Beauty As We Move Into Autumn

The little garden where I'd removed the giant stump (well, most of it anyway) was slowing down and the Yarrow appeared to be mostly finished blooming for the year:

 There were a few white flowered plants, but I feared they'd drop their seed and increase in number, so I cut off any remaining white flower stalks, leaving the fancier colors, which I prefer:

 The fantail pigeons have finished nesting and all the babies but one appeared to be on their own, no longer requiring their parents to feed them:

 Alas, they began to look kind of shopworn and unhealthy, so I put medication into their water:

The little hens still look plenty healthy, so I haven't given them any medication:

 Their egg laying has dropped to about one small egg per day. Soon it will be no eggs at all:

 Many flowers are still blooming, so I brought three more vases of them to church. This one included Frans Hals Daylilies, Tree Hydrangea and some of the very smallest sunflowers:

 Green sepals from former Rose Mallows, purple (wild) New England Asters, pink Rose Mallows, Tree Hydrangea and two colors of roses (magenta and orange):

All sunflowers, various sizes and colors:

 Far less attractive was the barn floor, soaked with horse urine and manure. I was able to scoop up most of it with the tractor, but had to fork it into the bucket as I got toward the end:

 A giant puffball appeared beneath the bottom wire of the electric fence alongside the gravel road. It grew rapidly. Last time one grew there, the Amish woman from down the road asked for it (many people love to eat them) but so far this year she hasn't asked. I don't find them edible at all. They look like Styrofoam and I found them to be just about as tasty as Styrofoam:

We've had a lot of Monarch butterflies this year. They are flying everywhere but don't generally hold still long enough for me to get a photo. This one landed on the Frans Hals Daylilies, and held still just long enough for me to get a picture:

An Autumn Walk Around The Farm - Part 2

I was walking around the farm one chilly, windy autumn day (see also Part 1, posted yesterday) and was in the south field. I pointed the camera across the gravel road to a site which once had a house trailer on it. This is the same site where I've previously photographed baby foxes and heritage roses:

We'd had lots of rain and the pasture was growing mushrooms:

The Pennsylvania Smartweed was red and apparently done for the year. It's an annual, but returns in abundance each summer:

The winter hay supply was lined up and ready. I will begin feeding it out any day now:

I had about 7 giant puffballs spring up along the fence line. I don't much like them as I think they're about as tasty as Styrofoam, but the Amish lady down the road asked if she could pick them and I said yes. I saw she'd left one and walked over to see why. It was truly ugly and kind of deformed, so I guessed it scared her away. I think I'd have passed it by also:

The view across the gravel road and north field to the autumn woods beyond:

I walked along the edge of the gravel road and looked back, past the cattails to my barn:

A few Small White Asters were still blooming:

Almost no New England asters were still in bloom, but I found this one plant. Alas, it must have been hit with a hard freeze because its flowers were small and curled up:

We had a lot of Monarch butterflies this year but apparently this one didn't migrate in time to miss the killing freeze:

I began wondering if there were any other flowers hardy enough to still be blooming and indeed, Bouncing Bet was still going strong beneath the towering Rugosa Roses:

I looked up at the top of the Rugosa Roses and they still had a few flowers on them also. Canada Geese were headed south overhead, the leaves were falling, the nights were freezing - but a few hardy plants were still blooming:

Floodwood Loop Trail, Beginning At Middle Pond

Our early autumn weather inspired me to take the dogs hiking, but I wanted someplace new and interesting. After doing some research, I found the Floodwood Trail south of here, which promised to take us alongside several lakes and through a deep forest. I drove down to the trail head, parked and we set off on a new adventure:

There were hardwood forests, coniferous forests, little trees and giant, old trees:

Our first lake was Middle Pond. We veered off the loop trail to go see it:

Middle Pond was lovely, but I quickly discovered that photos of the lakes were not turning out well. This was the best I could do, and I had to stabd back in the forest for even this one:

But deep in the woods, generally a difficult place for photos, produced nice pictures of my happy foursome. They were having lots of fun:

These beautiful puffballs seemed to be studded with gems and lay on a green carpet of moss:

In fact, the trail itself was lined with moss, making the whole forest look magical:

Clover and Fergus began running ahead and I had to keep reining them in, but otherwise it was a wonderful hike:

And the dogs still got to do lots of running, even under the "Not too far ahead of me" rules:

There were magical looking mushrooms scattered along the trail:

And blue-green lichens on fallen logs:

Daphne was particularly attentive, wanting to keep me in sight at all times and often happy to walk by my side:

But she also liked to go exploring with Fergus. I had no intention of taking the entire loop trail, but what we'd seen so far certainly inspired me to keep going. I'll post Part 2 tomorrow:

Beautiful, Peaceful Slush Pond - Part 1

My sister and I had hiked with the dogs up to The Pinnacle (see previous posts), but the day was still young. So we drove south on Route 30 to a narrow, unmarked road into the Adirondack forest which I happened to know would lead us to Slush Pond:

We parked the car, let the dogs out and began heading toward the floating peat bog. But on the way, we enjoyed the tiny treasures on the forest floor such as the various mosses, the British Soldier lichens, the Pixie Cup lichens and the Reindeer lichen:

Here's a close-up of a patch of Reindeer lichen. If you click to enlarge it, you can see a lot of detail:

The dogs were happy and enjoyed the mossy forest floor:

There were puffballs growing amidst the pine needles:

But we were headed out to see the floating peat bog and Clover led the way as we carefully walked out across its spongy surface:

Millions of ripe cranberries dotted the surface:

And I was more than happy to taste a few:

And there were plenty of red, carnivorous pitcher plants. They seemed to be partly beneath the sphagnum substrate, perhaps because the recent rains had raised the water level:

Pitcher plants are really quite lovely. Their flowers look like alien invaders, though I haven't seen one in years:

There were golden patches of sphagnum and red patches, which I've recently learned are different species. This red patch was further ornamented by scarlet cranberries, rather like gems on a crown:

The dogs led us out past the young tamaracks toward the edge of the bog:

This channel led to the rather large Slush Pond and the dogs had no fear of walking right up to the edge. But there was yet more to see and experience in this wild, lovely place and I'll post Part 2 tomorrow: