What a difference....

... a year can make.

I shot some nature photos this time last year and posted them here. I went back to a couple of the same places and re-shot the same formations. The most intriguing is the fungus formation on the stump, the amount of decay over a year is significant but more interesting still is the new life that is growing with it.


This is the entire top part of the stump. The hole in it is greatly enlarged.



This is the new fungal growth. It wasn't there in the photo from this spring.



This is the old growth which itself has started to decay. Instead of the rich browns and greys that it held last year, a portion of it is blackening and there are distinct bands of green forming in the growth. It is also sprouting its own fungal growth that is new on feeding on its decay.



On the 5th I took shots of the witch hazel, which is exactly one year ago from the previous images of it in bloom. The blossoms were well formed and fresh.



Today I snapped the blooms again and the frost from last night is starting to shrivel them a bit more. The flowers are such fringed little things, not much more than 2-3cm in size when fully extended.



It was cold enough last night to produce one more thing that fascinates in the late fall: hoar frost.



Small fragile crystal flowers of ice and soil.


Cascading upwards over small pebbles, bearing the weight of the disturbed earth on the tips.



Moss growths on maple bark.



Bright holly berries and the ruddy leaves of impending winter.



A completely accidental shot. The bright sunlight behind the aging sumac blossom imparts an ethereal quality to an otherwise ordinary entity.

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Suffice it to say that the natural world is not the only place where a year or even a few days has made evident changes. One of these days when I am not so fascinated with the visual I may write about it.

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Patterns and Colour

The late fall offers a range of patterns and colours that can be easily missed in the more flamboyant early fall and the garish summer.

This morning is a brisk, but not cold, overcast day, one that compelled a walk with camera in hand for a close look at small beauties.

Tiny cups and saucers are suggested by some of the fungus and the colours of quickly approaching Christmas in the other.

The growth on this decaying log seems to suggest that there is a whole micro-cosmic world of possibility in the small forest. For the insects that run rampant through it on warmer days, I am sure there is the same quest for food and shelter, lust and love, a battle of wills and stories of battles and survival that haunt our larger human world.

Bark always presents interesting colour and patterns and this is of a hole started by Pileated woodpeckers in a large hemlock. It has beat away the heavy bark layer and is now starting to peck away at the wood underneath. This is fresh activity because the wood is still very bright. The woodpeckers hunt for ants and other boring insects.

The slender branches of the wild cinnamon roses are a deep red and the leaves are surprisingly still on the bush, perhaps only now for a few more short days.

Fungi are perhaps some of the most interesting things to be examined. I particularly enjoyed this one that was growing on an old beech tree stump.


It is a banded and cascading thing of subtle beauty.

And perhaps the loveliest of the late fall blooms is the spidery yellow of the Witch Hazel. It waits in ordinary green leaves for the entire summer, and fades to autumn brown before breaking into a dynamic show after the first hard frost.

The hazel is like some people, it must first grow, and appear bland, then with the cruelty of life, the hardening in cold times, they burst open, blooming, exposing themselves for their real self. Colourful but hardy even if delicate in appearance.

For other images from today: http://www.mboot.net/imagetest.htm

© Cynthia Ryder 2008

Deer Picnic

The joy of living in the woods is that we moved in with the critters. As in the spring, when the beans get mowed by rabbits, and the roses are pruned by the deer and the Asiatic lilies are lunch for both, the fall brings its own activity.

As of late we have had the chipmunks storing as much seed as possible. The beach nuts have been stripped from all the beach trees by the jays (blue & grey) and squirrels (red & grey) and any sunflower seeds that have been put out in the feeders have disappeared in mere minutes with jays, chickadees, squirrels and the chipmunks.

Like the country critters, we have been stockpiling for the winter too. I always like to get a big bag of mixed windfall apples which are very cheap and great for the freezer. The apple peelings offer another treat for the denizens of the forest as the cores are loved by the squirrels and the peels are grabbed and carried off to the tree tops by the jays in their expectation that they will remember where they left them.

This morning brought the visual delight of 3 deer having a picnic at the old table at the back of the garden where I put the peels yesterday.


It started with two...


and then a third joined in...


It looks as though there was a single and a doe with her fawn judging by the size difference and the fact that the single didn't go exploring the rest of the garden like the two

Enjoy!

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Autumn...

... in our little part of New Brunswick.



This is one of the few look-offs on the Saint John River just up river from home. A beautiful spot but the turning leaves are not too obvious yet.



Here the oak leaves on single tree have changed to a deep red and the green ones are just showing the stain of autumn changes. The Maple trees however are in full regalia of reds and yellows.



It is gorgeous time of year, and one that I can easily overlook because it is the beginning of "show season". The weeks get a little bit busier because we're making jewellery for the shows and the shows are more plentiful now, taking up a full weekends with days on each side for travel rather than just a Saturday here or there.



Autumn is a season of celebration for many as it is a time of Thanksgiving for the bountiful harvests of the gardens and crops.



We planted squash in a compost pile this year, we didn't have great expectations as we figured the squirrels would get to the seed before they could germinate. Germinate they did and as a result of the nutrient rich compost, the vines grew well over 20' in some cases. This good sized squash is on a vine that climbed a small fir tree near the patch



A honey bee is making the effort to gather nectar from a golden-rod.



Crab apples at the ready await processing for the jelly jar.



The last of the bunchberries, which also makes delicious jellies, awaits harvest by birds or even the bear.



Autumn can also be a time of discontent as we slip from our long summer days to cooler shorter days and the changes denote the impending transition to the cold darker winter months but when spring does start to arrive the dried sumac blossoms are still in place for the first robins who feast upon them with gusto.



So instead of rushing through fall and into winter, I took the time to wander around our yard and enjoy the late blooming flowers and the changes in the foliage and to realize that the sky is the most vibrant blue and clear of haze, while the clouds are crisp whites and greys.



Painted daisies still bloom in our gardens.



Delicate poppies and ferny cosmos outlasted the summer heats and rains and early light frosts and have only now started to bloom and share their colours.



I have always liked cosmos, they have a sweet scent, but mostly because they were always in my grandmother's gardens and they remind me of her.



The nasturtiums, a peppery edible flower and leaf, are still glowing with colours that will rival the leaves until we have a hard frost that will lay the poor annuals low and mark the end of their season.



But the delicate pink tinged blossoms of the hydrangea can be harvested and dried and brought inside for a winter long bouquet that promises us the renewal of spring and all the opportunities for life that it brings.
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