I have a small selection this month. Just one Morning Glory and two pictures of orange maple leaves. Our weather has been unseasonably warm this year. We haven't had temperatures dip below freezing yet and we are at the end of October. It's hard to believe!
I enjoyed seeing this Morning Glory one morning, even though I tend to think of Morning Glories as invasive weeds. The blossom looked up from under the overgrowth, very timid and unassuming, and I was grateful to see it's cheering color. It's delicate petals seemed to say, "I am no threat to you. Please like me."
Our neighbors have a brilliant Sugar Maple tree. It puts on a spectacular display of color every year. I can never get a good picture. I try and try, on different days with different lighting, but it never comes out quite right. These two pictures are the best representation that I could capture.
I hope you are having a good fall! 30 days until Thanksgiving. We can't wait!
There are several sunrises coming up in this month's collection. I cannot get over how beautiful sunrise is! It is so frustrating to look at my screen after taking a picture and see only a fraction of the details showing up in the picture compared to what I can see with my naked eye. You are just going to have to get outside and see some sunrises to understand what I feel.
Our last monarch emerged. I was able to catch it on video.
It was so gorgeous!
"I've got to go! I've got to go to Mexico!"
My neighbor sent me this picture and asked if I wanted it. She knows me. I said, "Yes!"
We look forward to seeing what type of moth it turns into. We used Google lens to identify it as a Polyphemus Moth Caterpillar. They are huge!
Here are my nature photos from November. I don't have many pictures of insects this month. I have very many pictures of Autumn leaf colors. Right before November was over we had a big snow storm and I have some pictures of the snow.
My favorite picture must be the Cypress cones. (I would like confirmation that they are indeed cypress cones. Cypress is not a tree that I have learned how to identify.) I had so much fun with those cones. The pieces of the cone break off and inside are little pockets of amber sap sealed in small cells. When the membrane is broken the perfume is intoxicating. I sat on the ground breaking open sap sacks and smelling them for a good 15 minutes. The scent is so refreshing and head clearing. It's piney and resinous and clean. It reminded me of Frankincense essential oil.
Anyway, here are the pictures. Do you have a favorite?
My camera is not doing justice to these beautiful colors. You had to be there to see it!
I saw this beetle at the park.
This close up picture of a Burning Bush is my second favorite.
My favorite picture.
I have a story to go with this picture: I found this green bug and thinking that our pet jumping spider could eat it I put it in our terrarium.
The spider didn't eat it. Many days later I caught a fly to feed the spider. A few moments after I had put the fly in the terrarium I saw that this green bug had stolen it! I was quite unhappy with this green bug. Do you know how hard I had worked to catch that fly alive for the spider?
After all the pumpkins were processed I had 2 quarts of pumpkin seeds. If I only have a few seeds, I toss them with oil and salt and roast them. With this many seeds the effort of boiling them in salt water is worth the trouble.
Step 1. Boil the seeds for 10 minutes in salt water: 1 TBS. of salt per cup of water.
Step 2. Dry seeds well on a towel.
Step 3 +4.
Toss with a small amount of oil and roast in a single layer at 350° for 20ish minutes stirring a few times.
Allow to cool a few minutes before digging in.
As you can see everyone here has been enjoying the bounty!
My favorite picture in this batch is the frog. Mostly because it was a funny situation. The Comma Butterfly picture is close second favorite. Which picture do like the best from this month? What are your favorite things about this time of year?
Our last Monarch caterpillar went into it's chrysalis. It crawled onto our door jam to make it's transformation.
Metamorphosis!
We took it outside to let it's wings finish drying.
I saw a whole bunch of turkeys during my morning walk this month. I couldn't get very close to take a picture. That is why this picture is grainy. I was surprised to see so many birds!
I was sad to see this snake crushed one morning.
I was amazed to find dozens of these caterpillars crawling down our road one morning. I have no idea where they are going or why they are going together or where they came from, but I took a short video clip to show you.
A lot of mornings I take a picture of sunrise down at the end of our road where it joins the highway. I can tell the sun is working it's way in a southerly direction across the eastern horizon. Sunrise doesn't happen before 6:30 anymore either.
Our resident Garden Spider is getting quite fat!
We acquired a jumping spider this month and are keeping him in a terrarium. Here he is eating a fly.
This is one of the frogs that was hanging out in our RV water tank. I got three of them to jump out when I refilled the tank last time. The stinkers! I had heard them singing down there in their echo-y chamber so I wasn't too surprised to find them blocking the water inlet pipe.
This Comma Butterfly came to sample our watermelon mess. I don't see Comma or Question Mark Butterflies too often. I was glad that I had my camera handy.
Seasons are changing! From the later sunrises to the goldenrod blooming, Autumn is here!
