Seasonal changes and musings

We've had a long extended fall season, with colorful leaves persisting for weeks.

The ginkgo leaves are at their peak now, with an beautiful golden color.  They'll all drop any day, but they're glorious while they're here.   The dogwoods, even in spite of their drought-stressed summer, are putting on a show of reds and oranges.

The kids I had outside in a program today delighted in the perfect fall weather, which was clear and cool, following several rainy days.

We discovered fall fruits and seeds (having them squish them between their fingers is always interesting - I demonstrate- -- are they sticky, indicating sugars, or smooth, indicating lipids, how many seeds are in each fruit, etc.?)

Who eats them?  Oh, they're poisonous, many kids say when looking at red fruits.

Hmm, why do you think red fruits are 'poisonous', I ask, after some 'wait' time.  Hmm, what eats these berries or fruits?  And we talk about the virtues of being sugary or being lipid-rich. I finally explain that red fruits are basically signaling 'I'm ready to eat.'

Aha!

Read more...

Winter colors

The luminous tans, browns, and greens of winter are evident here. Our winters don't feature snow or ice (very often), but the colors of winter are what stand out.

Broomsedge is a beautiful tawny gold, the frost-bitten cool-season grasses are a dull green, and evergreens have a color spectrum of their own.

The drips and drabs of dead foliage await cleanup or decay, but remind me that the renewal of spring growth is only a couple of months away.

Gardening seasons help ground me to the cycle of natural rhythms, and even sowing warm-season vegetable seeds in flats on a heating mat (on the schedule not too far off), in a couple of month's advance of the last 'average' frosts remind me that the growing season is coming.

Read more...

Lots of rain

We were still behind a bit on rainfall for this year, but should be caught up now, thanks to the remnants of Ida. Our rain gauge measured 4 1/2 inches, but we probably got more, since its location is buffered by the holly hedge.

One of my colleages who lives in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Escarpment (a much heavier rainfall zone) said that they had 8 1/2 inches in 24 hours.

I'm doing a Nature Discovery Walk, focused on seasonal ecology tomorrow -- lots to observe and talk about.

Read more...