scenes from late summer

oh, the precious golden days are on the way out. I struggle between wearing t-shirts, and flannel shirts. I’ve been crazy-busy at work and haven’t spent much time outdoors – for shame! for shame!

Most thistles are on the way to white puffballs – this one still had purple bits hanging on.

Seems like all that’s left around here is goldenrod.

 

And a few black-eyed susans.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year…

…to do a massive purge of old paperwork! Yes, that is how we spent Labor Day weekend!

Found this guy hanging out by the front door.

The cats hang out on the deck in the afternoons when it’s sunny. Here’s Maggie looking elegant…

 

…and less than elegant.

Oh, who am I kidding, this girl looks great no matter what she’s doing. She has the prettiest little face.

 

Onwards to Charlie.

 

I love how relaxed they are, lounging around in the middle of the yard.

Open wide!

on showing up. (also, drunk chorus girl mushrooms.)

IT SNOWED!!!

please to note the green angel hovering in the space above the garage door. why wouldn’t angels take the form of optic glare and whatnot inside a camera? may as well show up somewhere, right?

ahhhh, the fog is burning off. nice.

thank god for goldenrod.


mmmmmm, MMMMM! oh hey: two more angels, one white, one amber. (yes, that was my brain you just heard, realizing that in the 3D, that orb of amber light must be between the leaves and the lens.)


gentian. you’ve seen gentian here before. I know this isn’t pretty, but hey: it’s a friend, and the process of turning all this stuff back into Basic Matrix Substance has to happen somehow, right? here it is.


the snow was melting this whole time – it was sunny, but sounded like it was raining.
I went back inside briefly.

some people know what it’s all about.


and back out we go. wish I knew what this guy is. grrrr.


same species. just not as tall.


could you be any more beautiful?
and now for a closer look at the flower stalks when there are more layers of them:


after this, I tried a series of head-on shots into the individual flowers. there was not enough light – I gave up, and went with a side portrait:

what do you think? pretty, no?


onwards to the intricacies of leaf decay.


happy moss, just after the winter solstice. so much green poking up.


jaunty little buggers.


moss, moss, everywhere.


I believe this is a fallen bird’s nest.
still with me? and now for an obsessive series about a shelf mushroom.



speaking of jaunty.


awww, a heart! these are all the same type of mushroom, I’m pretty sure, growing on a downed branch, that can’t make up their mind between standing up straight, as shown above…

…or sprawling flat like a lichen. This one’s doing both. “Bartender! Another beer!”


this one looks like it’s waking up from a nap.


others happily dangle upside down. there was a whole chorus line of this sort:

(I don’t know about you, but I keep hearing “New York, New York”.)


others engaged in competitive napping.


this makes me so happy.

While playing with these mushrooms, I came across a convocation of moss reproductive spores.

like so.
these guys are super-elusive to photograph close-up.

this is the best I could do. I’m not sure why: they’re tiny, to be sure, but a lot of stuff I photograph is tiny. I think part of it is the camera tends to be in love with all the texture that’s available in a perspective like this, and it wants to focus somewhere else.

like so: enticingly sparkly water on a rock.
but honestly, I think it’s the little beings themselves. they are willfully elusive. every time I see them I feel like I’ve stumbled across a convocation of forest fairies. (and as above, why wouldn’t fairies take the form of moss fruiting bodies? gotta show up somewhere, right?)
this is why I like spending time outside like this: the woods are a place where a lot of other beings are busy leading their lives, completely out of the awareness of most humans. Yes, you can travel to remote wilderness to experience nature’s majesty. or, you can also go out in your back yard.
it makes me start jonesing for more serious macro lens capability.

Happy Solstice!

Charlie and I went for a walk this morning.

He led the way.


He posed while I played with the “burst” setting on my camera, getting multiple shots off in quick succession. He quickly realized it was too cold for a cat, even a solar-warmed black cat. He retreated to the deck, while I checked out the usual things I check out.

Orange leaves on the Umm…Barberry? bush.


Scads of buds on the pieris bush. 2012 is going to be a banner year for this one.


Plenty of goldenrod seeds? wait. Aster? Help. Plenty remain, whatever they are. I think goldenrod, but I must confess – a ton of asters and golden rod went to seed during a two week span in October when we were out of town, so I am not 100% confident here.
Remember the deformed magnolia buds? They’re still around.


It looks like some of the bulges burst open and seeds started to come out, but perhaps the wet weather this fall caused them to rot in place.

A whole tree full of ‘em.
I know I said I’d tell you alllll about my weekend, but that feels like a long, long time ago.  Time has been moving slowly for me lately, the way it did when I was a kid. I think it’s because ever since the full moon on the 10th, I’ve been extremely tuned in to where we are in the year – exactly when and where the moon will rise over the ridge each night, flooding our bedroom like god’s own flashlight in my eyes. The exact placement of Orion in the night sky over our garage. And so on. The winter solstice this year is Thursday morning, 12:31 am, GMT. For us East Coast people, that’s 7:31 pm tomorrow, Wednesday. YIPPEEE!!! Bring it!
So the weekend. We went out and visited my dad’s house for maybe the second-to-last-time (it is under contract, for a song, I might add, and we’ll be closing soon on it. Cross your fingers.) We went to a holiday party and had a good time visiting friends old and new. Sunday, my week’s long run was only four miles, and then I went to a winter solstice ritual I’ve been going to for years now. More visiting with friends old and new. Leaving the house several times like that on a weekend is unusual for me. It’s fun, but it takes a lot out of me.
Apparently I’ve transitioned from being an extrovert to being an introvert. I’m not sure that’s “possible” but my experience certainly suggests it’s the case.
Or, as Charlie put it this morning,

Are we done yet? Can we go back inside?

laughter through tears

My sweetie pie comes from a largish family – I believe he has something like thirty-and-a-few first cousins – and they’re all loud and crazy enough to have kept in touch over a couple of generations, such that at family reunions, second cousins show up as well. They’re a lot of fun. In my family, when we vacation together, we typically like to ignore each other amiably while we each read, or go for walks on the beach, coming together at meals. We have fun too – just in a more subdued way. In his family, everybody’s in the same room, generally all talking at the same time.
Sadly, the most spirited and ebullient of Kevin’s cousins passed away unexpectedly last week. Paul was only a handful of months older than Kevin, so it gives one pause. Over the weekend, we went down to Lawn Guyland for the wake and funeral: alas, the fourth such occasion in the past five years. We have the routine down. On Friday, the last of the visiting hours at the funeral home were held. It was pretty festive on the whole, with moments here and there throughout the evening of tears and hugs. Afterwards, some of us gathered at a diner for a very late dinner, yakking, carrying on, stealing food from one another’s plates, and generally behaving just shy of badly enough to avoid getting tossed to the curb by our friendly, but clearly world-weary, waitress.
On Saturday, we gathered again at the funeral home. The presiding attendant asked friends and neighbors to prepare to pay respect to Paul one last time. Then he asked aunts, uncles, and cousins to do the same. About half the room stood up. Giggling ensued. Eventually we made our way over to the church for Mass. Paul’s brother Bob gave a fantastic eulogy. As Kevin put it, when he placed the can of Budweiser on the lectern, he had us in the palm of his hand.
After the graveside services, we toasted Paul with more Budweiser, and then repaired to a restaurant where we stuffed ourselves silly. Once we got to the part where the kids were running laps around the room, it was time to go. The consensus is that Paul’s up in Heaven, firing up the grill, putting the beer on ice, and generally doing what he does best: creating a great party for friends and family, with a lot of food. And a lot of beer.
And then Kevin and I came home.
I finally.finally.finally. got outside with the camera after a lull of rainy weather last week, plus the weekend travel. Charlie was glad to see me, and hopped up on my lap as I attempted to capture the process by which beech leaves go brown.

Self-portrait with cat.

Beech. A rainbow of green all the way to brown on a single sapling.


Goldenrod.


Yellow foxtail: seeds formed and released.


Miss Lady, aka Maggie, poses for her portrait.


Wild rose. My buddies. Still hanging on to their desiccated stamens.


Drying fern fronds. Notice the dots?


They’re the spores.


Whoa…trippy.
Out in the field, a few brave souls are ignoring the memos.

“October, schmoctober”, says the violet.

Black-eyed Susan: “I got it going on.”


One last goldenrod puts on a show.


While the rest pump out seeds.
Meanwhile, in other news, last week a utility truck clipped the end of the bridge.

Ooops.
Someone came around to fix it on Friday, when we were heading out of town.

Much better.