Image #51 – Another Chanterelle

Another shot of the Blue Chanterelle, nestled in the moss and decaying oak leaves.☙

July 19, 2013 0

Image #50 – Blue Chanterelle mushroom

Okay, I’m not entirely sure I have identified this mushroom properly but it’s close and don’t you just love that name? Blue Chanterelle … it is evocative of mystery even though a search for chanterelle reveals nothing more than what it is — “an edible mushroom/fungi.” What is remarkable about this mushroom is it’s delicacy and vulnerability. In this case it is growing on a bed of moss in a friend’s yard. As we approached and she revealed it to me I had to re-focus not only my eyes but my brain because to me it was nothing more than a bit of detritus on the moss. You can see the moss clearly, looking like ferns in this tightly focused macro shot. The mushroom was about 2.5 inches high and there were several scattered about the area. So delicate and yet so vibrant. Wonderful to see.☙

July 18, 2013 3

Image #49 – Brown Thrasher

The sun comes up early in Franklin, fifteen minutes earlier than it does in my recent home of Sarasota. I don’t make it a point to see the sunrise unless my bio-rhythms call me out of bed for some reason or if I am in a unique place that almost demands a viewing, like India or the east coast of New Zealand. Yesterday I was awoken in the early twilight of sunrise by an odd, rhythmic clicking sound. It was so regular that it almost seemed like a machine. I was curious, so was the cat. We both pulled ourselves from sleep and went to the window. There was a Brown Thrasher, aggressively “working” the piles of leaves in my backyard, flicking them about and grabbing morsels of insects, grubs and worms that were still slow-moving in the coolness of the early day. Is his clicking (also described as a “smacking”) some kind of sonar? He “worked” my yard for most of the morning. This photo was taken more than three hours later. He seemed very well fed and content. There’s a lot of that on Fawn Hill. ☙

July 17, 2013 0

Image #48 – My View — edited

A rather truncated view of my porch view, thanks to the Nikon 18-200mm lens. The power lines are a giveaway but when you can zoom-in it removes a lot of “unwanted” image. In this case the missing element is the small business that operates just below my home. They manufacture bee-hives and many other things, I’m sure. They also run a survey company and probably did the survey on this land that I now occupy. At night their security light is very obvious and I dream of a Japanese Maple that will help block that light. But it all seems so miniscule in the scheme of things. After all, they make bee-hives and have two stands of hives, each about 10 feet in length. In other words, LOTS of bees. I see the bees as I go about my day and wish I had more to offer them. “Give me another year” I plead. Wasted time and thought. For bees the only time is now. They have this moment and no other. Still, I make my promises.

Yesterday I put up my hummingbird feeder, filled with a nectar that I now feel is too weak. Nevertheless they came, this morning as I was sitting on my porch and enjoying coffee. Two of them sat in the nearby tree for quite a while, conversing in that mysterious way that birds do. They flew away and I assumed that my decade-old hummingbird feeder, the one that never worked in Sarasota, was just too old and faded. But wait! One of them came back and tested each of the feeding ports. After he (?) departed I rushed to get my camera and hoped to post a picture of hummingbird at my feeder. Alas, faithful readers must endure a truncated version of my view. But I am confident that one day soon there will be a hummingbird picture. And, if not, I will share the purple mushrooms that are about 1/4 of an inch and look like coral. This is a marvelous new world I have entered. Alice’s WanderLand goes on … I am such a lucky soul. ☙

July 16, 2013 0

Image #47 – Dinner

There are many wonderful mushrooms here on Fawn Hill. This little guy, and I do mean little — about 1/4 of an inch, is nestled along the side of the driveway that leads up to the home of my friends Boni & Gail. It has found a comfortable spot among the moss and it appears to me that it is about to become dinner for these ants. ☙

July 15, 2013 0

Image #43 – Indian Pipe close-up

Image #41 was a grainy, iPhoto picture of a wonderful cluster of Indian Pipes. I returned the next day and was amazed to find the bloom intact. Even more wonderfully, there were small clusters just beginning to emerge from the forest floor. This photo is a close-up of the plant’s flower, so delicate and bell-like. Being able to photograph this flower is such a treat for me. Watch for more photos. ☙

July 9, 2013 0

Image #42 – These are the voyages of the Starship …

After photographing the Indian Pipes last night I started home and caught sight of a majestic tree fungus/lichen. I snapped a couple of pictures with the iPhone which were adequate but we returned this morning and photographed both the Indian Pipes and fungus/lichen (pictured above) with the Nikon. It was a good session and I will post more in coming days.

This magnificent being is growing on the side of a tree and is stunning in its color against the dark backdrop of the forest. My field guides are still packed in a box, enroute on a moving truck so I can’t begin to tell you what this is but my imagination sees the Starship Enterprise. What about yours?☙

July 8, 2013 0

Image #41 – Indian Pipes

For years I have thumbed through field guides of flowers trying to identify various varieties from the pictures I take. I do this a lot because my facility to remember plant names is terrible. But along the way certain flowers have leapt out at me and among them is the Indian Pipe (Monotropa uniflora). I could never believe it was a flower because to me it looks like a mushroom and the habitat they prefer is not commonly available in South Central Florida so I never had the pleasure of actually seeing one. So I got very excited when my friend Boni said she had seen some on our adjoining properties. And sure enough, tonight on our twilight walk Tango and I found this stand emerging from the humus. They are about 3 inches in height, the flower petal is about an inch. They seem almost ghostly in their color and translucence. This shot was taken with the iPhone in dim light. I’ll return tomorrow with the “big” camera and hope to improve on the image. But just as things go bump in the night things also get eaten by nocturnal critters. Speaking for myself this beauty of a flower looks good enough to eat. ☙

July 7, 2013 2

Image #40 – Shelter from the Storm

Things are moving along at Fawn Hill. There are now two bird feeders up and the birds have definitely found them. They are grateful for a dry place to feed — as this blurry photo through a window shows. There is a wonderful variety of birds here, quite a treat for this Florida gal who is accustomed to cardinals, blue jays, the occasional wren and not much else at her Florida feeder. For years I have known that in Sarasota I was just a bit too far south for the variety of birds that flock to Florida in the winter. The more colorful ones — the finches, orioles, grosbeaks and buntings — stay in the Ocala area. Sarasota does have great water birds and Myakka River State Park always provided a smorgsboard of water fowl.

It has rained here for days. I’ve been told this is a rainforest and my brief — two week — experience would confirm that. When I stand on my front porch I can hear the nearby Potts Branch — a minor tributary of the Little Tennessee River — as it races down from the hills. It provides the name for the road that accesses my house on Fawn Hill. My friend Boni tells me that in times of drought you can use the creek bed as a hiking trail but that certainly is not the case this year. The rushing of the water is somehow soothing, even though I know it is wreaking havoc as it gains momentum and slams into the Little Tennessee. In downtown Franklin there is a 3-4 mile walkway along the Little Tennessee. Tango and I walked a bit of it yesterday and it is significantly higher than it was a week ago.

So much to learn in this new place.☙