Winter is on the way. Today was cloudy and blustery; the wind was strong enough to leave my bare fingers almost numb. The sun almost broke through the clouds, enough for me to cast my shadow against a tree, before retreating again behind a wall of dark gray. At my feet, though, I passed an endless variety of tranquil still-lifes, my favorite of which was this simple image with shades of red, yellow, and green.
On this last day before the weather is expected to turn sharply colder, I was surprised to encounter another Buckeye Butterfly (Junonia coenia) along Piney Woods Church Road today. I assumed it was the same one I had seen just a couple of days earlier, but close comparison of the photographs revealed that this one has slightly different, and much brighter, markings.
Less surprising, perhaps, was another dandelion in full bloom along my way, after an absence of several months. Such familiar beings as butterflies and dandelions offer me a reassurance of springtime as winter approaches.
Yesterday afternoon, my wife and I took a late-day Indian Summer walk through the forest of Dauset Trails Nature Center, in Jackson, Georgia. The light in the trees was enchanting as the sun dropped lower in the sky. The forest is so lovely there; trails lead through open woods of pines and hardwoods.
Today the weather along Piney Woods Church Road was mild and pleasant, with a high near 7o degrees and sunshine into the mid-afternoon when high clouds moved in. Tomorrow, though, marks a downward plunge in temperature culminating in our first frost and many days where highs will not rise above the mid-50s. This cold snap will likely bring an end to the autumn pollinating season. Today, though, the air was filled with tiny bees and flies, zooming between the scanty flower blossoms lingering on the goldenrod plants still in bloom along the roadway.
This bedgraggled, spotted, munched, discolored persimmon leaf has weathered the elements and made it to the end of the season. As temperatures drop and winds increase later this week, I expect that this leaf will join the others somewhere along Piney Woods Church Road.
A lone yellowed greenbrier leaf is framed by adjacent branches in the early afternoon light along Piney Woods Church Road.
Here are two zig-zagging images from today’s saunter down Piney Woods Church Road:
Today, a very simple image indeed: two yellow leaves attached to a single stem, catching the warm afternoon light along Piney Woods Church Road.
A sweetgum leaf forms a curtain partly obscuring my way along Piney Woods Church Road.
After 311 outings down Piney Woods Church Road this year, I will confess that, while each day ineluctably brings new wonders, some days are far more wondrous than others. There are days that I drag my feet, stop everywhere to look for something inviting to photograph, and still reach the far end of the road without a single photograph. Then, nearly desperate, I find something satisfying enough to be sufficient, and I hurry off home. There are other days, however, like today — days when everywhere I look there are new possibilities for the camera lens, new glimpses into nature’s riches just a short distance beyond my back door. Those are the days when I return home with 40, 60, 80 or more photographs, and I cannot choose between them all.
My late afternoon visit today was a magical autumn ramble. Everywhere I looked, the colors of the season blazed forth in all their glory.
Ready to greet me upon my arrival was this sassafras tree, on fire with shades of red, orange, and yellow.
Further down the road, a lone hickory still glowed with leaves of yellow-orange.
The late-day sun shone through strands of horsehair on a barbed wire fence along the roadway, beckoning me near.
Even a roadside grass long gone to seed seemed touched with glory.
Nearby, a backlit leaf of a white oak sapling nearly overwhelmed me with its brilliant colors.
Even a muscadine leaf — a subject of numerous photographs across the span of the year — was illuminated with such beauty that I simply had to take its picture yet again.
Perhaps the most amazing discovery of all was not a leaf, but an insect visitor. I was delighted to encounter this Buckeye (Junonia coenia) resting in the sunlight beside the road. For all the flowers that have bloomed over the past half-dozen months, this was the first Buckeye I have seen on my walk. And there was not a flower in sight!
