From today’s afternoon walk down Piney Woods Church Road, I offer these two simple images: a greenbrier leaf with the shadow of a thorn behind it; and the feathery seeds f a wild rush. The breeze was blowing fairly steadily; every couple of minutes, it would still enough to take a shot of the rush. I spent quite a few minutes beside the road, waiting for stillness.
After time away from the fascinating worlds of muscadine tendrils, I return for this image from my late-afternoon walk along Piney Woods Church Road. A woody tendril from another year coils and re-coils in a dance among the trees.
Autumn had fully arrived as I strolled down Piney Woods Church Road this afternoon, with a strong breeze and temperatures in the low 60s. It was a tough day for nature photography — cold wind kept the critters in hiding, bright sun made for harsh light, and it took quite a bit of patience to wait for the breeze to die down enough to photograph a particular leaf. Returning home, I was surprised to find that my favorite capture for the day was of an everyday Sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua) leaf. Illuminated from above, the leaf becomes a territory for the imagination to roam.
I cannot choose which photograph to feature today from my mid-morning Piney Woods Church Road ramble. Being pressed for time (a class I teach begins in just a few hours, one hour from where I sit), I will apply my executive privilege and share the three of them as a miscellany. Yellow, reds, greens, and browns — all have their moments here. What an array of colors this season brings us!
A native lobelia, possibly Lobelia puberula, blooms in the rain alongside Rico Road, a short distance before the intersection with Piney Woods Church Road and the beginning of my daily walk.
I have been trying for months now to take a post-worthy photograph of dog fennel (Eupatorium capillifolium), a native perennial weed that can grow up to seven feet tall and take over pastures and even yards. It has slender, feathery leaves that somehow don’t seem to lend themselves to macro photography. But in silhouette, at the brink of sunset, I can begin to appreciate its beauty.
With only two days left until the the official end of summer, autumn’s approach is palpable along Piney Woods Church Road. From today’s walk, here are two visions of autumn: Changing Colors, and Leaf Touching Leaf.
When I think of autumn colors, I usually think of maple and sassafras, not muscadine. But I am finding the muted greens, yellows, golds, and orange-browns of muscadine leaves, scattered on Piney Woods Church Road this time of year, to be enchanting, too.
Along Piney Woods Church Road, the American Burnweed (Erechtites hieraciifolius) is coming into seed. The flower heads, which stay almost entirely closed while the flower blooms are bursting open to reveal a globe of feathery parachutes with seeds attached. The weed itself is a nondescript native annual with a penchant for cropping up in unmown lawns. And certainly the flower is not spectacular, and does not seem to attract many intriguing pollinators. But even though the wind will carry these seeds far and wide to many a lawn and pasture, still I find seed time among the burnweed to be a time of wonders.
Along Piney Woods Church Road, the Persimmon (Diospyros virginiana) fruits are ripening with the approach of autumn.
