When approached from the south via Bell Mountain Road, the trip into Clifford affords an expansive view of both north and south knobs.
Cold November
It’s not typical for cold to come so soon and stay.
Nor typical, so much wet for so long.
Surely Summer would have rained itself out by now.
Yet, through Autumn, threatening into Winter, wet.
Still nice to see familiar pastel Winter shades.
Even if sooner than expected.
Even if wetter than usual.
Eagle
Coming up the last hill out of East Branch Valley on Lyons Street, my eyes drew to the top of a bare tree across from the pond.
I came upon this individual, or some of his family a few weeks ago, when taking the long way home, a shortcut on Stone Bridge road, about a mile upstream from this perch.
Breakfast Date
An early appointment the day of the storm had me awake closer to daybreak than usual.
As I walked across the living room, I noticed that the leaves of the houseplant, that “found it’s window” several years ago were trembling.
Even though they calmed to stillness when I stopped walking, I kept looking at the leaves.
I perceived that I saw them start to move again, growing, turning, yearning for pale dawn light.
Movement in the yard drew my eyes through the window, beyond the plant.
There, a sentinel doe draws attention from her young buck as they breakfast. His rack raw and white, velvet recently scraped, now ready for rut, ready for winter.
Blaze Sky
Though the leaves are somewhat subdued this year, the sky has been spectacular.
Birch Sentinel
A rare autumn this, nearly entirely from green to brown. This week the golds of birch and tamarack though sparse, are welcome punctuation to otherwise dull vegetation.
Lichen Fungus
Lichens… never alone.
The UK website www.theanswerbank.co.uk offers interesting answers to questions about lichens:
https://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Animals-and-Nature/article/are-lichen-animal-mineral-or-vegetable/
First Snow Lichen
First snow this week settled on lawn and between lichen covered blue stone. Not much off rain with some sleet mixed in, the indifferent coating comprised of meager barely ripe flakes as is common this time of season.
Fat wet snowflakes sometimes describe the same pattern as lichen when they land on stone.
Lichens it turns out, are two animals in one.
Birch
This birch, too close to neighbor hemlock, grows leaning, finds sun where it can. This wet pale October shows little more color than this birch scar.
Maple splashes yellow here and faraway there. Squalls alternate sun, blue and wet across the sky. Playful youngsters now, they’ll mature as real cold sets, getting running starts from west of Erie.
Almost snow today, cold to soon come. Any last colors will present, dry and fall as seasons deepen.
October Morning Geese
While enjoying the temperature and clarity of a fine October morning, the distinctive honking of geese punctuated an otherwise calm mist rising from the valley.
After what seemed like minutes, the gaggle revealed itself. Flying at a considerable altitude, these birds were not commuting across the neighborhood; they were on their way with intent.
From the back of the yard, a doe snorts, flashes buff from the tall grass, comes to attention, ears poised, eyes intent, gauging me as friend or threat.
The shadow crossing the sun and yard pulls my eyes up as a tree top turkey vulture pulses wings toward unobstructed sky.
Colors seep slowly stronger, gilding leaves and hills, on this fine October morning.