Departure: October 17

Sunset

Moonrise

 

Shrooms

Red-capped Saber Stalk,
Leccinum aurantiacum
Marvin's Woods Oct 17

Sandy Laccaria
Laccaria Trullisata
Milestone Bog, Oct 14

Viscid Violet Cort
Cortinarius iodes
Sesachacha Highlands, Oct 9

Golden Amanita
Sconset Beach

Sconset Beach

 

Autumn Color

 The colors At Norwood Farm are quilted reds, yellows, greens and browns. A Merlin zips by, but mostly the jays are calling. Cross the bridge to autumn and then to winter…

Norwood Farm, Oct 16

Norwood Farm

Kettle hole pond from the Norwood heights

Norwood Oak

Massasoit Bridge, Oct 15

Norwood Farm, Oct 16

Sunrise, Oct 14

Middle Moors Pond  Oct 16

Milestone Bog Oct 14

October Rebloom

 October 13:  Today was the  first day a coat and hat and scarf are needed, a real sign of winter’s approach. The asters are the few flowers left, mixed with the seed stalks of goldenrods.  And yet, I see the life force in other flowers reblooming:  the New Dawn roses climbing on the house, a few Rosa rugosa on the bluff and Sheep laurel in Miacomet. The pulse of life even as the nights chill.  

Sheep Laurel reblooms Oct 13

Nodding Ladies Tresses Oct 14

Spiranthes Cernua

New Dawn rose, Oct 6

Rosa Rugosa Oct 15


Most surprising were Nodding ladies tresses orchids (spiranthes cernua)  at Milestone Bog .  I thought they were Little ladies tresses orchids (spiranthese tuberosa) reblooming,  but this species is an autumn bloomer.

Visitors

Pectoral sandpiper at Sesachacha Pond, 10/11

Pectoral sandpiper

Blackpoll warbler at Marvin's Woods, 10/7

Blackpoll Warbler

Pine Warbler, Marvin's Woods, 10/7

Pine Warbler

Sankaty Light with ground fog, 10/7

First light to sunrise

First light

Angry sea winds up from the east

Gulls waken and soar

Sharp smell of overripe grapes on the moor

Warblers passing through

The end of a visit with misunderstandings

Feelings like the angry chur of a Carolina wren

Saltbush fluff whirling

The darkness brightens to pinkish above the leaden sea

A new day

October

October is a time of transition,  full of the fruits of the summer,  but also with the harbingers of the coming season.   Whereas arrowwood viburnum brightened the roads and moors in the spring with its white blooms,  groundsel is now the light contrast to the greens and browns.  While the golden heather shone in June,  the goldenrods rule September and October.  While the greens were sprouting with their rims of red in the spring,  now reds herald the browning of the moors in October. 

New birds wing their way through on their migratory routes south, some stopping to gain sustenance mid-journey.  The monarch butterflies flutter about before departure.  On the bluff,  the autumn clematis is done blooming,  but leaves a spidery blanket over the shrubs.  The last bloom of the rugosa stands out amidst the fading flowers.

The change of the seasons has been experienced by human beings for millenia and may be our most fundamental experience with change.  This change is comforting in its familiarity and regularity.

In this season,  the dragonflies seem as big as hummingbirds,  and are more likely to be seen! 

At Norwood Farm,  the leaves crunch underfoot,  the ferns are curled up and browned, and the blackened grapes are past ripe. Almanac Pond is the smallest I've ever seen it after the dry summer,  but yields special visitors to the careful gaze.

In the catbird seat...at Windswept Bog

Eastern Phoebe poised for insects
 at Windswept Bog

Rosy-fingered dawn and
crescent moon, Oct 3

Yellow-bellied sapsucker at Marvin's Woods

October 2 sunrise

Summer's  drive

Lesser Yellowlegs at Almanac Pond

Rusty Blackbird at Almanac Pond

Almanac Pond from the Road