On a drizzling early autumn day, the molted exoskeleton of an Arrowhead Spider lingers in its web like a ghost.
Sep 292014
Sep 282014
A twig with two shriveled leaves hangs suspended above Piney Woods Church Road, dangling by a single thread of spider’s silk on a cloudy morning.
Sep 282014
On a gray, cloudy, misting morning in Chattahoochee Hills, I noticed this leaf lying on Piney Woods Church Road with a circle through it, a window onto the roadbed below.
Sep 272014
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.
Sep 262014
Whenever things start to feel to complicated in my life, I find solace in the simple juxtapositions of leaf and stone that I find on my daily outings as a dirt road pilgrim. There is a lot we can learn by just looking to the earth upon which we walk.
Sep 262014
In a hurry this afternoon (with a Mellow Mushroom pizza awaiting me at home), I jumped out of the car at the intersection of Piney Woods Church Road and Rico Road, walked over to an American Burnweed growing close by, and immediately found this katydid. I love how the katydid’s legs make nearly perfect equilateral triangles.
Sep 252014
Walking down Piney Woods Church Road this evening, I chanced upon a fellow pilgrim in the middle of the road, headed, like me, toward Hutcheson Ferry Road. He (or she) was an Orangestriped Oakworm (Anisota senatoria) with a long way to go. I took a few photographs, then an approaching car prompted me to scoop up the pilgrim and relocate him (or her) to the side of the road. Safe journeys, traveler.
Sep 252014
On my evening walk down Piney Woods Church Road today, I passed an Arrowhead Spider (Verrucosa arenata) in the center of her web, apparently doing yoga (or else a highly unsuccessful attempt at peek-a-boo).
Sep 242014
The days race by, and now it is autumn. I snatch a few minutes away from a long slough of desk work to amble down Piney Woods Church Road. I take a few shots of some brilliant red sassafras leaves, and a mother cow licking her calf. Early on my journey, I encounter another planthopper on a roadside weed — this time, the Citrus Flatid Planthopper, Metcalfa pruinosa. In my imagination, he (or she) glances furtively and suspiciously at the photographer as he takes this picture.
Sep 232014
On this first day of Autumn, abundant green leaves are visible against a blue sky of mid-afternoon. In the background, widely scattered blurs of yellow hint at fall’s arrival.
