A grapevine tendril made a lovely spiral along Piney Woods Church Road, which I paused to photograph early this afternoon.
Oct 252014
Oct 202014
Asters of an unidentified species (there are simply too many possibilities out there) continue to bloom along the roadside down Piney Woods Church Road.
Oct 202014
Until this project, I had never really noticed, much less appreciated, the brilliant red of the sassafras leaves in autumn, accentuated by the way many of the leaves remain green while others abruptly turn.
Oct 192014
A black cherry leaf, against blue sky, photographed on my Piney Woods Church Road saunter earlier today….
Oct 192014
I ventured out to Piney Woods Church Road shortly after noon today, and photographed this sweetgum leaf partially illuminated by the sun. In its pale green and dun spaces, I imagine a satellite image of another land, containing verdant forests and stark deserts.
Oct 182014
I could fill entire walls with images of muscadine leaves; or, of course, I could wander into my own backyard, where muscadine blankets practically everything. Another image from this afternoon’s Piney Woods Church Road ramble.
Oct 172014
The wood oats along Piney Woods Church Road have all turned russet brown now. In the warm, breezy afternoon air, I watched the stalks swing to and fro, seed heads suspended like objects in a mobile or wind chimes.
Oct 152014
I hurried out the door, bound for Piney Woods Church Road (as usual), but fresh from an interminable hour of paperwork for a new online teaching position. I had only forty-five minutes to find something photo-worthy, snap its picture, and race back to my waiting keyboard. Wednesdays are my longest work days — my last online seminar ends at 11 pm. I had an auspicious start to my walk — a doe in the backyard paused long enough for a few images. If only I were already on Piney Woods Church Road, I thought to myself….
The wind was blowing intermittently, the sky a leaden late afternoon gray when I begin walking down Piney Woods Church Road. For once, my journey was ruled by the watch — I had enough time to make it halfway only, and then to hurry back. I paused at a sassafras tree with some brilliant red leaves juxtaposed with many that were still green. Bright color, but not quite inspiring somehow. Sufficient, though. They would do in a pinch.
Where the woods ended and pastures (horse on the left, cattle on the right) began, I turned around to head back. And then I saw it about two feet above the ground — a flash of brilliant yellow. I was immediately drawn to this burst of light amid the gray. I sat on the ground to steady the camera on my knee, and took photo after photo. The one below is my favorite from the lot.
As I suspected, it is an evening primrose. There was another one further down the road, which bloomed back in April (Day 103, to be exact). But this is another species: The Common Evening Primrose (Oenothera biennis), a native biennial reaching up to six feet in height, found throughout most of the United States and southern Canada. It has long been recognized as a healing plant, with names such as Cure All, Fever Plant, and King’s Cure All. It provides a pain-reliever for headaches, a remedy for skin ailments, and a treatment for arthritis. For me, in a hurry to resume work on a gray day, it offered a burst of sunlight and a moment of healing.
Oct 142014
I set out this afternoon for Piney Woods Church Road, cool breeze blowing and air drying out ofter a long rain that lasted overnight and through much of the morning. Leaves and pine needles blanketed the road bed and verges. I paused at a sapling tulip poplar, admiring a new bud at the tip of a leaf. Not now. I suspect the bud is ready for next spring, after the year’s turning. Seeing a new bud, I begin to think back on my own beginning, along this same stretch of road, watching leaves unfurling into spring so many months ago.
Oct 132014
On a warm and humid morning, with the fog lifting and sun just starting to peek out, I paused to photograph an autumnal violet aster blooming along the roadside. There is scarcely a month in the year that something is not blossoming here in Georgia….
