![Gossamer and glumes]()
by elizabeth5047 | Nov 15, 2010 | Flora, Uncategorized |
The outing of outings today with the reconvened Champlain Valley Botany Class that Jerry Jenkins taught in June at Black Kettle Farm. Sheri Amsel is pictured examining the dried capsules of Willowweed (Epilobium sp. ) on the outskirts of the Webb Royce Swamp after a morning of discussion about meristems and winnowing and umbels and glumes and gossamer. John Davis introduced me to the concept of an aerial ecosystem populated by all the spiders that I thought were suspended from the sky. Who knew...
![A fox for coffee]()
by elizabeth5047 | Nov 14, 2010 | Uncategorized, Wildlife |
This morning as I filled my Bialetti at the sink a fox trotted in the driveway. S/he checked the ditch along the road and finding nothing appealing continued toward the house. I reached for my camera and cracked the door to try to get a photo. Predictably as soon as I turned the handle the fox bounded to a safe distance. It turned to look at me but decided not to stick around for coffee, heading toward the compost behind the...
![Chameleons Disguised as Trees]()
by elizabeth5047 | Nov 11, 2010 | Uncategorized |
I was out this morning with Patrick and Solomon again. We hiked the Big Woods Trail in Willsboro where there is a very active beaver community. The floodplain has a number of large sycamore trees which Solomon described as “giant chameleons disguised as trees.” Good description. The boys are incredibly bright. Patrick accurately read the story of the assassins who attacked a party of drunken forest dwellers and burned down their cabin. He could tell that the assassins made their get-away on 4-wheelers because they were overweight from eating candy bars and drinking sodas. For evidence he referred to the pile of beer cans in the middle of a scorched heap of lumber surrounded by tire tracks trailing snickers wrappers and soda cans....
by elizabeth5047 | Nov 6, 2010 | Uncategorized |
Today I raked the front lawn. Earlier in the week a friend had noticed another area I had raked and with a bitter voice said she would never live in a house where she had to rake. We compared awful memories of weekends in our childhoods when we were forced, under extreme duress, to rake acres of lawn with our siblings in our respective suburban yards. No thanks, no pay, and no breaks to play. Why am I still raking? To begin with it reminds me of my decision not to make my children my servants. In addition, I find raking somewhat like sweeping a floor at the end of a busy day, or brushing the hair of a child before sleeping, or scratching the back of a worn-out friend. For the first few hours raking seems futile in a yard in the Adirondacks surrounded by maples. But I am conditioned to a do at least a little raking in the fall. I am not fully ready for the winter without a little raking. The grass looks more relaxed somehow and I feel a little more of the summer life that is not entirely withdrawn. I find treasures of orange fungus and odd seed heads. Today while the raking was underway I diverged, now free to rake at my own pace as my own boss. I trimmed the tickseed and placed an armful of the purple-brown, fern-like stems into the wheelbarrow, no less a bouquet than the lush green with bright yellow flowers that I cut in...
![Lovely Halloween]()
by elizabeth5047 | Nov 1, 2010 | Flora, Uncategorized |
The forest was beautiful again today–big toothed aspen leaves that looked like giant, serrated polka-dots all over the forest floor. Interspersed were little mushrooms and other treasures. Felt the first snowflakes of the season that were big enough to stick on my...
![First frost and then what…]()
by elizabeth5047 | Oct 27, 2010 | Flora, Uncategorized |
I love the first frost on the leaves in the garden. The patterns on this lamb’s ear is crisp and soft at the same time. I brought in the last tomatoes and zucchini just across the path from the lamb’s ear the evening before this frost. I lost the basil, gambling that I’d have one more night. And though we’ve all been expecting snowflakes, it was in the 70’s and sunny today. Great for a sunny warm soccer practice this...
