Backyard View - November 2014

I’m continuing my monthly post of morning images of the trees in our backyard that I started in September and continued in October. Since all the leaves have fallen of this month, I’ll take a hiatus until next spring and then do another series in the spring.

The November trees were colorful…and then bare by the end of the month. At the beginning of the month, the tulip poplar (middle) leaves were mostly on the ground, the maple (right) still had a lot of red leaves and the small locust next to the pine was turning yellow. The images in the slide show below were taken on the

2nd, (still some green in the maple)

3rd, (no more green in the maple and there are more leaves on the ground)

4th, (there was some raking done for the thickest area of leaves)

8th, (the locust has turned completely yellow and it is obvious there will need to be more raking)

11th, (the neighbor’s yard crew did now work, the maple is has dropped a lot of leaves but the locust still has quite a few)

13th and (not leaves on the maple, the locust has lost most of its leaves as well)

20th. (the neighbor’s yard crew blew off the leaves and left bare dirt).

Since the last picture - I raked again. I leave the leaf mulch in areas that are too heavily shaded to grow grass!

Backyard View - October 2014

I’m continuing the monthly post of morning images of the trees in our backyard that I started in September. There has been quite a lot of change in October but there are still quite a lot of leaves remaining. There was added drama this month because of a broken branch high in the tulip poplar that had remained awkwardly suspended rather than falling to the ground. About mid-October (image 3 in the slide show below) - it fell. I was surprised that I didn’t hear it fall.

The tulip poplar turns yellow and drops most of its leaves before the maple completes its color change. I’ve done a quick raking on some of the thickest parts of the leaf drop (and pine needles too) because I want the grass to survive. I’ve started taking the leaves into the forest rather than bagging them for pickup at the curb. I used the big branch that fell to make a corral to keep the pile from blowing back into the yard! There will be a few more rakings before the yard slides into its winter mode. 

Fall Arabesques

I’ve been photographing leaves on the ground for the past few weeks and am sharing them today in celebration of fall. The leaves had to be positioned just as they had fallen - or been blown into position.

Some of the colors are muted yellow or brown. The vivid greens and reds are there too.

The backdrops are varied too: grass - asphalt - pebbles - forest mulch - bricks.

What about the other things in the pictures with some of the leaves? A feather, moss on a fallen log

How many trees can you recognize by their leaves in these pictures? Poplars - oaks - maples - dogwood….at least.

Backyard View - September 2014

I am starting a backyard photography project for this fall: taking a picture of our backyard trees about once a week. September was my time to decide on the logistics. The camera positions are marked on the deck railing with duct tape and red marker. I decided to take two orientations and then pick a favorite for each month. So far the red marker seems to be holding up better than the tape. The duct tape seems to stick but then curls up on mornings when there is a thick dew.

The first day I took the picture at mid-morning. Too much light…and a tweak to the plan: take the picture as soon as possible after sunrise or make sure the day is cloudy.

For September - I like the portrait orientation so they are the images I selected for this first slide show. As the leaves change on the maple and tulip poplars there should be quite a change seen in the October series. It’s also clear than lighting makes quite a difference even when there is no direct sunlight.

The Tragedy of our Sycamore

Our area is in a weather pattern that brings gusty winds and thunderstorms every afternoon - and it is taking a toll on our trees. There is a large branch that has been torn from the upper part of the tulip polar at the edge of the forest. It hasn’t fallen all the way to the ground yet but seems to get lower with each storm.  I won’t be venturing underneath until it falls all the way. It  is most likely to land in the forest rather than our yard.

The sycamore is a larger problem. The tree is not that old. It came up in a garden plot and I decided to let it grow. It has two trunks and had done very well until recently. Its branches would be whipped around by the wind but it would always straight up afterwards. Now one of the trunks does not straighten up and the branches are starting to sweep the stairs to our deck. A few weeks ago I noticed a wound in the trunk and I suspected that it had happened from the bending during storms....and had reduced the tree's resilence.

But when I inspected the tree more closely, I discovered that the bending is further up the trunk (the trunk to the left in the picture below; the tree may just be top heavy with its big leaves.

I'll try trimming the branches above the bend. I do not want to cut it down! I liked where the tree is growing because it provides summer shade for a basement window and the dining room on the first floor…..and in a few years it would have shaded the top floor of the house. 

After the Rain

The morning after the big rain last week was sunny. I ventured out to capture the aftermath of the heavy rain. Water droplets glistened on leaves.

Some of the fragile new growth on the oak tree had been plucked from the tree and became debris on the driveway.

There were also tulip polar seeds that had been swept by the water into piles.

Curiously - there was one very white feather than must have floated to the driveway after the rain since it did not look like it had been wet at all.

Another March 2014 Snow

We got 7inches of snow yesterday and I took another round of pictures….and made snow ice cream (green for St. Patrick’s Day). The Kokopelli garden stake was almost covered with the snow,

The tulip poplar seed pods turned into cups for snow,

And the bushes look like they had been generously topped with whipped cream!

The streets near our neighborhood were cleared by mid-day and we took a short drive to enjoy the snow covered scenes.

I also took snowflake pictures with my 22x loupe. The snowflakes this time were dense crystals; they reminded me of spun glass or baroque jewelry.

Winter’s Grip Waning? - March 2014

We have had some bitterly cold weather this March. It snowed last week and the temperatures were in the teens. The deer are reduced to eating the old leaves from the pile we made at the edge of the forest. This is a hungry time for the deer.

There was a hawk yesterday at the edge of the forest. I noticed it when it moved and then flew to the branches of a nearby tree. I didn’t actually see it catch anything but later that same day when I ventured out I found a substantial clump of feathers beside our house.

The ground is spongy from the recent thaw and the hyacinth bulbs are just beginning to show. They are at least a week or two behind where they were last year at this time.

As I walked around the house, the tulip poplar still looked very much as it has all winter

But the maple had noticeably enlarged buds. I’ll have to watch carefully to get a series of macro shots as the maple blooms and the leaves unfurl.

Zooming - February 2014

I’ve been doing quite a bit of magnification recently with the microscope and loupe. The monthly ‘zooming’ post is done with cropped images from the camera - simply using the camera’s own built in zoom. Can you find: 

• The muffin liner
• The surprised squirrel
• The snow on crepe myrtle berries
• The icy pine
• The glowing knot in stained wood
• A sunrise through the oak branches
• An ice fall from a gutter
• Tulip poplar seed pod spires
• The moon through tree branches 

Book Quote of the Month (about trees) - February 2014

Like the Chinese, who divide the solar calendar into twenty-four rather than 4 seasons (among them, fortnights called “excited insects,” “grains fill,” “cold dew,” and “frost descends”), a practiced tree watcher knows there are dozens of seasons and that one of them could be called “acorns pumping out.” - Nancy Hugo Ross inSeeing Trees

It isn’t often that a coffee table book (large format with beautiful pictures) prompts action or behavior change. This one is the exception for me and I suspect it is for others as well. I attended a lecture by the author at the Howard Country Conservancy on February 8th and promptly started planning my forays around the yard and nearby gardens for this spring…and naming the ‘seasons’ that I am seeing. The first blog post prompted by the lecture was on February 13th (I’ll call that season ‘fuzzy buds’. The book arrived in the mail that afternoon and I am savoring reading it and the pictures now….adding more details to the plans.

I’ve always enjoyed botanical photography but have tended toward flowers rather than trees. And I haven’t done the magnified looking at trees all that often. My husband had an old loupe he used during the days his photography was slide based that has now been repurposed and he ordered a new one that has higher magnification for be to experiment with as well.

To celebrate the prospect of learning a lot more about trees over the next year or so - I’ve created the slide show below of the best tree pictures I’ve taken over the past 12 months. Enjoy!

Magnifying February Trees

The trees of February still look starkly bare. I decided to take a closer look at some of the trees around our yard. I labelled cups and cut twigs to take inside to photograph in comfort rather than braving the cold and overcoming the clumsiness of gloves.

The pods on the tulip poplar were dramatic at close range. Many of them have already disintegrated - the seeds flying away with the wind - but these still had enough to look like ‘flowers.’

The cherry tree buds are already enlarging. I took the pictures through an 8x and 22x loupe to get the magnification I wanted.

I did the same for the oak buds….and then couldn’t resist a closer look at a wound on the twig with the 8x loupe.

The maple tree is beginning to turn reddish at the tips of the branches. And the magnified images show the buds are colorful. They’ll become more so over the next few weeks.