Falling into Autumn...

 This is just going to be a few shots and not much else. Fall is starting to show up and I am spending time just admiring the sun angle and the deep woods around our farm and on local trails.

Charlie sitting on a bluff.

Hiking...at the Reserve...

The forest that surrounds us... I got stuck on stuck leaves!

Much of the canopy is still green but slowly turning and in places the leaves are brightly colored on damaged limbs.

Many leaves were slowly drifting down from above in the forest making a noise almost like a rainfall.

....

And then I was stopped by this.

Light, dark, shadows, yellows and colorful.
Everything we look for in Fall Colors. 

Grasses

This week I finally got out to pick some weeds and try to get some really artistic grass photos.

Yeah. What about grasses? They have interesting textures in November and December. 

These were parts of nature that I'd never looked at before. I mean come on...grass? What is interesting about grass?

Years ago, my supervisor at the Power Plant and I would walk along the perimeter fence and I'd point out wild flowers. He'd point out different grasses.

I'd nod and look at the delicate grasses that he'd name and then I'd point out a wildflower.

I wish I'd paid more attention to his knowledge of grasses.

The varieties are endless: bluestem grasses, switch grass, wild rye, indian grass, and dropseed grasses. 

I don't know bupkis about grasses. Nada. Nothing.

But I was enchanted by the grasses I found alongside the cropland in the neighbor's land.

I mean, it is just grass right? Weeds? 

Fall grasses fading
glowing gold in 
the morning sun
waiting for the 
snows...

Once the winter snows flatten the grasses, they will drop their seeds and burst forth again in the spring. I guess I never thought about grasses that way. It was just grass. But like everything else in the forest that I admire, it seeks to rejuvenate just as other plants do.

The older I get, the more I realize I don't know

much.

Abstract designs by 
~Grasses

My Little Rock Star!

 My little dog, Charlie can be either very active or totally the cuddler. Here he is negotiating a deer trail in deep snow. The snow is about 6 inches or so deep so he keeps to the trails that are already trampled.

He is wearing his Hi-Vis Vest which he absolutely hates but tolerates. When we were done with our morning walk I had to shake snowballs out of the vest from under his chest.

Being a low rider, he gathers snow easily in his vest. [10 seconds]

We went out a little later to enjoy a glimpse of sunlight and I didn't use the vest, it was still drying on a rack.

Charlie had his mind on hunting mice and voles.

Mice and voles make little tunnels in the snow and Charlie watches the tunnels to see if they are moving then dives in.

Tunnels in the snow:

Charlie in the snow, enjoying it.

And then he was too busy to pay attention to me, all of his attention was in finding the mice.

Charlie rarely gets cold, he has a very thick hound dog coat from his parents.

He does get cold on those below zero days, his feet get cold so of course we don't hike together on those days. He assists my husband in taking naps by burrowing into the blankets next to him when the weather is bad.

He is also a most excellent cuddler. He gets that from his mom who was a Pekinese.

No mice or voles were harmed in these photos. 😀

Wild life...

It's story time again! What has Hobby the Photographer been up to lately?

She is still on a mission to photograph wildlife.

I'm not too sure she is going about it the proper way though.

Really? Pizza for

a Saber Tooth Tiger?

Funny how she seems to work things out.

One thing for sure, is she needs warmer clothing. I convinced her to put on a hooded snowsuit for her adventures in the snow .... finally.

And of course, what does she find?
Penguins! Penguins!
Who would have thought she could find them?

[This idea came from fellow blogger Aurora. Hobby will blame her for that.]

OH and see that light? We had sunshine for a whole hour yesterday!!!

Hobby asks the penguins to take her to their friends.

No Hobby, I don't think Penguins eat hotdogs!

Whoops. Perhaps I am mistaken!

 After finding penguins, she asked them to show her where she could find some Polar Bears.

I think she should be more careful around wild animals. Don't you?

Morning Lights

Well first there was a pretty nice sunset last night.
It seems that it has been forever since we had sunlight!

This morning it was chilly but I walked out the the Merry Meadow to watch the sun come through the trees and shine down into our little valley.

I was pretty surprised at the amount of moisture in the air and the heavy dew.

I shouldn't have been. It was warm yesterday and the temps cooled off overnight. The morning sun quickly burned off the haze over the forest.

I love it when the trees just start to get their leaves. My husband says it is like fall in the reverse.

And the sun broke through the forest. As you can see, the undergrowth has really spurted up with all the rain we've had. Trimming along the electric fence in the Meadow will be quite the job this year.

The wild apple and cherry trees are starting to bloom. These are very old trees so instead of the wonderful blossoms we used to have years ago where the whole meadow was adorned with flowers...just a few trees have partial areas of blossoms.

The dew was quite heavy as I said and lent a wild reflection of light on all the grasses.

The Yellow Rocket seem to be doing just fine.

Update on 15. Well, she isn't as 'ready to ride' as she was presented to be, but that is no surprise and we always start a new animal out with the basics anyway.

Yesterday afternoon I took time off from other work and worked the curry comb and the shedding blade on the riding mules.

It looked as though someone had shaved a multitude of colored mules!

Today's work?
Fencing the forest pasture for the Dexters.

I do have my work cut out for me!