Category: Flora

Day 29 – Maple Leaf

Maple_Leaf2w

Autumn Movement

I cried over beautiful things knowing no beautiful thing lasts.

The field of cornflower yellow is a scarf at the neck of the copper sunburned woman,
the mother of the year, the taker of seeds.

The northwest wind comes and the yellow is torn full of holes, new beautiful things
come in the first spit of snow on the northwest wind, and the old things go,
not one lasts.

-Carl Sandburg

I have officially reached the point in the project where I just want to quit. I have better things to do, I’m still trying to get caught up from my vacation, there are too many demands on my time, etc. etc. Today I almost spaced it out my resistance was so high. But don’t worry, I’ll get over it. Many places I still want to go and photograph. I just have to carve out some time in my schedule. Maybe next week. This image by the way is from the archives of New England. I did the processing today and that counts. Just can’t get into the habit of doing it every day.

Day 26 – Blackberry Leaves

Blackberry Leaf

August

When the blackberries hang
swollen in the woods, in the brambles
nobody owns, I spend

all day among the high
branches, reaching
my ripped arms, thinking

of nothing, cramming
the black honey of summer
into my mouth; all day my body

accepts what it is.  In the dark
creeks that run by there is
this thick paw of my life darting among

the black bells, the leaves; there is
this happy tongue.

Mary Oliver

Today’s camera walk turned up these beautiful gold and russet blackberry leaves. I am beginning to despair of finding enough autumn poems to get me through the 100 days without boring myself to tears. So, I made an executive decision that the poems do not have to be about autumn. And after all don’t golden blackberry leaves in October evoke the joy of picking and eating ripe blackberries in August?

Day 18 – Maple Leaf

Maple_Leafw

Tenacity

A tiny mottled maple leaf

appeared outside my window pane.

Its superficial veiny face

Clung wet glass precariously.

Its nemesis, the wind, blew strong

But yet the tiny thing held on.

Its struggle onset reverie

I saw self-similarities:

bygone years of bold contentions

underdog I need to mention;

but like this leaf I gave my all

I cared not where the chips might fall.

As this enlightenment gave way

The wind had whisked the leaf away.

– Albert Ahearn

As you can see, the leaves are still in the process of turning but we hope that cooler weather will help the process along. Reports of good color in southern Vermont are promising and we still have three days to get there. Tomorrow its the Kangcamagus Highway, one of New Hampshire’s great fall color routes.

Pumpkins

Pumpkins

All Around the pumpkin patch

Summer yawns at rest,

Autumn kaleidoscopes in

Ominous beauty.

                     – Robert Dufresne

After another hard day of touristing I have come the the conclusion that if anything happened in Boston between the revolutionary war and the birth of JFK they don’t want you to know about it. I was delighted to accidentally stumble across the Boston Public Market which is not on any of the tourist maps I have seen. And there, at last I finally found something suitably autumnal to photograph.

Day 10 – Asters

Asterw

from  Celebrating the Seasons of Life: Beltane to Mabon

The Wheel rolls more, and Autumn returns.
Cooler the rain; the Sun lower burns.
The coloring leaves presage the Year:
All things move into harvest’s sphere.
I vow to savor fruits first picked;
nor into grief shall I be tricked.
I vow to offer what once I spurned,
and face the Turning reassured.

– Asleen O’Gaea

And now the Autumnal Equinox is upon us. I’m busy trying to get ready for my trip to New England which starts tomorrow so I decided to make a quick tour of my neighbors flower beds. I got some nice sunflower shots but what speaks of September more than Asters? I’m not sure what is going to happen tomorrow as I am boarding a plane before sunrise and don’t get to my destination until after sunset. Hoping to find something autumnal on display at one of the three airports I get to visit, otherwise I’ll be reaching into the archives of the past 10 days. In any case don’t look for an update until evening.

Day 9 – Oak Leaf

Oak_Leafw

Autumn

Earthy scented mornings
Thinly trailing mist
Acorns drop from weary trees
Yellow, red and russet frees
Leaves from branches, gently falling
Earth by coloured carpet kissed
Frosty, starlit evening
Palely shining moon

                   – Ann Shaw Griffiths

The current love of my life is this oak tree that stands near the Bear Creek Greenway off Suncrest Road in Talent. I walk by it nearly every day and occasionally I visit it with my camera. The acorns are still green as are most of it’s leaves but a few are beginning to drop, helped along by the wind we had the other day. I expect I will be visiting it regularly in the next 91 days.

Day 8 – Still Life with Pumpkin

StillLifewPumpkinw

Sunflowers

Good morning world.
After the deluge of yesterday I am sun-kissed once again.
Look out of the window.
Two gardens up stand sunflowers.
Heads the size of dinner plates.
Seems rather late this summer.
Late in coming.
For their gifts to be pasted to the sky.
They stand in a sort of floppy gestures.
Trying to support their heavy heads.
They remind me on this autumn morn with blazing sun.
That summer’s almost gone!

– Olivia Kent

With a forecast of 90% chance of rain I thought it wise to plan to work in the studio today. Though as it turns out I haven’t seen more than a few raindrops this morning. But I have been quietly gathering props for a day such as this including some small pumpkins and a bouquet garnered from the growers market yesterday. I also had some new textures to try out so had some fun with this one anyway.

Day 6 – Japanese Maple

JMapleLeafw

 

Japanese maple
       she sits paused in morning’s light
                       a breathless… haiku

                                  – Malabu

Today I took a camera walk in Lithia Park. It tried to rain on me but I persisted. I actually found more color than I expected though I think we are a few weeks away from the raging glory that can be seen in the Park toward mid to late October. This Japanese Maple in the Japanese garden had more color than most of the trees.

Day 4 – Faded Rose

FadedRosew

Lines written in the days of growing darkness

Every year we have been
witness to it: how the
world descends

into a rich mash, in order that
it may resume.
And therefore
who would cry out

to the petals on the ground
to stay,
knowing as we must,
how the vivacity of what was is married

to the vitality of what will be?
I don’t say
it’s easy, but
what else will do

if the love one claims to have for the world
be true?

So let us go on, cheerfully enough,
this and every crisping day,

though the sun be swinging east,
and the ponds be cold and black,
and the sweets of the year be doomed.

 – Mary Oliver
from her collection, A Thousand Mornings

This may not be the most beautiful image I shot today. But I knew I was going to the rose garden this morning and could not get this poem out of my head. Who would ask the petals on the ground to stay? I tried shooting petals on the ground but I could not quite capture the feeling. But I thought this faded rose losing its petals did. I tried processing it as a black and white but I liked the little bits of pink and the aged yellow look so ended up adding a couple of textures instead to emphasize the mood.

Day 3 – Milkweed Seeds

Milkweedw

September

The golden-rod is yellow; 
The corn is turning brown; 
The trees in apple orchards 
With fruit are bending down. 
The gentian’s bluest fringes 
Are curling in the sun; 
In dusty pods the milkweed 
Its hidden silk has spun. 
The sedges flaunt their harvest, 
In every meadow nook; 
And asters by the brook-side 
Make asters in the brook. 
From dewy lanes at morning 
the grapes’ sweet odors rise; 
At noon the roads all flutter 
With yellow butterflies. 
By all these lovely tokens 
September days are here, 
With summer’s best of weather, 
And autumn’s best of cheer. 
But none of all this beauty 
Which floods the earth and air 
Is unto me the secret 
Which makes September fair. 
‘T is a thing which I remember; 
To name it thrills me yet: 
One day of one September 
I never can forget.

– Helen Hunt Jackson (1830-1885)

I have been neglecting my morning walks because I have been so excited about getting out to photograph in the morning light and before the wind picks up. So today I decided to just make it a camera walk. I found many interesting things to photograph but I especially liked these milkweed seeds. I had photographed milkweed bursting forth from pods at North Mountain Park the other day but the Morning Glories won the day so I was happy to have a chance to bring some milkweed seeds into the mix.