October Tapestry

Hello! It's cooler today...and grey.

I went to the salt marsh park, looking for evidence of bittersweet, to cut for a door wreath,
[photo via pinterest]

....to fill my crocks and bowls with color.

 I don't cut the bittersweet at the park, of course...but it gives me a hint when it will be the right day to trudge into the scary road verge [ticks! poison ivy!] on my yearly hike.

''A tangerine and russet cascade of kaleidoscopic leaves, creates a tapestry of autumn magic upon the emerald carpet of fading summer.''

Judith A. Lindberg
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                               

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Below, last three pix: this is where the little wooden bridge and grassy path lead...out into the marsh, so we can see it close up, see the ospreys' nest and salt ponds which attract geese and ducks and egrets [but not today].

 

 

 

click to enlarge/ see slide show, please....

love

lizzy

gone to the beach

 

 

 

 

Random Walks

Hi! From the comments it seems we ALL love foggy beach days!
Including me, but the recent threats of thunderstorms along with the foggy days have kept me from walking far down the beach. One of the most dangerous spots in a thunderstorm is supposed to be the beach, although I have to say I never actually heard of anyone being hit by lightning on the beach here? You can see there is nowhere to shelter or hide...

So one blustery grey day I went back to the bird sanctuary to check on the turtles and ospreys....

No turtle eggs, or baby turtles at the park. On my beach I did see these distincitve zipper-like tracks, which implies there's turtles here somewhere, if hidden...
click to enlarge

 

Word is they have gone upscale and live in massive numbers in the sand traps of the golf course! The golfers call them snapping turtles...I am not sure what they are, but I'd hate to get ''snapped''....

The ospreys are busy!

They search these hidden pools of water for small fish to feed their ravenous babies.

So anyway that day was windy but clear...and all of a sudden, as I was hiking the trails, the fog rolled in. Fast!

And I got lost. Hard to imagine. This is a small park, in the sense that it is just maybe a quarter mile of roadfront. But it extends way out into the marsh. And I was, well, scared?...Suddenly could see nothing familiar. I had taken the wet trail way north into the bog.

Everything looks so different in the park since all the trees are down from the hurricane. It is still very brown, too, salt and wind damage.....

There I was, lost, a mile from home!

Of course not really and despite all the conflicting signs, arrows pointing every which way, all saying [so useful] Trail...why not, um, Parking Lot?---- I found my back to the car.

 

 

 

The worst part was that the fog had prefaced the arrival of a spring thunderstorm.

 

Weather Bug had let me down, no warnings online...and my kids were watching the TV reports with dire red warning banners and worrying! But all was well...

Next time I'll leave a trail of....?

love

lizzy

.............. gone the beach

 

 

 

 

 

Salt Meadow Prairie

Hi! I hope everyone's having a wonderful weekend!

A few days before H. Irene arrived I made a special trip to the marshside bird sanctuary, knowing the  marsh might be destroyed or damaged by the storm. (no.)

The prairie garden was beautiful, in full late summer bloom. An almost medieval tapestry of flowers, so dense and rich and colorful....

I love seeing this oddly out-of-place meadow grow each year. It includes drifts of tallgrass prairie grasses not native to my sandbar island...[the marsh is beyond the trees...]

Someone, no idea who---decided that this area should have a Midwestern grasses and wild flowers landscape.

Ecologically incorrect but so charming. Notice the diversity! Bachelor Buttons, coreopsis, black-eyed susan, pink coneflowers, queen anne's lace, Californai poppies..and more!

...and it speaks to my prairie childhood...

A thunderstorm loomed the entire time...

And lightning flashed far away over the  mainland...

The marsh itself was quiet but the osprey family was still there in its nest. At least two adults and I think three young ones, almost grown but still home with Mama.

One of the big ospreys noticed me, standing alone on the berm perhaps a half mile or more away [their eyesight must be amazing...] and he came for a look at the human intruder. Maybe a little closer-up and personal than I really want to see an osprey!

The marsh survived the various storms, as always.

And the ospreys disappeared ahead of the coming tropical winds. The grass is slowly turning amber....

...autumn awaits.

love


                 lizzy


gone to the beach