of it), outlined in red.


This leaf was thoroughly munched before falling to rest on the thick carpet of moss.


The bright orange and red leaves tend to steal the show, but bright green and yellow leaves can still be quite eye-catching. (It was the colors more than the holes that caught my eye with this fellow.)


I like the way the mottled surface and holes of this bright red leaf echo the patterns of the rocks in the asphalt.


This graceful oak leaf has tiny holes spread out over its surface.


The holes in this oak leaf look quite lacy.


After taking this photo a few days after the photo above, I realized that it was almost certainly the same leaf that caught my eye again. (If you mentally flip it over, you can see the same shapes in the holes.) It’s interesting to see how the color of the leaf continued to change after falling on the ground.


I am not the only one who enjoys finding interesting leaves. Also, notice the funny ring of green around a hole in this leaf.

the glow of a sunny fall morning

After a stretch of rainy days earlier in the week, Friday’s sun was a welcome change. While waiting for the school bus, my eyes were drawn to the glow of leaves every which way.


Most of the maple leaves had been knocked off the trees by the previous days’ wind and rain, and the few remaining hangers on appeared to float in the bright sunlight.


A few hovering maple leaves.


Can you spot the lone red maple leaf that caught my eye, appearing to float among the pine needles?


The kids, standing among the many freshly fallen leaves on our driveway, and enjoying the bright morning rays.


Even the pure evil that is poison ivy glowed enticingly in the sunlight.


I love the confusing patterns formed by the mingled orange and green oak leaves and their shadows.


The view up our street.

I do really love the fall, especially living here in New England.

a scurry of squirrels

Following up on yesterday’s joy in learning a few new terms for collective nouns in English, I found myself wondering whether there were any interesting names for a group of squirrels. Indeed, squirrels did not disappoint: one say “a scurry of squirrels.” I find this especially pleasing, given that squirrels do tend to scurry.


This member of a scurry appears not to be in a hurry.


A furry member of a scurry, showing off the fluff of its tail in the sunlight.


A blurry flurry of a departing scurry.

In fact, at least 2 of these photos are of the same squirrel, so perhaps this is an insufficient quantity of squirrels to form a scurry. (Does anyone know the requisite number of squirrels for a scurry?)

A few shy of a parliament (friday foto finder: rook)

This week’s friday foto finder theme is “rook,” which gives me the excuse to post these photos of this little guy I met in Howth, Ireland back in May. After pecking around on the ground scavenging for crumbs from my snack of oatcake, this rook hopped up on a railing and posed for a few photos.

I was not entirely sure that this bird was a rook, and not some other type of crow, but according to the Wiki entry for rook, he seems to fit the bill:

Rooks are distinguished from similar members of the crow family by the bare grey-white skin around the base of the adult’s bill in front of the eyes.

This one does indeed have that telltale gray skin about the beak.

In my research, if skimming through a Wikipedia page counts as such, I also came across this tidbit:

Collective nouns for rooks include building, parliament, clamour and storytelling.

Such a lovely bit of information to come across. I had certainly heard of a murder of crows, and would have guessed that a collection of rooks might be similarly called a murder. In a delightful coincidence, my friend at Mouse-traps and the Moon shared a post today as part of a series on beautiful books about collective nouns:

…four collections of visually witty takes on those delightful and often improbable collective nouns for animal groupings: A Drove of Bullocks (animals) A Filth of Starlings(birds), A Shiver of Sharks (sea life) and A Crackle of Crickets (insects).

Clearly, there are many more collective nouns out there for me to learn!

To see what other types of rooks have been sited, and maybe even a whole clamour or storytelling of them, flock over to the fff blog.

fire and water

Today was a wet and rainy day, and once more I found my eyes drawn to the water drops that collected on various plants. At the farm where I went to buy eggs, these bright red and yellow flowers caught my attention, with petals that looked to my eyes like raindrop-covered flames.

balloon ride in the rain

As I mentioned yesterday, I’ve never actually been on a hot air balloon, though I really hope to some day.¹ I have, however, been on an amusement park ride with cars shaped like hot air balloons.²

These photos are from my family’s 2010 trip to Story Land in New Hampshire. It was rainy the afternoon we arrived, but there was still fun to be had, and photos to be taken.

This trip was during my participation in Project 365 for which I committed to taking (at least) a photo a day to share online. I further decided to have monthly themes. This was still in my first month of the project, for which I chose reflections for my theme.

Amusement parks provide lots of shiny surfaces, so it was a good place to find reflections. I wasn’t actually too sorry that there was rain that day!

¹ I came really close to going on one when I was 13, but the weather conditions were wrong the day I was scheduled to go. Here we are 30 years later, and I still haven’t managed to reschedule…

² You might recognize these balloons from the set of amusement park ride silhouettes I posted a few weeks ago. ³

³ And once more, I am enjoying running with a theme. Or perhaps getting carried away with a theme, in this case. This past Friday’s friday foto finder theme was balloons and I found I couldn’t stop with just one. (Or even with the 3 I posted on Friday.)

balloons not included (friday foto finder: balloon)

This week’s friday foto finder theme is “balloon.” I have quite a few photos of balloons in my photo library, but I decided not to share any of them. Instead, I will share these 3 photos that do not show any actual balloons. Because I am contrary like that. (Also because I think the photos are fun in their implied balloon-ness.)

To see what bunches of balloons others have to offer, pop over to the fff blog!

Gallery of Marvelous Mushrooms

Step right up and behold this wondrous array of freakish specimens of the fungal world!

First up, be amazed by these amazing balls of mushroom! Amazeballs!

And what, pray tell, is this large object? A hat? A chair? A satellite dish? It’s a mushroom, I say!

What’s that strange gray flower, you say? That’s no flower!

These petals are all fungus, my friends!

Gray too dull for you? Need more color in your fungal bouquet? How about a bit of green to brighten you fungal arrangement?

And what’s this emerging from the mulch? Is that a yellow balloon, being inflated from below? Decorations for the mole’s birthday party? Why, no! It’s a mushroom!

What’s up in that tree? Has someone adorned the trunk with a festive flouncing of ruffles? Why no! These lovelies have planted themselves!

And this strange thing poking up through the garden mulch reminds me of something…I can’t quite place it…

And what’s that disk hovering low to the ground, practically glowing in the twilight? Is that a tiny UFO, bringing tiny aliens to earth?

Well, no! Would you believe it’s merely a mushroom?

Watch your head as you exit the gallery, and don’t forget to pay a visit to the gift shop on your way out.

This evening’s presentation was brought to you by the Fans of Fungal Fabulousness, a completely fictitious group of mushroom maniacs. It was also brought to you by an excess of tiredness and a bit too much caffeine late in the day.