Thursday, October 29, 2009

The Colors of Fall and Woolly Worms



Fortunately, the colors that we so love in the autumn are around for a couple of weeks.




And please do as I say and not as I do:

don't try to drive and take pictures at the same time.












But I really can't help myself.

These trees are just too pretty.

























See what I mean?








Here's a bit of trivia for you.

This neighborhood was developed on land that was owned by the parents of Rex Grossman, who was the starting quarterback when the Chicago Bears went to the Super Bowl against the Indianapolis Colts for the 2006 season.


In fact, his parents still live in the back of the neighborhood.





I love this tree.






















This is the view from the street between our neighbor's and our house.





See, I found 'my' barn again.

Those pesky leaves hid the thing from me all summer long.

Several turkey vultures live in the barn and sometimes will sit in the tree with the bare branches.

Turkey vultures stand about two feet tall and have a wing span of about six feet.



The other day was sunny with warm temperatures, so I decided to go for a walk.


There is a one-lane road that dead ends behind our property, so I headed out across the yard for that, camera in hand.





This is a walk that I should have taken last week as much of the foliage had already peaked, but I still found some pops of color here and there.












Trees along a fence row.





I did find a woolly worm on the road.

Folk lore holds that the darker the coat on the woolly worm, or woolly bear, the more severe the winter will be.

*

According to the Woolly Worm Festival, this winter is predicted to be cold and harsh.

The National Weather Service disagrees, saying that the winter will be warmer and milder than normal.

However, considering that the NWS couldn't even get yesterday's forecast right a few hours in advance, I don't have much faith in their long-range forecast.

*

I think I'll go with the woolly worms and the Old Farmer's Almanac.






I really like this picture.














I played around with several settings on my camera to try to capture the effect of the sun coming through the leaves as the human eye sees it.







I think this is it.





I am not sure what tree this is, but the pink hulls opening to show berries is interesting.





Click on this picture to see the detail.

There was just something about the barb wire wrapped around the post that captured my attention.




Chicory flower blooming.







Pinkweed, also called smartweed.





















More fall colors, this time from my back deck.






Dogwood and fothergilla.

Don't mind the graveyard.






Fallen dogwood leaves.





Hm, do you suppose I can use my hot glue gun to put the leaves back on the tree?

1 comment:

Rosie Hawthorne said...

Pretty!
I love all the colors.