Indian Summer

We were blessed with balmy weather in New England today. It will be over in a couple more hours, so I tried to make the most of it before going back into reality. I got a few photos of what little color and nature this is to see in mid to late November.

I don't know what kind of bush this is, but it still looks nice when the sun shines through it.

                                       It's not as photogenic in a shot from further away

                        I never get tired of silhouettes of the tree branches. Or the clouds. Like finger-

                                      prints or snowflakes, every one is a little bit different!

                          The flowers may be dead, but the remains of them are still pretty to me.

                          I'm also pleased with how well my cell phone takes close-ups, sometimes 

                                                            better than my real camera!

                      I was sitting on the back stairs, when all of a sudden, I spotted a little inch-worm!

  I love to watch them. He made good time climbing all the way to the top of  the railing. 

He is much smaller in real life than he appears in these photos. I think it must be a walking stick! I really don't know how common they are, but it looks obvious to me! I left him to his own devices. I went back 

about a half hour later to see if he was still on the railing, but he was gone. Hopefully to a warm place to 

hibernate for the winter! I resisted the urge to bring him inside as a pet.

                As you can see, the leaves are almost gone, and winter is almost here. But it was fun having                                                                 a  warm day before it really happens.

      Take advantage of any bonus days that you get! 

I apologize for the way the captions and photos are running together. I'll have to do it a different way next time, it's too time consuming to fix. 

 

Autumn is here

It's been a few weeks since my last post, and in that short time we've lost a lot of daylight. It's getting cooler, and the leaves have started to turn.  I finished my hedges with the help of my neighbor, and now I'm pulling all the tall grass and weeds out in the back and side yard. I think I should be able to plant new grass , and I still have to buy and plant my bulbs for spring!

    This was a couple of weeks ago. Pretty white moth.

This bushy flower weed was a real attraction for dozens of bumble bees, honey bees, and yellow jackets, etc. I didn't have the heart to pull it out, because they were really using it! It's starting to die off now.

  This is a nest I found in the hedges when I was cutting    them down. It appeared to be abandoned. I wonder what                           kind of bird family lived in it!

    Thanks to all the rain, there are a lot of mushrooms                         growing and decomposing in the yard.

                 Webs with dew make interesting photos

                  Dandelions are simple, but I love them!

 

                      This is an enhanced image .

So far most of the color is on the small plants, not the trees.                   But that will be coming soon enough.

I took a lot more photos, but I will save some for another day. Enjoy your autumn!

It's a Beautiful Day!

Today is an absolutely perfect day. It's 74 degrees, dry, sunny with a nice cool breeze, What could be better?  I've been trying to finish up my hedge trimming. Well, it's beyond a trim, it's a full renovation. It's been grueling at times, but I've done all I can do without a hand saw. Until then, I still have all the branches to break up.

In between I still love to take pictures. My latest quest is to find some interesting shots with morning dew- with it's glistening rainbows and reflections. I haven't gotten up early enough yet to find anything great. Just some droplets repelling waxy leaves.

I like the hairs along the edges of the leaves in this shot above. I played around with the effects to enhance them, but this is the natural real shot.  Sun rays are always attractive too, on the right upper corner shot. I found a caterpillar and I can't remember what kind of moth he becomes. I put him on the milk week, and five minutes later he was gone.

I love shadows, and so on top left there is a shadow reflecting on a large rock. On the bottom left is a small meadow in back yard that I can't really get at unless I climb a wall. You can't see it that well, but it's full of the goldenrod, and prettier than the picture.  The bees really love it.

I'll be posting more in the coming weeks, with fall colors changing the landscape into a new pallete for autumn. Thanks for reading!

A Miniature World of plants

     I don't have a very big yard, but I do have lots of different plants and insects living here with me. Many of them seem tiny, in a good way. 

     It's fun to zoom in really close on bugs and blooms, seeing things you can barely see with the naked eye. Today I was amazed at how well my cell phone camera was able to focus on the subject and blur the background. I got some pretty nice shots. Here are a few of them, submitted for your approval!

I think this is golden rod. The bees sure like it.

I'm not sure what plant this is, but all the flower heads have dried up and gone to seed. It was pretty tall. I enhanced this shot a little to contrast the sky.

I'm sure you recognize this as Queen Anne's Lace. I love the way this flower is designed!

Check out the antennae on this bug! 

This flower looks bigger here than it really is. I don't know what the name of it is.

This is Thistle. I had one large plant in the back yard that the bees and moths loved. Was hoping for some gold finches, but no such luck. I didn't set up any feeders because of that bird disease that is happening this summer.

I've always been fascinated with moss, and this moss is really cool! Now I know where moss rose got it's name. I think those tiny flowers are them, or at least in the same family. I never saw that on moss before. Those red stems in the background are runners from tiny wild strawberry plants that appear to be too small to bear fruit. I was surprised to see that.

Here you can clearly see the strawberry leaves. The moss is growing nicely in cracks in the concrete.

Last picture of the day, though there are many more I'll save for next time. This is an oak leaf that is being eaten by that brown blob. I have to look up what that is. Maybe I'll have more information in my next post. 

It's fun to find interesting things in your own back yard. I love to find patterns in nature. If you like this post, please comment and share! Be sure to check out your own surroundings too!





 

Nature is wherever you are

     Can you believe I started this blog in 2014, and never published one post? It was a spin-off of a blog I started the previous year called "Karin's Yard and Garden 2013". Well, the year, yard and garden are long gone, but at least I'm still around!

    My new town is suburban, but there is plenty of wildlife around. My new yard is much smaller, but there are woods behind the house, and further down a brook, but it's not on my property, so I haven't seen it up close. 

    But that isn't stopping me from finding nature and taking pictures of it. Here is what I've found in the past few weeks:

I don't know what kind of weed or flower this is. But the lady bug likes it. We have a lot of ladybugs in the yard!

Another wild flower in the back yard. I'm glad I didn't pull it out before it had a chance to flower!

    

This is a close up of a tiny little pink flower. I couldn't see the patterns on the leaves outside. 

    

Here is my beautiful "pet" butterfly. I see it almost every day. I'm going to miss him if he migrates in the fall. I had a lot of milk weed in the front yard before my neighbor mowed it down. But there is still plenty of it out there.

Here is a pretty dragon fly we had in early July. Never saw him again after that.

Here is the milkweed. It is really quite pretty when flowering.

Here's the deer! In spring I saw three of them together, but ever since just one alone. This was the first time he came down this close. He was so cute going back up through those bushes. I got a short video of it I'll save for another time. 

    I'll be back another day with some more pictures! I hope to go exploring some of the nice trails around here for some more natural beauty! Enjoy the remainder of summer, it will be gone soon!