In the Yard

Leaves

Rae Spencer1 Comment

The pear tree is reluctant to release its leaves this year. Even so, hints of red and yellow are creeping in. More and more with each cold front.

By contrast, our Japanese maple seems eager for winter. About a week ago, it’s leaves flared brilliantly red. Then they turned brown and brittle at the edges. Then they fell, almost all of them within a single day.

Now rafts of maple leaves float in the irises and drift across the porch. They scratch against the door and whisk inside with every trip to the mailbox or errand at the store. They whisper that winter is near, despite the pear tree’s curious delay.

More and More Warblers

Rae Spencer5 Comments

Most of the yard is following the normal routine of preparing for winter, but the Yellow-rumped Warblers seem to feel that winter has already arrived.

In previous years, the wax myrtles’ abundant berries have lasted well into spring. Other birds refuse to eat the berries, and the Yellow-rumped Warblers are rarely numerous enough or hungry enough to need the entire crop. But this year, the branches may be bare as early as Christmas.

I’m a bit worried about what will happen to my favorite warblers, once their food supply runs out.

November Flowers

Rae Spencer2 Comments

Somehow, in all of the recent rain and wind and clouds, I overlooked the fact that parts of the yard are still blooming.

All of the pollinators are gone, so it feels as if the flowers want only to be admired.

Home Again

Rae Spencer3 Comments

Yesterday, I flew home through the southern-most remnants of Hurricane Sandy. The flight was a bit bumpy, though not as rough as I had anticipated. I went to bed early and slept late this morning, then meant to spend much of my day in the yard, which is cluttered with knotweed and wind-torn leaves. But as I knelt in a patch of damp grass, acutely aware of the contrast between the yard’s October-cold ground and a breezy sky full of summer-warm sunshine, I changed plans.

The ocean was restless, tossing sets of foaming waves onto a beach swept flat and clean. I watched as a ship pulled out of the Chesapeake Bay, and I hoped that it was headed north, carrying help to areas devastated by Sandy.

Trying to distract myself from overwhelming images of flooding and destruction, I spent the next half-hour photographing pelicans.

Eventually, my phone chimed an appointment reminder, which I barely heard over the ocean’s tumble and growl.

My route to the appointment carried me past First Landing State Park, so I stopped for a quick glance at the Chesapeake Bay.

(That’s the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, in the background.)

I only stayed about fifteen minutes, and in that short time clouds swallowed the sun. I assumed these clouds were related to the storm, or to the cold front that fed its monstrous transformation into a super-storm. Either way, I returned to my car with a heavy heart, helplessly small and weak under such a beautiful, terrible sky.

Insects in The Yard (Arachnophobia Alert!)

Rae Spencer2 Comments

These images were selected for various posts in September and October, but fell short somewhere along the way. Some posts changed course, mid-process, and the photos were no longer relevant. Sometimes the photos were redundant or too tangential, sometimes they simply didn’t “fit”.

Whatever their failings, they’ve been collecting in a “Miscellaneous Insects” folder on my desktop. Today seemed like a good day to post them, before I sentence them to the External Hard Drive Archive…