[OT from cottage renovations]
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texture]
last week's thunderstorms knocked out electricity to much of the Grove for several days and brought down tree limbs all over the place. branches snapped off at one end with leaves drying at the other provide a spontaneous opportunity for texture studies.
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[OT from cottage renovations]
[crossposed to texture]
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[OT from cottage renovations]
there are several gardens in the Grove that never fail to delight the passerby. when I set off for a walk my path is seldom directed but it has a way of crossing these locations more often than others.
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liking what I see is one thing; knowing what it is is another. I generally try to look up the Latin binomial of any species before posting its image in this space but sometimes my botanical ignorance gets the best of me. it can, however, be trumped by my own impatience on occasion.
when that happens I do try to come back later with a correction so if you can bear with me for a while I'm hoping to get it right at some point.
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[edit: as Bobbie points out it is indeed a fall blooming Anemone: Japanese thimbleweed]
[OT from cottage renovations]
there's only one objective here: getting those seeds spread. even so there seems to be plenty of variance from one cluster to another:
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hold them up high ...
... and wave them around ...
... or let them droop them down;
or hang them out on a stalk ...
... to scatter around
[OT from cottage renovations]
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[OT from cottage renovations]
another image in the continuing irregular Grove cottage porch series.
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[OT from cottage renovations]
[crossposted (image only) to doorwindowwall]
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... but it might have been. this cottage came on the market about a year before this one and I looked at it several times, deciding in the end not to put in an offer. it was a difficult choice. my hesitancy had nothing to do with its location or charm, which it had and has and in abundance. the problem was that I figured I could afford --just barely -- the purchase, but not any of the work it was clearly going to need. structurally it was more than a little intimidating.
so others bought it and I'm glad they did because they are precisely the sort of intelligent and interesting people the Grove is lucky to attract. we're all better off for their presence and participation in the community.
that was on the order of 18 years ago. by now I can't imagine living anywhere other than here on the Circle.
[OT from cottage renovations]
Iris were well represented in last weekend's flower show. here's one that wasn't harvested for exhibition, still in its natural setting.
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[OT from cottage renovations]
one my favourite gardens in Town is Charles and Sylvia's, over across the park. whatever the season it's always worth stopping by because there's always something going on.
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among this afternoon's finds was these double daffodil, one bloom on its way out and the other going strong: both attractive and filled with visual interest.
(this image available for online purchase)
[OT from cottage renovations]
in trying to come up with at least one usable image per day I've been trying to take fewer (and with any luck, if not skill, better) pictures. some days don't go according to plan; yesterday was one of them. by the time I knocked off last night I had uploaded 13 out of what turned out to be 26 images. here are the rest of them.
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over time our playgrounds have been losing their sturdy galvanised slides and swings in favour of trendy plastic crap in the form of oversize gerbil mazes. no doubt in the name of progress they'll eventually get the rest hauled off for scrap though it's interesting to note that two iterations of the modern stuff are already fading and otherwise not holding up whereas the older stuff looks like it's good more or less forever.
it also makes interesting compositions, framing double reflections of bare branch against grey sky.
the ginkgos are budding and it looks completely alien, in a slightly creepy sort of way.
it's easy to get carried away when the Spiraea comes into bloom. these blossoms are tiny. smaller than a quarter, than a quid, than a nickle or a penny or a dime. about the size of a sequin, or of a sprug (a lilliputian coin mentioned in T.H. White's Mistress Masham's Repose).
you can find this tree blooming off Maple Avenue in what's either Woodward Park or the East Woods, I know where it is but can't readily categorise its location. but with blossoms like these who cares about such a minor detail?
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Maple is one of the Circle cats, seen here perched on a stump in Knott Park. she's not the most approachable kitty in the Grove, but a long lens can compensate for her natural feline haughtiness.
[OT from cottage renovations]
an inch or so of snow appeared overnight. usually when it comes things get more stark: white where it has fallen under a leaden grey sky, and everything else seems to slide over into the darker end of the chromatic range.
after a while, though, if things clear up the contrast takes a different form: light on the ground against a deepness of blue above. today was that kind of day. I took the opportunity to go out and reshoot some images that had suffered from insufficient snow (not uploaded in this set) but the best part of the show was what was heppening above.
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here the white on the ground is drawn up the trunk of this sycamore while above the treeline the sky continues a progression into deeper blues.
as a cloudbank started to roll in from the West, all white above and grey on its underside, it presented a choice of backgrounds for this oak tree. I decided to go with a little of each.
an obvious consequence of our little cottages nestled under big trees is that our small homes have large trees looming over them. not in a menacing way, but definitely looming.
this time of year, when the leaves are down, it's easier to make out the forms of our trees. photographing them is still a challenge, though, as most are growing in such a density as to cut off good sight lines. they do open up when a tree has had to be taken down.
[OT from cottage renovations]
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this Japanese maple branch, with its long horizontal reach and stunning combination of colours (for me the red/orange/yellow works so well thanks to the black and green of trunk and unturned leaf) dominates the view out the front of the cottage. it can be seen from the front room, from up in the loft, and even from the kitchen and dining room, sighting along the hallway and through the new old windows whose restoration last year made the see-through possible.
this may not be the best week in which to admit that the Circle's tree management includes the constant pulling up of vast numbers of Japanese Maple seedings. not all of them -- the resulting tree is too pretty for that -- but enough to give a better chance to some of the others.
it is completely human to be driven by habit and by laziness. though I do not knowingly neglect any part of the Grove, when out for a walk my steps lead more often to some areas than to others. this leads inevitably to selection bias in the images presented here, against which I do try to make at least some effort.
here's an example of why I think it worthwhile: yesterday afternoon's light passing through leaves of the trees for which Maple Avenue is named.
[OT from cottage renovations]
Easter, Passover and the annual deadline for filing tax returns all come together this weekend.
a bit of rain a couple of days ago and some balmy weather have given great impetus to every growing thing including, alas, garlic mustard. I pulled up a great deal of it in the morning but am under no illusion that the job is done.
the understory trees have already leafed out enough to provide ground level shade.
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the spring beauties are out in such abundance that the ground is literally carpeted with them. it's almost more than a tiny-detail-oriented person can handle.
these magnolias are continuing to put on quite the show. they can be messy trees to be sure, but even in our species great beauties have a reputation for being high maintenance.
these azaleas are already out. if current conditions persist the others in the Grove won't be far behind them.
this dazzling little patch of brillance is along the NE side Railroad Street. the setting isn't much, but there's no need to worry about that when the details are this enticing.
on the S side of the Town Hall these look more like a fancy cake decoration than part of our landscape.
for some reason I find redbud quite difficult to photograph. lighting and composition always seem to be problematic; it's a tree that demands a different approach.
bringing flowers to a lady is appropriate under almost any circumstances. but when they're from her own garden, well, that's often deprecated.
Charles and Sylvia are among my very favourite people in the Grove. they have always kept a stunning garden, in which there's always something lovely in bloom. if one is out for a walk in the Grove it's always interesting to stop by for a look, and if they happen to be out tending it they are always willing to set down tools and visit for a moment.
in early July I had been lurking there, camera in hand, and took this picture of a self-arranging bouquet. the arrangement was quite attractive and didn't require anything to be cut.
Sylvia's 90th birthday was on Tuesday. of course I wasn't organised enough to send off a card in time, though many others in the Grove who were did so. so instead I ran off a full-page print of this digichrome and went over in the afternoon to present it to her. they were both pleased with it and I very much enjoyed visiting with them.
just before leaving I happened to glance at a photo on the wall and was struck by the resemblance of the cottage depicted in it to my own home. the upper front window looks just like the one that had once been here, and the porch wraps deeply around two sides in the same fashion. the only differences are that the roof pitch isn't quite as steep and that the placement of chimney and gable are mirror image to what's here.
you'll probably have to click through to a larger image to make out the details.
the picture is dated 1 April 1924. the cottage no longer exists but once stood on their property.
they were kind enough to allow me to take a picture of the picture. this will be quite useful in working out the details when the time comes to complete the upper front here.
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