Cool Morning

Here is a photo of our first sunrise over snow for the season. I hear there is no snow just a few km east and west of our place so we were the lucky ones I guess.



It was a cool - 8 C (+ 18 F) this morning so I took all my morning photos inside. Below is a close up of one of the Geraniums that we brought inside a couple of weeks ago.



And following is a photo of down on a feather that we found outside quite some time ago that was catching the morning sun in the window in an interesting way.



One last photo...just look what happened when Églantine held a small bottle up to the sun and the camera in her other hand!

First Snow ! ! !

Early this morning there were snowflakes in the air. Later in the day the flakes started to get larger.



The photo above was taken at 1:15 in the afternoon and the photo below was taken at 3:45 in the afternoon. It's too soon to get out the cross-country skis but it sure is great to see snow again!

Rainy Days

OK, we've just been through two rainy days with temperatures going up and down and up and down and there are flurries in the forecast for tonight. Who knows what will will happen? Here was the picture from our library room window this morning.



The tree with the yellow needles is a European Larch (Larix decidua) which often goes erroneously under the name of Tamarack. The Tamarack is the native larch (Larix laricina). The two species look quite similar from a distance. One needs to check the cones to make sure. Below is a slightly closer look, still through our rain covered window.



The larches below are on the next propety to the south. Chances are that they too are the European variety as L. decidua grows wild in our area.



Here is a closer look at the needles of a young tree on our property.



All of the larches loose their needles in the fall and grow new ones in the spring. They also have cones so they are conifers. There are at least 5 other larches in Canada in addition to the two mentioned above.

From Small to Tall

Here are some fungi that we found under a tree on our property.



Here is a White Pine tree that is growing on the grounds of the Glenhyrst Art Gallery in Brantford.



Not far from the fungi was a milkweed pod that had lost all of its seeds. Inside the pod it looked like this:



Here is another view of the pines at Glenhyrst.

November 12 Views

We had an amazing November 12 day yesterday. It was much warmer than a usual November day and sunny for an additional treat. While out walking Églantine photographed a fungus and strawberry leaf.




At long last, I got around to digging the rest of the potatoes out of the garden.




I planted three short rows of potatoes in the spring, hoed them about once during the summer and in general ignored them and let them be surrounded by weeds and still I dug up over 34 kg (75 lbs) of potatoes. That does not count the potatoes that we have been digging since late August for the occasional meal.




While I was digging potatoes, Églantine was taking photos including this great one of a Chickadee on one of our Sunflower plants!


While supper was cooking I looked outside and noticed the late afternoon sun lighting up one of our tall garden grasses.




The sun was setting so I walked to the edge of the yard and got this photo.




And with the wide angle lens of the camera, this is what I saw.




Not being one to leave something beautiful alone, I played with the image with Photoshop and got this result.