what happened while I was away

I was gone for what, 11 or 12 days, right? Life somehow carried on without me here.

The cats continued to make progress with Their Diet Plan, despite a slight mishap in which – in an attempt to prevent Charlie from breaking down the door in the pre-dawn hours – Kevin gave them overnight snacks that were a bit too rich. I can’t blame him – Charlie is rather…vociferous.

Maggie is not longer quite so…spherical.

Charlie is practically svelte.

On my way to the mailbox, I almost didn’t bring the camera. “What’s there to see?” I grumbled to myself. “Nothing’s blooming any more.” Well, tsk tsk, self, for equating only the blooming part of the process with beauty. On the eve before fall equinox, here is what we have to celebrate today:

spots of color in the shrubbery…

…and along the driveway.

Most other green things are fading with our transition into shorter days…

…such as ferns, and siberian iris,

 

This spot near the mailboxes used to be aflame with yellow goldenrod and purple joe pye weed. Not…anymore.

Conventional beauty may be fading, but the season’s bounty, as measured in seeds, has loveliness all its own. To wit:

Remember this guy?

 

I originally thought it was seedbox – Ludwigia alternifolia – but I was wrong.

 

For now, let’s just call it “That Yellow Thing”, and move right along to looking at its seeds.

 

 

By the way, it seems that seeds have their own blooming, just like flowers. Here’s a That Yellow Thing seed pod thingy just starting to open up…

And here’s a peek inside one that’s opened up.

Other cool seedy things:

Tall grassy thingys across the driveway from the mailboxes, glowing in the late afternoon sun…let’s get a close-up with the fabulous camera…

 

Remember the delicate Queen Anne’s Lace?

wow, pretty intense, huh? all snarly and prickly.

Under the heading of “are you gonna eat that?” we have mmmm, tasty blackberries, just a l-i-t-t-l-e past their prime…

Finally, under the heading of “how did I miss this, this whole time?” we have the following:

A single milkweed plant. Look closely, and you’ll see a few spiderweb strands linking the two pods. Have I mentioned lately how much I love the new camera? I took this from multiple yards away.

Also in the “!! new to me!!” category, we have this late bloomer…

dunno what this is.

 

This suddenly-bursting-with-fruit shrub has been along the shared drive this whole time. I probably thought it was the sapling of an ash tree, if I even noticed it this whole time – but the berries mean it’s something else. I believe it’s mountain ash, aka rowan. This is the stuff you make barrel staves out of.

These awesome spiky things? No idea. Sigh.

And, last but not least in the chronicle of “I wasn’t paying attention”, this thing is just loaded with berries and I have no clue what it is and I can’t believe I didn’t notice it all along.

Ah well. It least it was a gorgeous day, and I kicked it off with a five-mile run.

If you were wondering what I did in Portland over the weekend, I’ll get to it. Maybe the next post.