[OT from cottage renovations]
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itsinthedetails]
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this image is actually from a couple of weeks ago but I hadn't gotten around to putting it in this space.
I'm not quite sure what it was about it that caught my eye, but I found it oddly appealing. your mileage may vary -- that's OK as it's all in the eye of the beholder.
[OT from cottage renovations]
it's never too late.
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[OT from cottage renovations]
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looking through the hole in this leaf there stands behind it a single blade of grass.
these maple leaves are just beginning to turn ...
yet another dogwood leaf. sorry, but nothing can be done about it: with light effects like this I just can't restrain myself.
[OT from cottage renovations]
the sun came out and with a light breeze things started to get just a bit less soggy. extended puttering, more of a mental health measure than anything else, kept me from getting out until the light was somewhat more faded than usual.
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these leaves aren't going to last a great deal longer but they are catching the light and emitting a soft glow that this image doesn't adequately convey.
I'm starting to wonder whether these blossoms have decided to go to a year-round schedule.
is it just me, or don't these two look like hummingbirds? they also resemble an exotic species of fish or a certain aircraft.
October is apple season around here. these are great deal smaller (not to mention less edible to our species) than most but they are participating in full.
this redbud's leaves were following the example of the paw paw up on the Circle.
across the way, looking up one sees an intricate tracery of delicate details with soft lighting and colours high above as a background.
with its jester's crown it's hard to take this rose hip seriously. like the morning glory blossoms above it is also strongly evocative.
[OT from cottage renovations]
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[OT from cottage renovations]
the arrival of pokeweed is celebrated in no garden. when detected by the people in whose yard this hapless specimen can be found its half life will be measurable only in the shortest of increments of time. on a good day the same thing happens whenever I happen to find any of it on Town property.
that doesn't keep me from appreciating for a moment the delicacy of the pattern formed by the shadow cast by its spike onto a lower leaf. after that, well, it's a weed.
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[OT from cottage renovations]
I'm not completely satisfied with these images; they have technical flaws and I really should try for a reshoot if conditions permit. that might not happen, however, and the one aspect that kept me from deleting them was how they show what the green tube is doing with/to/for the light. that's what stopped me in the first place as I was passing by with thoughts fixed more on the previous few and following moments. setting both aside for just a few moments didn't seem all that unreasonable.
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[OT from cottage renovations]
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... blossoms ...
... and leaves
where is the actual point of division between translucence and transparency?
[OT from cottage renovations]
nothing special, just some geraniums in a hanging basket. it was my good fortune to catch them at a moment when the afternoon sunlight was playing through them like this.
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[OT from cottage renovations]
there are lots of ways to play with light. one of which I have not yet tired is through these images the many effects of light on Grove vegetation.
another is one that I've always wanted to get a chance to work with but never have: glass, as in glassmaking. design and execution and the properties of glass have always had a strong appeal to me. some day I do hope to get a chance both to study and to try it (on visiting Venice I was anxious to learn something from the Murano glassworks; they were happy to sell their wares but when I tried asking about technique suddenly it was all "non capisco" (though "vietato" would have been more like it)).
oh, well. some day.
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hanging in friends' yard is this attractive and clever design for a birdbath; a shallow glass dish suspended in a wrought iron frame with a basket handle. it was a couple of years ago when they first put it up, hanging from a tree branch just at the height of my forehead and indeed that was how I first encountered it, with a sudden clonk to the foreskull followed immediately by a drenching from its erstwhile contents. it's now a few inches higher and their yard is that much safer.
[in the interest of reasonable disclosure I have to fess up to having messed with this image some: in order to get both its near and distant rims in reasonable focus what you see here is actually a composite from two different exposures]
[OT from cottage renovations]
these Day lilies are pretty close to happening.
this patch of them (one of more than a few around here) gets plenty of sun and goes to show that the Grove isn't all shade gardening.
much most of it, but not all.
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[OT from cottage renovations]
having lost the annual hummingbird race the least I can do is post an image of the winning feeder and location. the first customers were seen before these azaleas came into bloom; surely that mass of red helps reinforce the attraction.
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[OT from cottage renovations]
this morning the snow returned, making for slippery footing where it fell on remaining ice but also working its magic on the viewscape.
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I'm hoping nobody is in a hurry to get to the Town maintenance shed. it's still there, behind this bamboo thicket which snow and ice have caused to favour the horizontal.
dogwood branches seem to be particularly well suited to catching and holding onto snow; it's stacked up even out to the tips. you might need to click through to the larger image to see the falling snowflakes.
oaks in the background loom out of the snowy sky over the cold stone of Castle McClelland.
(this image available for online purchase)
when one of our cottages gets a makeover in the name of modernisation, more tends to be lost than gained. one is trapped within these outwalls and though I have little regard for slab walls and modern fenestration, if one has to look at the result today's conditions are probably the most suitable. the triangular window glass must be tinted, for it seems to be reflecting back a great deal more blue and they sky had to offer, bringing the one touch of colour to this scene.
[OT from cottage renovations]
these images are from yesterday, but I didn't get around to pulling them out of the camera until this morning.
some friends in the Grove recently replaced the windows in their home. the result, as expected, was more attractive and energy efficient. what I hadn't anticipated was how the new ones in the basement would change the view looking out at ground level. though I had seen it any number of times over the past few years, with refenestration it was as if for the first time.
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[OT from cottage renovations]
as I headed out Friday morning to a difficult and depressing day at the office, it was even harder than usual to leave the Grove with the light so clear and abundant. this instilled in me a wish -- and resolve -- to get out into that light if it were to last into the weekend.
it did, and I spent almost all of Saturday just walking around the Grove, seeing afresh what the light can do for the place and, consequently, what the combination can do for my own spirits.
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the taxonomy of this ornamental species was elusive at best, but I was pleased with the reflection of tree and cottage in its glass marble fruit. the plastic berries and fabric blossoms will be wanting a bit of dusting.
we've already been touched by a couple of frosts so these hydrangea leaves won't be looking like this much longer. but there's plenty of texture, shadow and light here, and that one stalk behind the leaf to the L can be made out both by shadow and by translucence.
this pokeweed stem has already set loose its fruit and seeds. though use depleted for that purpose, it now provides a habitat for the tiny spiders whose webs can be seen against the light streaming across the field and through its structure.
autumnally blooming crocus can be found in a few places around the Grove. these clusters are near the gazebo. others can be found near the Circle, where in a week or two a couple of the azaleas will be following a similarly syncopated cycle.
are these plants out of season, or is it merely the floral embodiment of traditional Grove eccentricism?
there's nothing special about this plant, other than what these leaves did with the light. I didn't need any more provocation than that.
multiflora rose is one of the nastier invasives around -- right up there with bamboo and kudzu. but that doesn't keep me from falling for its shape and form. I really should be firmer about these things.
I don't know this one either, but it sure does a fine job of catching afternoon sweetlight.
it can take a lot of work to keep up with the tendency of Mimosa trees to spread all over the place -- it seems one is forever pulling up seedlings. nonetheless one can admire the luminous quality of the pods from which they disperse.
I was alerted to these by the property owner, who kindly invited me to take these images. getting the right sun angle entailed two trips back: one in the afternoon and another the following morning.
the common name for this plant is American Beautyberry or Beauty Bush; the former brings to mind roses and the Grateful Dead. the berries are wonderfully chromomorphic: lavender in sun and purple in shade.
[OT from cottage renovations]
this time of year the hibiscus and crepe myrtle seem to be the most showy of the many plants in bloom. however pleasing they are to us while out for a walk around the Grove, their true purpose is to attract creatures to bring targeted mobility to their pollen. here's some of it happening:
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that tan background of the first image is the plywood of Castle McClelland.
[OT from cottage renovations]
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the English roses may be nearing the end of this season's run, but they're still providing quite a spectacle in the late afternoon light.
they are doing this individually ...
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... and collectively ...
[OT from cottage renovations]
down on Chestnut Avenue this English rose is blooming with a wild abandon. afternoon sweetlight seems to bring out the best in its flowers so I made a point of being there to try to take advantage of the felicitous combination.
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back at home the same light came streaming through Mrs Carter Emmons' rose bush (previously noted in entry for 13 June 2005). I believe it to be same variety.
[OT from cottage renovations]
while returning from this morning's weekly Post Office trip I learned that this cactus had come into bloom. like the platycerium hanging in the bathroom/conservatory it is from a plant that has been in its owner's family for decades. the morning light proved to be inadequate for portraiture so I went back in the afternoon when conditions were more favourable.
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[OT from cottage renovations]
on the path down to the Lake these seeds were caught in slanting afternoon light. perfectly sculpted for flight, the payload is an entire tree, encapsulated into each seed.
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the last couple of days were spring; today is summer, no doubt about it. and here it is kicking off with vivid autumnal hues.
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