Fall is my favorite time of year. The sunrises can be amazing (and I'm awake to see them!), the weather is cooler, the late harvest is coming fast and furious, and the foliage is breathtaking. I think I like the intensity of the fall colors better than the pretty pastels of spring. Most of the spectacular colors around here are in planted landscaping (or the nurseries that are growing the landscaping plants); so many things grow well in the Willamette Valley.
I also have to include a photo of this bush I saw with a different kind of fall color. I think the blue flowers and the yellowish foliage are a striking combination. I wonder what it is and if the meadow rats would eat it?*BEEP*BEEP*BEEP* We interrupt our regularly scheduled post with sightings of unusual objects. First, yesterday afternoon I spotted a small snake on the driveway. It's definitely not snake weather, snakes being cold-blooded creatures and all, but there it was. I prodded it with my toe to encourage it to move off the driveway and out of harm's way. At first it didn't respond; I figured it was cold. Then it coiled up and rattled/hissed at me! I ran into the house to get my camera while questioning in my mind whether it could possibly be a timber rattler, the only poisonous snake found (very occasionally) this side of the Cascades. No, it did not have rattles, but it sure was acting like it wanted to strike! After taking a few shots from a safe distance, I googled bull snake as well as timber rattlesnake and satisfied myself that the reptile did not need to be dispatched; the bull (gopher) snake could live on to catch mice and other small varmints.
Later, while I was taking pictures of our own colorful leaves (oak and dogwood, above), I was surprised to see this:
One of the rhodies Rick planted this spring has a blossom on it! I have never seen rhodies re-bloom before; what a nice little treat!That's it for now at . . .
6 comments:
Spectacular pictures!!! I like the fall best, too. Same reasons. Didn't like the snake. Last year a cat brought a baby Massasaugua rattler onto our porch. Don't want to see any more of them. I'll let the cats do the rodents.
How I love and miss fall colors (though I did get to see some Aspen groves and cottonwoods, all turning yellow, during my trip). Apparently, around Taos the only thing that turns red is poison oak.
Good for you for leaving the snake be; rodents = germs. Ugh.
I'm sure your reptilian visitor was just warming himself on the nice heat-sink driveway. He'll return the favor by helping to keep your vermin in check until it just gets too cold for him to be out. Then he'll head to Mexico for a vacation with his cousins somewhere on the beach. lol
We're having fall colors around here too, but they are fast turning brown as the nights have been VERY cold. If we blink, we'll miss it...
wow. our fall lasts about 12 hours before the 30mph winds and driving rain knock the leaves off :(
I've been doing fall clean ups here...LOTS of leaves. I remember about three years ago we had about 4 solid good weeks of leaf watching. Not so when there is wind involved. Of the native trees only the aspen and the red oak are left (besides the pines) in most places. still very pretty but its getting pretty brown around here! :( SO JEALOUS!!!
All those tree pictures are fantastic. The colors are gorgeous. I think I could have stood looking down that tree lane all day. You should enter that one in a competition.
I just learned that the lovely red shrubs in our yarn that the rabbits didn't elect to eat are sumac, which is a family member of poison oak - so now I love sumac. Weird, after all the summers in San Diego as an itching kid. I love autumn, season of my birthday, and you simply cannot pitch enough pictures to be too many.
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