Art from Nature

The dog and I took long walks every day through the summer, continuing the routine that had been set in place over the pandemic isolation. We missed our companion, but being outdoors helped me to breathe deeply, pray and enjoy the beauty of God’s creation. It was a restorative time to appreciate the beauty around me in everyday living things.

On towards Fall I began to notice the ash trees dropping their purple and maroon leaflets. They are one of the first trees of the forest to turn color and lose their leaves. A particular sprig on the ground caught my eye and I picked it up. I kept seeing these same colors in the scattered leaflets as we walked along and I collected a handful to bring home.

I chose to arrange them in a spiral in the garden. It lasted for a little while before the breeze blew the leaves into disarray.

Later in the Fall I made other collections: of birch leaves, acorn caps and beech leaves. I love that for me the process of ephemeral art is the main thing. The end product may be lovely but it is fleeting.

clump birch #1

clump birch #2

acorn caps with sugar maple leaves

after the wind came along

beech leaves

If you are interested, you can see one of my other feeble attempts at ephemeral art here. There are any number of talented artists out there who do amazing things with whatever they find at hand. One who inspires me is James Brunt. Check out his work.

Snow leaves

Yesterday we had our second snow of the season. It’s not unusual for us to have snow this early in the season (which we did on October 30 – 2.5 inches of heavy, wet, winter-wonderland snow) but it doesn’t usually stick around very long. Lower elevations managed to melt all of the October snow. We, however still had a good cover on the ground since it’s been so cold.

Our second snow came down on and off all day, totaling about two inches. That’s not all that much, but add in the below freezing temps and 50 mph gusts and it was a pretty chilly winter day! Still, during a lull in the storm we went out for our regular walk. The road on the leeward side of our mountain was fairly free of snow, it having either melted or blown off. But I was intrigued with the leaves along the edges.

On top of the leaves that lay in the road were little piles of snow in the exact leaf shape. There were quaking aspen, large-toothed aspen, red maple, sugar maple, beech, and red oak shaped piles, with stems sticking out. In some cases the stems were also piled with snow making them look like scattered mushrooms.

red maple

sugar maple

large-toothed aspen

beech

beech leaf cluster

quaking aspen

mushrooms?

red oak

red oak

It made me wonder why these shapes were there. Was it because the radiant energy in the road was blocked by the leaves and so allowed the snow to stay while all around it melted? Was it because the road was wetter than the leaves and caused the melting? Was it all of the above or something else? In any event, this phenomenon made my walk so very interesting and enjoyable.

Ephemeral Art

Have you ever been to the beach and found shells arranged on the sand? Or rock cairns erected in the middle of a stream? Or sculptures of sticks and other found materials? Ephemeral means “lasting for a very short time”. Waves will wash the shells away, rock cairns will succumb to water flow and gravity, wind will disrupt sculptures.

Red Maple, White Birch, Quaking Aspen

We have lost most of the leaves from the trees here in Vermont by now but there are still some that are spectacular. I picked all of these off the ground on our walk today. I had trouble keeping the arrangement set long enough to take a photo because of the wind but here is my attempt at ephemeral art.

A New Year – 2019

Recently the calendar turned the page to a new year.  In many ways it seemed like just another day, nothing changed or different, same old same old.  But the New Year is a significant milestone in the passage of time and hence we treat it with celebration and contemplation.  I’m not one to make resolutions so you won’t find those here but it is a fun exercise sometimes to look back to see where you’ve been and look forward with intent to where you want to go.

Looking back, I can see where God has been faithfully keeping His promises over the years.  On the morning of the first day of 2019 I was vividly reminded of His promise to Noah in Genesis 9:8-17.  It was a covenant with all living creatures, to never again destroy all life through a flood of water.  Every time we see a rainbow, it is a reminder of God’s covenant and promise.

The Hole-punch Fairy ?

It’s Autumn in Vermont.  And it’s as lovely as always, definitely one of the “good color”  years.  It’s a bit later and a bit rainy, but still spectacular.

On a camping trip recently we noticed that some of the maple leaves were dry and brown.  Upon closer inspection we saw that the leaves had some dry brown patches and almost perfectly round holes in them.  The dry patches  looked like leaf miners to me.  But what made those round holes?

A little research turned up this article about the maple leaf miner.  It seems the larvae munch for a while, then make a “mobile home” for themselves in between the top and the bottom surfaces of the leaf, eat around themselves in a circle, and drop to the ground in their little home to over winter on the ground, leaving behind a nearly perfectly round hole in the leaf.

One of the leaf miner “mobile homes” before it heads to the ground

The pests don’t hurt the tree very much because of how late in the season they damage the leaves.  By August, when the leaf miner is active, the trees have made enough sugar for the season and the leaves are getting ready to turn and fall.  But it’s an interesting phenomenon in any event.  Apparently there are local infestations that periodically occur and may be active for several years in a row.  They eventually disappear.

Fun Guys

It seems with all the rain we’ve had lately, mushrooms are sprouting up everywhere.  They take so many different forms.

There are some that look like pancakes,

and some that look like turkey tails.

There are some that look like coral

and some that look like cauliflower

or toasted marshmallows.

Some are bright red

and some milky white.

There are even some that look like bunny ears

or popped balloons.

Some are basketball sized

and some are the size of a marble.

Yet they are all very delicate and wonderful.  There are thousands of different kinds: such beauty and diversity from our creative God.

More tiny things

Recently we visited with friends in their mountain cabin.  Along with meals and games of Wizard we enjoyed sweet together time sitting around their little pond, watching a family of black ducks, throwing a stick for our dog and chatting about life.  It’s a lovely spot and we marveled at the tall trees and gentle breeze from the bench along the shore.  There was a turtle swimming around, his head poking up out of the water now and then, and gentle ripples making interesting reflections on the surface.

A walk along the edge found us noticing some little things too.  This little green frog let me get close enough to snap a picture before he jumped away.

We saw empty shells of crayfish, clearly a meal for a blue heron.  We wondered if we’d see any live ones and found this tiny little guy being stalked by sunnies in the shallows.  He was pretty smart to keep backing up to where the fish couldn’t swim.  I hope he survives to get big.

And along the bank we noticed some beautiful tiny roundleaf sundews, a special treat.

Did you know…

Did you know that Monarch butterfly caterpillars are not the only ones to eat milkweed leaves?  This was news to me.

Every Autumn for many years I have searched milkweed plants along the road for monarch butterfly eggs and caterpillars.  On many occasions I have had the privilege to watch them hatch, eat, grow, make a chrysalis, and emerge as a beautiful butterfly.  The only caterpillars I’ve ever seen on milkweed were monarchs.  Today was different.

On my walk this afternoon I found some milkweed plants with munched leaves and saw a different species underneath one of the leaves.  A little research turned up three other caterpillars that eat milkweed, one of which is the milkweed tussock moth.  It’s beautiful and exotic looking, isn’t it?  Have you ever seen one of these?

A Tiny Visitor

I’ve been trying to figure out why my blog keeps languishing.  I am generally not someone who has a lot to say so that’s part of the issue.  I also struggle with the technical aspects of posting, but I think the crux of the matter is that I have stopped sharing the natural beauty that I find in the world around me.  I haven’t stopped seeing things that amaze me, nor have I stopped taking photos.  I’ve just stopped taking the time to write about them.  So, in the interest of trying to be more intentional I want to share what I found in the yard today.

I’ve been trying to weed our extensive gardens by pulling at least a bucket of weeds each day.  This afternoon I found this little fella on the leaf of a big old weed I was about to dig up.  I didn’t have my phone with me so I had to catch him and run to the house so I’d be able to figure out what kind he was.  He posed beautifully on the bloodroot leaves and was very patient while I snapped away.  He was very small, about 1/2″ from nose to tail but I’m pretty sure he was a young common gray tree frog.  Normal adults are bigger and they can range from green to gray, depending on their surroundings.  This one was on a green leaf so he was quite green.

So often we hear tree frogs but never get to see them.  How exciting to find this one today!

Eshqua Bog

Eshqua Bog, Woodstock, Vermont

On Tuesday some friends and I had the opportunity to visit a nearby fen, the Eshqua Bog in Woodstock, Vermont. It is located a ways out of the lovely little town in a secluded wooded spot on a narrow dirt road. We went to see the showy lady’s slippers that were in bloom and we were not disappointed. Since I have never seen more than one plant in bloom at one time, I was overwhelmed to see so many in one place. There are a number of orchids growing here, including the white bog orchis, green bog orchis, yellow lady’s slipper, and hundreds of showy lady’s slippers that bloom in early summer.

showy lady’s slipper

We saw sundews and blooming pitcher plants as well, and it was a perfect day.

showy lady’s slippers

showy lady’s slippers