autumn
All posts tagged autumn
The switch back from Daylight Saving Time to Standard Time (about time!) helped us get a good night's sleep Saturday night. Maybe not big shakes to you but we, and especially I, have been sleep deprived for the past several days and it felt great to wake rested! After a quiet morning around the house and lunch at home we headed back again to the Summit County Metro Parks and their Sand Run park, an area of 992 acres adjoining the Metro Park we visited one week ago. What an experience it was! Skies were partly cloudy, temperatures were cool to mild, and the park lands were hilly and gorgeous in what is now the declining period of fall color.
We chose the 3.3-mile Mingo Trail for its distance; we usually skip the really short walks. We found the unpaved, earthen trail a welcome challenge with a good amount hill climbing that really warmed us up and got our heart rates climbing as well. All along the way there was natural beauty to behold and, of course, photograph.
For me the day's shooting was a continuing exercise in re-learning my skills in photography with all manner of subjects available. This day I was also able to give my newer Canon EF 50mm Macro lens a good shake-down. Walks in dense wooded areas lend themselves well to finding subjects suited to close-up views and I really love viewing things close-up… have loved it ever since I started doing photography many years ago. As a kid I used a lens –objective lens off an old binocular, if I remember correctly– as an improvised macro adapter. Worked pretty well, too! I still own a really good 50mm macro from my Minolta film SLRs but, because of the auto-focus revolution and my migration to Canon's system, it now sits unused. When I was doing fine art photography I loved using black & white and, in the darkroom, made excellent prints from my shots. I still find certain subjects lend themselves best to the strong graphical qualities of black & white. In one case we happened across a large tree that had toppled. Where the trunk had broken, splintered and bent fibers of wood posed in subdued light. Even standing there recording the view I was seeing the broken tree not in shades of light brown but in monochrome. So, back at my desk, I used Photoshop to remove all of the color from the shot to show viewers what my eye had already seen.
Then again, I like some images better in color. Of course I select different techniques for different subjects. The gray of the rotting wood embedded in colorful fallen leaves is an interesting study in contrasts. The small fungi are the only white in the shot.
While I was experimenting with the macro lens on non-"macro" subjects I also tried out a longer exposure on the small waterfall we encountered. Very nice effect. Yes, I know, it's been done many times and by many others. I still like the shot and the macro, while not ideal for a larger scene, did an acceptable job.
This morning we visited the F.A. Seiberling Nature Realm property of Summit Metro Parks. It's a beautiful, 104-acre property preserving natural plant and animal life of the area. It's also at the north end of the Akron metropolitan area. Always a surprise and pleasure to see not only green space but forest land preserved so close to a city. We chose to take one of the hiking trails on what is now, for us, a regular event: a photo walk. The rolling 1.3-mile Seneca Trail took a while to cover as we would walk a bit, stop and photograph something or other, walk some more, stop and photograph… well, you get the picture and, of course, we got lots of 'em. At some point past the half-way mark I spied a bright object floating in a clearing between trees. At first I thought it was a brightly-colored autumn leaf caught in a spider web. Nope, it was a spider hanging from a high, vast web and it was a very large spider at that!
Fortunately I had been using the nice macro lens on my camera so I was able to step right up and try and photograph the colorful beastie. I don't really want to know how close I was to this one. It was very large and, appropriately enough for the approaching Halloween and harvest sesaons, bright orange like a pumpkin! As I attempted to shoot close-ups of the hanging spider it apparently figured the giant a few inches away might be a threat and began lowering itself to the ground and the bed of autumn leaves below. Between the necessary manual focussing, wind, and a determined escape plan, I was only able to squeeze off two shots and only one was in good focus.
Spidey dropped to the ground and headed into a tent of curly tree leaves. I couldn't just give up so I crouched down on my knees and elbow to spider-eye level to get some more shots. The spider, now ensconced in a leaf tent, held still for my new attempts at a portrait. I got several shots, a couple of good ones, and my favorite of the bunch is shown here. My, such pretty eyes you have… and so many of them!
By the way, for those who may be interested in such details, our arachnid friend is an Araneus marmoreus or Marbled orb-weaver. Some may, however, refer to the commonly-heard names: "creepy crawler," or "eeeeeeek! "
The autumn woods were looking, feeling, smelling, and sounding of the coming onset of winter. Everywhere there are lovely leaves on the ground and the trees are looking naked. There was a definite chill in the air and blustery winds that reach to the understorey. The sweet smell of decaying leaf matter hangs in some areas, strangely not everywhere. And bird calls are becoming less common with less variety, the whole woods are quieter.
Our trail exited into a beautifully landscaped garden area with water feature near the park entrance. Looking at the surface of the water I was taken by a tiny surprise, actually thousands of little surprises. I don't know why I hadn't considered that tiny aquatic plants might change leaf color with the seasons just as readily as the large terrestrial variety. There, floating on the pond, were miniscule, square plant leaves in colors ranging from green to red, all beautiful on the syrupy-looking dark water.
We're sure to visit Nature Realm again, perhaps soon, having added it to our short list of favorite nearby places.
Saturday night was the monthly Public Night at Stephens Observatory. Featured object was the Moon and we had more than 135 visitors show up! At one point I had about 30 people inside the dome. It was a fine evening of viewing and visitors had good questions, were orderly, patient, and in a good mood. Although our published closing time was 10:00, the last folks left at 10:30. Of course this meant another very late night for me and sleeping in Sunday morning for the two of us.
After a morning at Mom-in-Law's house (starting the process of getting new storm doors) we took a long loop out east and checked in at the Observatory. Good thing, too, the dehumidifier tank was about to overflow. That's no mean feat, either… I have it set up with a tank that can handle about 20 gallons! It was a nice drive out and back enjoying the early fall colors. After lunch we headed west and, following some light shopping, took a stroll on some of the trails at the Cleveland Metroparks' Rocky River Reservation. It's a beautiful wooded area with wetlands and was so busy, this sunny Sunday afternoon, that we were lucky to find parking a half-mile away. Still, we were there for the hiking and the spot we found was actually quite nice.
As we walked the paved path approaching the Reservation's visitor center, we saw a Great Blue Heron glide in for a landing in an adjacent wet area. We watched the big bird as it began fishing, silently wading along a submerged tree trunk. Saw it catch a small fish or two. Shot many photos of the quiet beauty of the bird and its surroundings.
After a relaxing walk, including a decent workout climbing a crazy-high set of stairs up along a cliff, we set off for the car. The heron was still fishing so we paused to capture a few parting shots (my best of the day, seen above) and stopped again at the entrance to the paved path. There were beautiful yellow flowers glowing against a background of deep green foliage. The last blooms of the season are sometimes the most lovely.
Saturday was dark and rainy as was Saturday night. Our scheduled observatory open night, of course, was canceled due to opaque skies. The good thing was the decision was easy; no partly-cloudy skies to tease us! I hope nobody showed up… my predecessor in the job used to open for visitors even if the telescope couldn't be used due to weather. Not me! So we stayed home and watched a film I never heard of —Noel— picked up at Target for cheap. Turns out it was a fair movie: not predictable except that it contained at least one "Christmas miracle." It boasts a strong cast including, uncredited, Robin Williams whose character gets his Christmas wish. Well, I won't tell you what his wish is >>no spoilers here<< but it's probably not what you think.
The weather was better on Sunday. She ran the oven's cleaning cycle and cleaned the racks in the morning. Then we went out for a Taco Bell lunch and a little shopping excursion to Medina just to get out of the house. We made a quick stop at Petiti's Garden Center which is now all decked out for Christmas. The real reason for the stop was to pick up gravel to ballast the base for a Christmas tree idea She came up with. More on that project and a photo or two later!
After a stop at Medina's Target for cat litter and to stock up on bottled beverages (Vitamin Water), we stopped in at an intriguing new place: Good Taste Wine and Food Shop. Wonderful food smells greeted us as we entered the modern building. We were greeted warmly by staff and wandered around the place: part kitchen shop, part cooking school, and part restaurant. Not much for non-carnivores, nonetheless a pleasant visit.
It turned out Medina was having their annual holiday kick-off on their Public Square: their Candlelight Walk weekend. It was late afternoon when we visited but there were horse-drawn carriage and wagon rides and stores were open that usually are not open on Sundays. The square and it's old buildings are charming and beautiful. Nearby big box stores have hurt the little guys in noticeable ways but, every now and again, some uniqueness shows up. The business mix regularly changes and we miss a couple of shops we came to treasure there. We did stop by the (genuine) "army surplus" store (where I picked up a pair of woolen glove liners), a home decor shop, and a hobby store. As we were packing into the car to head home I saw a beautiful scene: a church steeple rising from behind colorful autumn trees. I grabbed my camera and got a few shots from the courthouse parking lot. Off to home where I cooked up a nice pot of bean and spinach soup, enjoyed with crusty sourdough bread. The weekend started off rainy but ended nice.
My commute to work this morning was beautiful. The air was cold and crisp. There was widespread frost. And as I entered the small community of Columbia, west of Strongsville, Ohio, a beautiful scene was laid out before me. Fortunately there was a place for me to pull off the road and capture an image to share.
My sister and her husband visited today. The first motivation was to pick up our "old" couch as a donation to her eldest son who is setting up housekeeping in a fixer-upper house. He has no furniture and the place he's moving into needs much work and furnishing to become livable. This is an excellent development for him and we're glad to support him by giving him some nice used furniture –the couch and other things– to get a good start. We enjoyed a nice visit with our guests, took them to lunch at Panera Bread, and gave them a tour of the library where I work and was actually on duty this afternoon (half-day Sunday). Sister is also a library worker: circulation. Surprisingly, so is my niece: cataloging! My grandmother, aunt, uncle, and one of my cousins were and are teachers. Now we seem to be branching out into another educational field! The weather was sunny and warm today, a gorgeous early autumn day for travel: a fine day for a visit.
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