fall forest

The fall leaves have been so incredibly spectacular for the past month. Every single day, rain or shine, I go outside and think “I can’t believe we live in the middle of all this! I feel so lucky!” The only unlucky thing is that Laika tore a ligament in her knee last month, and is on bed rest until it heals (locked up in her little crate all day every day, poor thing!) so we haven’t been doing our wonderful long walks in the woods with her. Anyway, in the past two weeks a few fall storms and windy days have brought down a lot of the foliage, but here are some photos from a walk near the orchard in Hiram earlier in the month. It’s a little sad to think that all this wild color is a bright farewell to the season and soon there will just be bare branches and snow and howling winds. Sigh. Time to put on a Nick Drake record and another sweater.

walking in Mike’s woods

walking in Mike’s woods, Laika in the big meadow

Our next-door neighbor Mike owns almost 40 acres of land out behind our house, and he’s always encouraged us to go out and explore his land. There’s a dirt road leading out behind his house, and a network of paths all through the woods, and a huge meadow that he’s been working hard all summer to keep mown and cleared. I can’t believe it took us until mid-summer to finally get out into the woods behind our house and start exploring, and I’m so glad we finally did. I’ve been taking the puppy out for walks most days, it’s easy to pass a whole hour or two wandering and looping around all the paths and splashing in the stream and exploring the woods.
In other news, I got a “polaroid” type app for my iPhone so that’s why all my iphone snapshots are now fake-polaroided. Its kinda silly but… since my iPhone photos always come out smudgy and cruddy-looking anyway, it’s funner if they at least look old and cute…

more flowers

blue bellflower, and aquilegia

poppy seed pods

rosa acicularis? and tiny raspberries

wow! I love poppies! what a treat to find them blooming in our yard in limington.

rosebud with ant

clover, buttercups

springing!

I think the previous owner of our house worked in landscaping. Heaven knows he wasn’t a carpenter and didn’t do much home maintenance, but it seems like he really put some love into our yard! Everything’s been dry and dormant through the winter but now that it’s starting to get warm we are excited to see what beautiful new perennial plants peek out to brighten up the yard each day, it seems like there’s something new sprouting or blooming, every time we visit!

rhododendron?

crocuses and daffodils

sunny bunches of daffodils are bursting out everywhere

violets on the shady side of the house

mystery bush: what is it? we’ve been eagerly watching the buds grow and open, hoping to figure out what kind of a plant it is. still a mystery – looks like a purple cauliflower bush!

we have SO much rhubarb. Richard makes great rhubarb pies!! Any other recipes to suggest?

spring buds on trees

misty morning

Woke up early to go meet the mason and talk about restoring one of our chimneys. Beautiful misty morning drive.

winter sunset

days are short in the winter. view towards the uphill neighbor’s house