foliage sharing

post #254
       Fall seems to peak around here for 4 or 5 days every year, and NOW IS WHEN, for 2015.  I love the glory of it all.  For all blog visitors who live where there is not much fall, I hope today's post will give a taste of this place at this time. I might link the post from a year ago, as well, and compare the time and the type to this year.  

FIRST, over at my Gallery, just a flavor, to get us started:

This building is not my gallery. It used to be a horse barn, as seen from my gallery!

 SECOND, near the house:

looking toward the house, with my back to the next photo

our nearest neighbors, on the "main" road

the path to the pond, with the barn behind me

 

the barn roof

THIRD, along the ridge road, from a single pull-the-car-over-to-the-side point:

 

 

Well, I will have to do a second post next Sunday instead of more today. This gets to be a bit much all at one time. The season presents the special challenge of keeping one's photography gear in good shape - batteries charged, camera well oiled (so to speak), etc. -  and the photographer well hydrated and well fed, in order to keep up with the beauty.  One must also, if at all possible, leave extra time during any drive to anywhere, and bring the camera if that is how you see things better, which is what happens to me.  Enjoy!

our front steps as seen yesterday from inside the house

 

in honor of the first frost

post #253
       Last night, tonight and tomorrow night: frost on the pumpkins (if I had any) and death to those invisible chiggers who have bothered me up until this last day of them.  Enough already!
       I happened to call my neighbor, Ethel, two days ago for information about her piano tuner, but it turns out they no longer have their piano.  What they do have is string beans.  Several varieties of beans, in fact. She had been putting some up that day.  Even though they have an enormous High Tunnel Greenhouse, a serious frost could do some damage, so I decided to go right over there to check it out. They live "over the cliff," as we say, and driving there feels exactly like that is what is happening! It is beautiful, as long as no one else is driving out while I am driving in....

        The plants themselves are spectacular, growing way taller than I can reach, and I am tall!  There are "purple beans", which came from Sandy and Junie, the kind of bean that turns green when cooked but starts out looking very purple. The proper name for them has kind of gotten lost along the way of yearly sharing them around:

       Ethel told me the names of the other beans they grow, but today I am just calling them beautiful beans. I am sure they will be able to get some more "messes of beans" before we settle into full blown nightly frosts.

Ethel closing the "back door" to keep the chickens and cats out, and the warm air in

daily record of when and what was watered

The chickens moved to the wood pile... They do have their own house next door....

Back at the house, there are other signs that the time has come to change seasons:

 


 A deer path on the bank by the driveway

I'd like to thank Seth and Tom for their great work this summer holding down the green growth around here, with mower and with weed eater.  Today was the last cut.  It looks so green, since the frost has disappeared for the day.  I can't quite imagine all the snow that might cover it between now and the first mow of the spring.  

Before signing off, as a photographer, I want to mention a book I just finished reading, Hold Still, by the award winning photographer and writer Sally Mann.  I wasn't sure I would like it, but it was recommended by Jennifer Reis, an artist friend who somehow manages to read, read, read. I was amazed by the way the photos and words were so naturally interwoven, and how straight forward and strong she is in her writing.  I am not necessarily a fan of her work, but I found the shaping of the story so very compelling.  And the cover is fantastic: 

I am grateful for bits of beauty here and there throughout the year.

my unexpected Appalachia

post #252

from this afternoon, at the pond, unexpectedly

      On the way home from town last week, I had another unexpected sight. If I had not had my camera with me in the car.... and if there were not a spot to pull over, complete with a white bovine, who can show up the colors on her hide.... To me, such moments are always gifts.  Here are six shots, shown in consecutive order.  Had I been at my house, which is in a hollow, I would not have even seen this, or known to go seek it out.

      The next morning, there was fog, and visitors, and, yes, the leaves are beginning to change.

dogwood

     Happy change of seasons to all, and good luck with non-seasonally connected changes as well  -- and with whatever unexpected comes your way.

late summer, hanging out with a leaf, and more pump views

post #251

      Greetings this Saturday night from our goldenrod patch. This summer, the mowing around here has been cut back, so to speak, and wonders have emerged.  One person's weeds and allergy prompts can be seen as lovely by gardners in other places.  It all depends on one's inclination, I guess, and on where a person lives.  Also, I read that ragweed, which blooms at the same time, is most likely the allergy source. Note: goldenrod is the Kentucky State Flower, which is nothing to sneeze at!!
       My neighbor, Bonnie, however, always has a "real garden", and I went over one evening to take a few photos for her.  I love, love, love what happens over there.

       Up by the mailbox, I became interested in the the round hole in the porch wall of this empty building, looking through to the beyond.  It was sprinkling that day, so I didn't get totally carried away.  Even so, two felines appeared, unbidden, and I did what I could with the time I had. Had I moved to go change my lens, they would have been gone.

    Walking back down to my house, I had a chance to take this view, which I often show in the deep autumn's beauty.  Here is just late summer, but there has been a yellow leaf. Hanging. By a thread. For days.  Find it in the following photos....

        I say thanks to Melva and Steve for the two pump comments from last week, so here are some additional views, labeled C, D, and E.  I rarely pose anything that I take. I like the challenge of seeing it as is, if the light will work with me.
    

C

D

E

        NEW INFORMATION, 10/5/15: My college roommate freshman year became a scholar of ancient Chinese history, and she shared with me that "the shape of the wooden piece is that of the tops of ancient chinese wells, and of the [written] character for well."  Thanks, Meg!  I think that it just happens to look that way by chance, since this is an improvised pump repair by Frank.....  It's always refreshing to learn something new from something that is simply worn out.