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Winter Wednesday, Nov 26 2014
Julie's Pond and Landscapes and Modern Photos northwest Connecticut, photography 16:12
Photo for the day Thursday, Nov 20 2014
Esperanza and Landscapes and Modern Photos photography, trees 12:06
Taken a few weeks ago. I always like subtle colors of the beeches, (top right in this instance a European Copper Beech) and the oaks (center, an ordinary volunteer black). Top left is a Sugar Maple,. The closer trees are the apples which hold their leaves quite late.
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The last gold Monday, Nov 17 2014
Esperanza and Landscapes and Modern Photos northwest Connecticut, photography 20:49
Before the snow and the cold rain! Now it finally looks like November here, the dark trees and the grey fog that steals through the woods. This was October, though barely a week ago.
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Thanksgiving Dinner? Saturday, Nov 15 2014
gardening and Modern Photos connecticut wildlife, turkeys 20:17
Hard to believe that forty years ago, turkeys were locally extinct in Connecticut. This is part of our local bachelor band, nine in total this year.
and not dinner!
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Seasons change Wednesday, Nov 5 2014
gardening and Landscapes and Modern Photos gardening, landscapes, photography 23:03
Hard to believe that this:
Was this back in June!
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Ginkgo Tuesday, Nov 4 2014
gardening and Modern Photos and Trees and Uncategorized gardening, ginkgo, photography 22:52
Still! waiting on frost here, let alone cold enough temperatures to make the ginkgoes drop while green; so we get to enjoy the lovely pure gold (and the easier clean-up). The big* ginkgo is a tree we just don’t think of as ‘big’; it barely hits 60 feet, which when surrounded by 80-100 foot giants isn’t much. But it definitely is getting broader in the crown, particularly to the south and east. Again not easy to notice, because of its position on the northeast corner of the house. You only really see it from down in the meadow, when one notices how the big pines are now solidly hidden, aside from their tops of course!
*The little ginkgo is spreading like mad, but mysteriously lost its leader two years ago and shows no sign of regrowth, apparently it will be much, much wider than tall.
Here is a view looking up into the big ginkgo a few days ago, before it went solidly gold. The gold works in from the edges of the leaf, so the wonderful scallop pattern of the leaves is at its most prominent for just a week or so in the fall. It also works in from the top/sides of the tree, so the core is greener than the top.
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Winter? Monday, Nov 3 2014
Esperanza and Modern Photos photography 22:01
Not here yet….weird, we still haven’t had a frost here!
But, I am sure it will come, so in preparation here is a picture from a few years ago:
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Japanese Maples Sunday, Nov 2 2014
gardening and Landscapes and Modern Photos gardening, japanese maples, photography 20:29
Japanese Maples aren’t usually planted for their fall color, which is a pity. Our various seedlings tend to fall into two types of color: pure scarlet or flame orange. (and a lot of muddy ones where the red just doesn’t quite do it, but is definitely red) A few are orange. The greener the bark, the oranger the coloration in the fall. In general, the orange/green have relatively green summer foliage, which is probably why they are less common (until recently we tended to select on the basis of summer foliage). For one reason or another, we decided to plant two rather nice green ones flanking the drive, I decided I liked them, and we have since added several more. Which means that we have succeeded, somewhat not accidentally in developing what (in several decades) will be a real grouping of orange maples in the Rabbit Hole drive, an accomplishment that really was only apparent this year, as several are very small still. The fall color, no surprise, comes from the two different parents, along with the trunk/twig coloration. The orange seems to come from the fine cut-leafed dwarf maple parent, the red from the bigger, rather coarsely cut full sized parent. The red is always a pure color with no shading on the leaf. The orange tends to shade towards the veins/edges, creating an appearance similar to Stewartia or Dogwoods, where the tree is not a single color.
Unfortunately, the coarser shape appears to be the dominant gene in determining leaf shape, though the orange ones are slightly finer. Only one ever approached the parent type, and it died on me (naturally). Red is also the more common fall color.
Red:
Orange: (all of these are still fairly small), but you can see the green cast to the bark on branches over about 2 years in age, which is the giveaway; the reds have purple bark.
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Your not random photo Friday, Oct 31 2014
gardening and Modern Photos gardening, gladiolus, photography 17:42
One of today’s accomplishments was lifting the gladioli. A number had doubled and or made little bulblets, so it was a good year for them. Now if I can just figure out how to store them this year in a rodent proof fashion…
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Mom, this hill is long! Thursday, Oct 23 2014
Esperanza and Modern Photos 22:18
And where is My food bucket!
Much drama trying to figure out why he wasn’t eating, finally figured out that it was due to the feral cats having used his food dish for, ah, other purposes.
You will note the path he creates every year in the hay field. Ten plus acres and he walks the same path every time.
Hard to believe that his star used to be a nice neat diamond and a short snip on his nose… some twenty and a half years ago!
(and yes, he has a blanket for particularly cold and wet nights, such as last night’s Nor’Easter!)
Back out to pasture, and yes he has his eyes closed!
Acair Fearann 