The Quiet…
It happens so quickly, the quiet. The road has gone nearly silent with the exception of a screeching blue jay flying off with an acorn or the gentle tweet of the chickadees. I did flush a grouse out of the underbrush as I walked by, the crunch of gravel and leaves under my feet. The flowers are done with a few asters and clover blooms holding out, loaded with bees or wasps, but they seem quiet as well. Summer has faded away.
Along the road the leaves are starting to change as well. The wild clematis seeds fill the bushes like pom pom decorations, the milkweed seeds are starting to escape as well! I tried to capture a few being blown by the wind, unsuccessfully, but it was beautiful to watch as they were backlit by the sun, just too slow! Ha! The Sumacs are bright red as well as the Virginia Creeper. Such colour, but it’s that quiet.
A few mushrooms still dot the dead and downed trees along the road. One of the mushroom groups looked like marshmallows, it was soft and fresh, some kind of bracket fungi. One I had to walk over and touch, it didn’t look real. A golden coloured chalice on the side of a tree! A lone Shaggy Mane, aka Ink Cap, popped up in the lawn as well. They are quite edible but need to be picked young and eaten quickly. The gills beneath the cap are white, then pink, then turn black and deliquesce (‘melt’) into a black liquid filled with spores (hence the “ink cap” name).This mushroom is unusual because it will turn black and dissolve itself in a matter of hours after being picked or depositing spores. It keeps very badly because of the autodigestion of its gills and cap!
The insects are very interested in the fungi, especially the new soft pillowy ones, I saw ants and spiders and all kinds of unidentified bugs! On one branch I stopped and looked to what the heck it even was…it looked like silver white threads dangling in the breeze, a piece of Gandolf the wizard’s flowing cloak…ha! Nope…Woolly Aphids Genus Prociphilus, they cause the plants they attack to produce galls. The aphids reside and feed within the gall…0_0!
No loons calling on the lake now, have they all headed South? The geese are starting to call as they fly over and a small flock of Sandhill Cranes surprised me, those long legs dangling out behind!
…and of course I have to check on our young swan each walk. Sometimes they are on their little island, sometimes further off in the swamp. Junior was trying out his wings!
Dad put on a display, showing him how it was to be done! Ha!
They pretty much ignore me as I stop and chat to them, and take their picture! It is so amazing we have two sets of Trumpeter swans in walking distance! The other pair came over to say hi after resting on the neighbour’s swim platform all night. I brought them down some corn, which they apparently really liked by the way they were chomping on my hand! I set the cracked corn on the dock before I pulled back a stump! Yum!! Then a preen, and off they went to forage. I wonder when they will move along?
It’s the time of mists now. The warmer lake water, cooler air temperatures. It was 8° the other morning, no frosts yet! I love the mists, the other morning we were socked in, by the afternoon, the colours on the far side of the swamp were bathed in late day light. What a contrast!
Mike and I were up early on the morning of the 30th. We hoped to catch Comet tsuchinshan-atlas rising with moon. I don’t think it was high enough to see above the horizon, and later, too much light. Not sure if those are satellites to the upper right of the moon or meteors? Three of them, most likely satellites! Argh! More light pollution! Either way, it was a stunning morning!
…and that quiet…not a peep from a bullfrog, wait, I think they have all moved out! Ha! We came home after dark the other night and our lawn and alcove were hopping with these giant frogs! Two American Bullfrogs were frolicking in our alcove with a couple of it’s buddies after the rain! They are maybe moving in the general direction of the wintering sites? We have never had that many out of the water up here! The lawn was alive!
Back to the morning mists, I got side tracked there! Ha! This morning’s view…
A panorama of 4 horizontal shots of the mists this morning. How is it they move with no wind?
Maybe they are the mist fairies, Tuatha Dé Danann are an elvish supernatural race from Irish mythology. Féth fíada, this word is used to describe a kind of mist that ensures that the Tuatha Dé Danann are invisible to the human race. I knew it! Ha!
I’ll leave with a sunburst…there is something so cool about them, those rays. You can do them in computer programs but I find it fun to do when you take the picture:) High Fstop is the way to go: F22 1/250 sec ISO 100 at 24mm. Saludos amigos, I am enjoying the quiet, time to reflect on the Summer, plan for the Winter, and enjoy the Fall! Stay tuned for some Fall colours and more birds! They are coming!!!
