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Category Archives: Life at Home
Gray and Overcast
We had a dark, wet weekend. Gray and overcast is not an infrequent forecast in fall. But the prediction does not do justice to the striking color remaining on the forest. Sadly, the foliage season is coming to an end. Click on the image for a larger view.
Fall Color
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Fruit of the Forest
While not exactly edible, the falling foliage is the fruit of our forest. In the summer, it gives the gift of shade, in the fall, the gift of color. It then protects and feeds the ground. I am not sure of the fungus, yet another kind of fruit, but the green is a wilting lily of the valley. Click on the image for a larger view.
Celebrating Fall
Fall 2016
The weather was a wet and overcast this weekend. Fairly typical for early fall. The photograph is of a red maple sapling in our field, which is trading its green for the rustic colors of fall. Click on the image for a larger view.
Grape Harvest
We harvested the last of this year’s grapes yesterday—three large bowls of fruit. We had been enjoying our grapes for the last three weeks. But with evening temperatures dropping, it was time to finish. These are entirely organic, no pesticides are used to protect them. We lose a few fruit to insects, more to birds, but plenty are left for us. Click on the image for a larger view.
High Pressure
On Sunday, a high pressure front moved in. It drove out the humid air and filled the forest with wind. Click on the image for a larger view.
Small Cranberry
Small cranberry, Vaccinium oxycoccos, can be found in peat or acidic soils, which gives it its other common name, bog cranberry. This is one of the first plants to colonize burnt bogland and native Americans would burn bogs to stimulate its growth. Like the cultivated cranberry, these are tart. Naturally, this fruit is sought after by wildlife. This plant is on Little Moose Island at the tip of Schoodic peninsular in Acadia National Park. Click on the image for a larger view.
Harvest 2016
August always takes us by surprise. The glut of food is wonderful, but adds more time than we anticipate on top of our other tasks—we spend a couple of hours in the evening just keeping up with the ripening blackberries. It is not something we can exactly put off. Still, once outside, the act of gathering this fruit becomes its own meditation. That other hectic life at the office dissipates and is replaced by the cycles of the planet. This symbiosis, which is, at one level, indifferent and, at another, dependent, is a great performance we all part of. Click on the image for a larger view.
