debutante in pink

[OT from cottage renovations]

Sarah Steel's pink amaryllis is in bloom, and I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to take its portrait, for which occasion it came outside into the beautiful May afternoon. 

(click through these thumbnails for higher resolution images)

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Grove Avenue

pink amaryllis

these images don't adequately capture the blooms, but I do hope they convey a general impression. 

fringe tree

[OT from cottage renovations]

the fringe tree in front of the Town Hall is in bloom, its delicate streamers all dancing in even the slightest breeze and catching light in an entirely beguiling way.  several seedlings of the same species were placed in the Circle a few weeks ago.  they have been doing quite well but it's going to take quite some time for them to attain the stature of this one. 

(click through this thumbnail for higher resolution image)

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M^cCathran Hall

fringe tree (chionanthus virginicus)

abotany: change

[OT from cottage renovations]

it was pointed out by our visiting botanist-in-exile that the yellow star grass is blooming in Morgan Park.  it does not occur anywhere else in the Grove. 

(click through these thumbnails for higher resolution images)

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Morgan Park

yellow star grass

several years ago the Town decided to close up the open woods along our southern border.  this was done by a simple change to our management practices: the curtailment of mowing in order to allow a hedgerow to form.  it has done just that, and now features plenty of wild multiflora rose, honeysuckle and other opportunistic species. 

the idea was to set up a buffer zone to insulate the Grove from the street traffic and the railway.  though I am as xenophobic and arbophilic as any Grover, my own preference was to keep the vista open, as it provided a welcoming prospect along our main entrance and maintained a better historical connection to the railway whose opening brought the Grove into existence.  as the barrier has grown in and fulfilled its purpose I have become accustomed to it in a grudging sort of way.  I hadn't realised that as it has expanded the yellow star grass has been retreating as its habitat has dimished, and it may not survive the transformation. 

one generally associates habitat loss with the sort of change inflicted by developers and large earthmoving equipment.  it can also happen on a smaller scale and as an unintended consequence. 

seldom scene

[OT to cottage renovations]

this is something I don't get to see very often.  when the tulip poplars are blooming their flowers are usually tens of feet overhead; by the time they fall down the blossoms are generally spent and decay quickly with the first rain into a slippery, slimy sludge. 

(click through this thumbnail for higher resolution image)

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Bittersweet Cottage

tulip poplar

this flower is on a branch overhanging part of the cottage roof, where I had gone in order to clear off excess oak tree deposits with a leaf blower. 

Mimi's porch

[OT to cottage renovations]
[cross posted to doorwindowwall]

seven avenues (walkways) radiate from the Circle; this cottage is located at the other end of 1^st Avenue.  it also appears in the entry for 12 February 2006 and in a loose gallery image from 13 July 2005. 

(click through this thumbnail for higher resolution image)

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1^st Avenue

Mimi's porch

afternoon porch shadow

[cross posted to doorwindowwall]

late afternoon sun casts wicker shadows onto the W wall. 

(click through this thumbnail for higher resolution image)

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Bittersweet Cottage

porch shadow