Autumn colors on Wayah Bald, North Carolina. ☙
Image #136 – Autumn Colors
Autumn colors on Wayah Bald, North Carolina. ☙
Image #135 -The Great Smokeys
It is definitely fall here in western North Carolina. The past few nights have brought frost and the arctic blast that is chilling bones in the midwest is on its way to our little corner of the world. This photo was taken two weeks ago up on the Blue Ridge Parkway. No doubt it has already changed significantly. Leaves are falling all around reminding us of the impermanence of life but also its renewal. They lay thick on the forest floor, making a rich mulch for the life that lays beneath the surface, waiting for the light to make its winter passage and return again in the spring. ☙
Image #127 – Violet Toothed Polypore
About three inches in height, these Violet Toothed Polypores are very similar to Turkey Tails but their color, to my eye, is far more appealing. There was about a 2-3 foot stand of them on a fallen log in Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest. ☙
Image #126 – Migration
I had forgotten. Forgotten the melancholy of autumn. A time when everything is on the move and changing. The endless summer days give way to great migrations and the reminder that the only constant is change.
Image #125 – Tango on the Log series, cont.
Tango on the Log — a continuing and fun theme from previous posts. This time in Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest. Note the beautiful new collar from The Kenyan Collection, courtesy of friends Daryl & Craig. ☙
Image #124 – From Little Helmets to Shaggy Manes
Reportedly it has been a bumper-crop-year for mushrooms in western North Carolina. Lucky me! A few days ago I posted Little Helmets, lovely white fungi that are about 2cm in height (about 3/4″). Today I present a 20+cm beauty, a Shaggy Mane (Coprinus comatus) discovered along the road to Wayah Bald. Remarkably these two mushrooms are in the same family (Inky Cap or Coprinus)! But they certainly present differently. The Little Helmets were all clustered together near a woodpile. The Shaggy Mane stood in solitary splendor at a hairpin curve on Wyaha Bald Road. ☙
Image #123 – A bit of autumn
The pace of change is quickening. Colors are intensifying … autumn has taken hold. ☙
Image #122 – Wooly caterpillar in autumn sun
Sorry, I can’t recall the name of this fellow. I do recall he bites and it can be painful. We, my friend Boni and I, found him on a leaf in the pen where Buddy lives. He was remarkably fast and I was lucky to get a half-way decent shot of him. ☙
Image #120 – Little Helmets being born …
Yesterday’s post, Little Helmets, showed the mature mushroom. Here you can see them being born, the “petals” unfolding in the afternoon sun. ☙
Alice's WanderLand 