In utero part 1

Inside the Womb, leaves get bigger and stems longer, reaching out further and further to the light. It must be quite a lush environment in there… a dirt rich with the life of the tree itself. I will have a long wait until the greenery has died a natural, seasonal death and I can really [...]

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Leaves alone

It’s hard enough to identify flowers… but this time of year, you see some pretty interesting leaves, too. I’m pretty sure this one is a cinquefoil… I can identify a few, the most obvious ones like rattlesnake plantain. But others, well, I am just not that good yet. Ok – it’s a really small fern? [...]

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That place

As 49-year-olds from small towns go, I am fairly tech-savvy. I do my share of cursing at the computer, but mostly I like new gadgetry and software. And I am in awe of the technology inside my cameras, coming as I do from the days of black and white film. But still, my favorite lens [...]

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At last

While the flowers had been shooting up and blossoming, the beech tree had been taking its time. Pushing out those tight, cigar-shaped buds, gradually pushing the old leaves off the branch. And now at last the show begins.

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Going, going…

Now we are at the very end of the cycle… and the very beginning. All the leaves have dropped from the elderly beech tree that I’ve been following so intently. The branches are covered with buds. But in my yard, 15 miles away, the younger beech trees still hold firmly to their pale dried leaves [...]

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Just a couple babes in the woods

Fallen beech leaf, melding with a newborn toadshade trillium leaf. Violet leaf, peeking out from The Womb. – This time of year, it  seems as though ferns unfurl as you watch.

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The last leaf

I think this is the last leaf. The buds are swelling….

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