Hard to believe another month is coming to an end.
I think part of my confusion about how another month could be ending has to do with the fact that we continue to have very mixed up weather. One minute it feels like April and the next like December.
It's a good thing I love leaves. I think I've said that exact phrase a zillion times on my blogs.
I run out of things to say say on my nature notes, particularly since we've been having this back and forth weather for months.
I would say the frogs in my garden are happy but I realize that my particular frogs don't really belong in nature notes.
However, since the frogs are surrounded by nature taking its course, my "fake" frogs have a natural surrounding.
One thing I'm enjoying about the weird weather we're having is that it has involved a lot of nice clouds as a result of fronts coming in and out.
It's also easier to shoot the various clouds around my house now that the trees are bare.
The evergreens don't seem to block the sky shots as much as some of the other trees do when they are in full leafy mode.
I seem to see the bluejays around my yard a lot more in the fall and even winter.
I rarely see the robins in the winter but this one appeared on my deck for a face off.
The cardinals were splashing up a storm.
The male cardinal above had the big bath and the female cardinal below splashed out most of the water in the small bath.
I filled the bath back up and another female cardinal showed up to give it her best shot.
Walking on my regular trails is like a whole new walk as the season changes.
It is interesting to me how blue the sky is in the reflection below but the lighting of the shot makes the sky showing through the upright trees look white.
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I know this is a stretch but to an extent skywriting is handwritten.
The pilots hands control the jets and when the jets intersect they form "handwritten" letters across the sky.
The first two shots have a "handwritten" X made by the jets and the last shot has an X and a V.
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I am always surprised at how fast the last trees to change colors drop their leaves.
The first two shots are of the same tree and the shots were taken 3 days apart.
The only trees that still have any leaves left at my house are the three oak trees, and by tomorrow they'll probably all be gone.
I'm beginning with my oaks 6 days ago and moving to yesterday. I have two oaks that are the same kind in my front yard and one that's a different variety.
I should look up what kind they are in my tree book, but I have looked them up so many times and always forget.
When I went outside today almost all the remaining leaves have dropped from the oaks.
I don't know what kind of trees the ones below are. They line the outlet street in my neighborhood and the canopy is bare bones now.
Walking on a trail near my house I noticed how it's starting to look more and more like winter.
Today we had spring like weather but 5 or 6 days ago I took a bunch of shots of how ice formed on the fallen leaves.
The male cardinal below looks so much bigger than he was on a warm day because he was puffed out to help with the cold. It reminds me of how we put on heavy jackets but his coat is built in.
Next is a female cardinal who looked like she was trying to decide whether to get wet or not.
On a warmer day I got a lot of shots of the birds having fun in the bath. Below is a rufous-sided towhee.
When the bluejays showed up for a bath, most of the other birds scattered.
The pair below look like love birds but actually they were chasing each other right after I took the shot.
When the bluejays get into the smaller bird bath I have to put in fresh water because they soak up and splash out most of the water.
Happy Thanksgiving on Thursday to those who celebrate it. Click here for the home of Nature Notes.
I'm looking back to March of 2011 for flowers to post. We've had a hard freeze and I haven't shot any flowers this week but have lots of flower shots in my archives that I never used so I'll probably be doing this a lot this winter.
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I have a zillion photographs that would work for the wet-rain theme. I decided to go with a variety of shots I have taken during 2011.
The first shot is of freezing rain on my deck in January and for contrast the second shot is warm rain on my deck at the end of the summer.
Next is a wet spring shot of the kolwitizia on my deck wall.
Another spring shot is of the rain on my hostas.
Next are some wet shots I took in the West Virginia mountains at the end of spring.
The rain drops left on the windshield below show that it was raining although not hard, since the road wasn't wet, unlike the shot above with the big puddle.
When we were in Blowing Rock, NC in October it was sunny, except for the day we drove home.
I rolled down the windows to get the shot above and below in the foothills.
The next shot was one I took when we were leaving the mountains. I managed to shoot fast enough through the front window to miss getting the wiper blade in the picture.
The last two shots were taken at my house this fall when it was raining. It is actually raining now and almost all the leaves have dropped off the trees but I have so many shots for this post, I'm not going to go outside with an umbrella to shoot the wet end of fall.
The bittersweet berries below are holding on to the raindrops.
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