New England Fall

View through the patio arch

I have always loved Fall. Boise's fall was especially nice in the early 2000's,  because it was not-to-warm, and often extended until Thanksgiving. I remember having a couple of roses from our yard on the table one Thanksgiving. The colors were fine, too. The native trees color yellow with a little bit of orange for the most part, but Boise has a lot of trees that have been planted that sport lovely fall reds as well.

All of this fades in comparison to the colors everywhere here in Maine. The reds are particularly vibrant, with some almost dark pink, and they are everywhere. It's hard to find a bit of forest that isn't splashed with color. The mix of conifers and deciduous trees often results in a riot of color against a dark green background. 

Ethereal.

The bedroom window in October

I wake up to the image on the right. It won't last, of course, but I've come to appreciate the ephermerality of it as much as the actual color. In a couple of months, there will be only the dark forms of the tree trunks and branches. And then they'll be covered with snow. Seasons. I can't imagine living without them.

We've been bat-spotting at dusk a few times. Our bedroom deck has the fire table on it, with chaises on either side, and it makes for perfect bat watching. These are not the flying foxes of Australia, with their 3 foot wingspans, but our smaller Eastern bats. Two bats dive and swerve and come together and dart apart. Dusk is early these days, too. 6:30 or so. I told a friend recently in an email that the trade off of the cooler days and nights is a fair one for the extended heat of the Idaho summer.

Dark pink with birches

We had a waxing moon coming through the trees the other night. The iPhone camera can't see what the human eye sees, but it still saw something worth looking at. I also tried to get the shadow of the branches on the deck, but that's lost on the iPhone, too. I expect it's failure to see those is similar to what it can't see in dappled shade. So, as always, I took a picture in my mind. Only time will tell how many of those I'll be able to access as time moves on.

A rising moon with clouds

We leave for our trip to the Maritimes tomorrow, so I won't likely be posting here for the next two weeks. Be safe, stay well, and keep on paying attention.

Nature's composition, 2