The more leaves I see on my walk this time of year, the more I appreciate their rich diversity. Each December leaf is a survivor of the growing season, carrying the scars of its journey from spring through autumn. It is those very scars that give each leaf its individual beauty and spark our capacity for wonder and delight. Like the Dirt Road Pilgrim who photographs them, these leaves, too, are pilgrims across time. They are also holy relics: doorways into the sacredness at the heart of nature.
Even brown leaves can be quite lovely to behold — in this case, sweetgum and water oak. These photos are from my balmy afternoon saunter down Piney Woods Church Road earlier today.
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For the past few days, every time I have walked down Piney Woods Church Road, I have encountered orb spiders dutifully tending their webs. I never see the same web or spider twice — each time, I discover a different one somewhere along the roadside. All of them, though, are clearly the same spider species: Larinia directa. Today, for the first time, I was able to photograph a spider in her web from both sides, top and bottom. It is an accomplishment about which I am quite proud, though mostly it was the luck of finding a spider whose web allowed fairly easy approach from both directions — from the roadside and from the roadside slope, looking back toward the road bed.
For all the insects and spiders I see on my walks, not to mention cows and horses, animals rarely appear in my photographs. Bird close-ups require either incredible good luck or great patience, coupled with high-quality lenses with long focal lengths and large price tags. For all that I am fond of herps — frogs and toads, turtles, snakes, lizards — I don’t think a single one has appeared in nearly a year’s worth of images. Even the Eastern Gray Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis), probably the most commonly-seen mammal along the road, has only made one appearance here. On this mild December afternoon, though, I encountered a squirrel hard at work rooting around in the leaves just beyond the horse pasture fence. Usually, by the time I see a squirrel it is beating a hasty retreat across the grass and up a tree. This time, though, I managed somehow to remain unnoticed while the squirrel spent several minutes poking around in the grass, occasionally uttering a low clucking sound. I got as near as I could, fearful that I would be betrayed by a thick layer of crisp and crunchy leaves. Finally, the squirrel followed a scent (or maybe just an inclination) up into a drainage pipe across the road, whose entrance was practically under my feet. Before he (or she) disappeared, I took quite a few photos despite having only a mid-focal-length lens; these two are my favorites.
What a glorious afternoon it was along Piney Woods Church Road! A few clouds appeared in otherwise blue skies, and the temperature soared into the mid-70s. I had a busy day filled with errands, but took a few minutes to explore the light along the road, transfiguring leaves into pages of illuminated manuscripts. The relics of nature’s grace are all around me, in such stunning forms as white oak and greenbrier leaves infused with sunlight.
It was a balmy day along Piney Woods Church Road, with temperatures nudging into the upper 60s. I searched for the same spider I had seen yesterday, but found another one — much larger than the first — instead. This lovely orbweaver rested calmly at the center of her (most likely a she) web, not even fazed when I brought my camera lens close. This is her underside; efforts to photograph her top side were largely foiled by the locations of nearby loblolly pines. I saw lots of other small insects darting about, so clearly a food source was readily available. Still, I was surprised to see spiders active after our hard frost of a week or so ago, when nighttime temperatures plunged into the lower 20s.
I have since learned that this spider is Larinia directa, a species common to the lower South. It is not mentioned in my guide to Spiders of the Carolinas, suggesting that it is not common there. I am not surprised by this, given that the spider is still active so late in the autumn.
