walking in the woods

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I've been listening to a book called Nature Fix, about the ways being in nature is good for us.  The health benefits of being in the woods is a recurring theme.

There's a woodsy ravine between our house and the big street that's a few blocks south of our house.  Part of the ravine has a path through it, connecting from one end of the block to the park at the other end of the block.

I decided to walk through woods one day.  It's just a little bit of woods, along the center of a block with houses on both sides, but it's the woodsiest place that's (almost) on my beaten path.

There's a quarter or so of the path through the woods behind us, here, as we look west through the woods toward the park (up at the top of the hill).

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tulip tree

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Japanese maple

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Japanese maples are one of the last sources of red in the environment.

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pics from late October

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This pic was taken October 26.

I picked up this leaf, and taped it to the fridge, on October 27.

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leaves on the snow

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Fall was late, around these parts.  Our peak color was at the end of October, not during the second weekend (as usual).  We had a cold day, last week, and a lot of leaves fell.

Then it snowed.  A lot (8"?).  And there are still a LOT of leaves on the trees.

This video starts with the sun, setting farther south each day, and way more fallen leaves on a biggish snow than I’ve seen before.

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November 2

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If memory serves, this is a hydrangea.

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November 1

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Happy Birthday, bro!



Enjoying a sunny day, after some rainy ones.

I don't know what this is.  The rest are from a variety of maples.

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November 18, 2017

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Snow on the fence.

Tulip-tree leaves.

Sunshine through water drops.

The same stump and fungus we looked at a few weeks ago.

Snow on the hellebores.

Maple leaves.

Leaves and seeds.  Oak, maple, tulip tree.

Leaves in the gutter.

Sun breaking through the clouds to light up a slice of landscape.

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November 8, 2017

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Frost on the roof.  This may be the first actual frost we had in the autumn of 2017. 

This maple tree looked like a ginkgo -- dropping all of its leaves on one day.

Falling leaves.....

Still shot, with moon.

Ice on the top of the compostables bin, with maple leaf.

Same as above, from a different angle.

I went downtown for lunch with friends.  I was early, so I wandered into the library and looked at tools.  I'm sad that the library doesn't have as many books as once it had, but it's cool that they have so many interesting tools for us to borrow.

Excellent stencil on music-tool case.

Do you know what this is?  Me, neither.

Hmm.  I still don't know what it is, really.  I should probably check it out and discover what it is.......

So many different kinds of tools!

Want to guess what's in this big case?

I should definitely check this one out.  :-)  I checked out one a year or so ago that had a cast of a T. rex tooth and brain, but not a big chunk of skull!

Here's another intriguing opportunity.......

Hey, look!  All right!!!!!

On my way home.  Perhaps this may become my favorite non sequitur..........  (this is on the sidewalk -- note my shoe in the lower left corner)

I can think of a LOT of things that are more discouraging than chickens or literature.........  But perhaps, between the two of them, it's a hard choice?



Rose hip.

This rose looks a bit sad, but it's still hanging in there.  On November 8.

This one looks pretty good.

This is not the first time I've seen forsythia blooming in the fall.  The leaves get purple, and then they bloom..........

Fiery little oak tree in West Park.

Two different maples.

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