Apparently I took a bunch of photos on 10-28-11. I realize this was only 3 days ago and I remember these specific moments, but I don’t remember them being all on the same day. I think I am in some kind of time warp.
Most of the leaves are on the ground, but it’s still colorful.
These droplets caught my eye.
Waiting for the bus to drop off Cale that afternoon.
We’ve had Sadie for 10 weeks. We can’t help but notice how huge she is getting and so we all camped out in front of the computer last night and looked through the pics from when we first got her.
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ssssssssssssssss8/15/11 (5 weeks old) vs. 10/26/11 (15 weeks old)
The 10 weeks have felt much longer, which got me thinking about dog years vs. human years. Apparently the age old formula of 1 dog year = 7 human years is not really accurate according to vets and it varies according to breed. By any calculations, our Sadie pup is definitely a toddler. She chews on everything, climbs up the stairs where she is not allowed to go, and doesn’t always obey.
And to think she used to be this innocent creature:
Time keeps on ticking…
I’ve been struck lately (this whole year actually) by the realization of how fast time is flying by. Leaves, light, and the life all around me, each changing quickly from one moment to the next. Everything fleeting along with the moments themselves. With that in mind, I’ve tried to notice as much as possible and attempt to capture some moments, even if inaccurately.
(Sorry about the photo caption formatting. I didn’t know how to hack to template code to have a larger gap between columns.)
This is today’s result of sorting through some pics and playing with blog formats, featuring the 4 youngest members of the family. I guess I have hereby officially counted the stray kitty (named either Fire or KitKat depending on who you ask).
So I got the idea of making some kind of leaf rainbow…still playing around with it…
What I wouldn’t give for a blue leaf!!
Any ideas? Photoshop doesn’t count! 🙂
The tapping/hammering/drumming/thumping of various woodpeckers has become another now familiar sound of the forest. Occasionally this sound is louder than usual, prompting me to quickly scan nearby trees in order to catch a glimpse of the pileated woodpecker, an unusually large bird with the signature red head (the model for Woody Woodpecker). A few weeks ago I spotted this one quite close to the house, right where the grass meets the woods. I was in such a hurry to take photos that it didn’t occur to me to try to get closer (the height of the tree put it out of the zoom range of the lens I broke mentioned in the last post). I had seen a few previously, but didn’t have any “proof” until now.
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I have learned that pileated woodpeckers prefer to eat carpenter ants (please keep them out of my house!) and wood-boring beetle larvae (yum!). I never thought about there being so many insects living in the wood of trees until I noticed how many woodpeckers there are, most of them smaller, yet all seem to be some combination of black and white. I am still surprised by the size of the pileated woodpecker when I see it and to me it holds the same awe of seeing some rare, exotic creature.
For as long as I can remember I have had an obsession with wanting to photograph autumn leaves. So in honor of the first day of fall, I fed my addiction. It’s cheap therapy for me (unless I happen to break some of Steve’s photo gear, which I basically did today, though it turned out to be something that was already partially broken, so I don’t feel quite as bad).
I took these photos today of some fall colors of the flowering kind…
(top to bottom: purple aster, goldenrod, sedum, hosta)
In mid-July when I took the above photo, I admit that I did not yet know what type of flower it was. I liked it’s small, pointy buds and could not wait to see how they would unfold.
They turned out to be phlox. There are many varieties, some low to the ground, but these which stand quite tall, the tallest up to my waist, have become one of my favorite plants around here. They attract butterflies and hummingbirds, have brightened my days, and last a really long time. The best part though was that they surprised me. When the petals finally fell to the ground and I thought they were gone until next summer, this happened:
They bloomed again! There are still a few hanging on now in mid-September.
(Phlox paniculata)
Clearing trees will likely be forever on the to-do list around here. Documenting the process makes me feel more useful in this endeavor, though I have actually done a small amount of work in this arena (I am usually official brush hauler). I will state for the record that I have not actually operated a chain saw (yet?), but I did enter to win one today!
The project of this past Saturday had some “scope creep” as Steve might say and went from cutting down some trees into building a makeshift “road” through part of the swampy area over to the main part of the trail where the bridge across the stream is. Now there’s a complete path for the 4-wheeler from the pole barn on one side of the property to the bridge without having to drive across the front lawn to get to the trail on the other side of the property. Sorry for the lack of map/diagram which would be useful here.
Steve and his dad worked most of the day.
To say it was hard work is probably an understatement.
I counted 73 logs as I walked across to the other side. The new path is where the light now hits.
My contribution this day was clearing this foot path from near the driveway to the new path above. I can handle the branch cutter/lopper things to take out the tiny trees!
We are accumulating enough brush to have a bonfire the size of Texas… but we have to clear a spot big enough for it…coming soon!
