Tuesday, November 11, 2014

In the woods


On Friday I took my camera into the woods to try to capture some of the beautiful colors and light.

The red maples deep in the woods were still primarily green, but with the dappled sunlight and some of the trees turning yellow the whole effect was of shimmering green and gold punctuated with splashes of color.


I was impressed by how open the woods have become now that the trees have gotten bigger.

The hickories and the sorrel trees had turned and were beautiful.

This is the second year running that I've noticed the hickories turn gold. Before
last year I thought these swamp hickories didn't color like their upland cousins.


White oak with hickory


Due to the shade these sorrel trees turn soft shades
of yellow and pink rather than their trademark crimson.






Last year I discovered these sorrel trees along a path that runs parallel to the shelter paddock (a few hundred feet away) near the property line. Before that I didn't know that sorrel trees grow and thrive in the floodplain. I still don't have that perfect beautiful Christmas tree-shaped sorrel tree with the flawless crimson fall color set off by the pale seed bracts (my sorrel trees in sun by the drive tend to drop most of their leaves early, and this year a couple were infested by bagworms), but I have all of these. I love their soft shifting colors. I feel rich now that I know they are there in the woods.



15 comments:

  1. What a lovely walk through your woods. Thank you!

    Enjoy your week ~ FlowerLady

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  2. Some lovely woods. Must be a pleasure to walk among these trees. Love the white oak.

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  3. You captured the woods quite beautifully! We don't have these type of woods here in Southern California and it was nice to see yours on your blog. I loved the sparkling light in your photos!
    Warm regards,
    Christina

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  4. The changing foliage are such a beautiful accompaniment to the colder weather. I've been in the look-out for colored foliage here. We don't have anything akin to yours but we usually get a few touches; however, there's remarkably less this year - it's still too warm I guess.

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  5. I don't think the fall color was as brilliant this year, at least not in Alabama. Your photos are great!

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  6. Wow - these are jaw-droppingly beautiful photos. It looks so tranquil. I just had to google bagworms - I haven't met one before!

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  7. Gorgeous photos. Our leaves are all gone now so I enjoyed getting a second glimpse at your fall colour.

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  8. I love the colours of the turning trees.

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  9. Last fall I found a lake ringed with what we call sourwoods, which I think are your sorrels. I only recall a few occasions of coming across this tree in the wild, but this lake in WIlliamsburg had them in spades. They were the reddest trees I have ever seen.

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  10. I like the soft pink blush of your sorrel trees! The woods are a magical place to be in fall, and your views are lovely.

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  11. Just beautiful! I've never heard of sorrel trees.

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  12. I think it's beautiful when someone has a chance to go for a walk to the woods. Although, some people have such chance and never use it. Trees are fascinating any time of the year! Love your pictures!

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  13. You ARE rich indeed SB with all that beautiful nature that surrounds you ~ these wonderful woods part of that. You don't see woods like these out west. I miss that. We have aspen stands and evergreens but not all those hardwoods. Beautiful photos. Are you getting any of this polar vortex?? You probably heard it was below zero here. Went from 70's to minus 14 almost overnight. Professional gardeners are talking about what kind of damage that might have done to our shrubs, plants and trees. ugh.

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    1. Kathleen we have gotten a small effect of the polar vortex -- a night in the upper teens and a couple of days in the 30s. Certainly nothing like western NY. I can't even really imagine that many feet of snow. I'm not used to the cold though and it felt really frigid! lol

      70 to minus 14 -- that's the biggest swing I have ever heard of. 35 to 45 degree swings are common here but not anything like that. Plus, the sap hadn't even gone down in the woody plants yet. That's really unfortunate.

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  14. Lovely to see the beautiful colors of fall once again! All the leaves have dropped here, and it has gone straight into winter. I guess I shouldn't complain, because we had a beautiful autumn, too.

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