Oh, No! There are small trees here people call choke cherries. I cut down a few small ones and now there are five little ones coming up all around the stump. Same with the lilacs.
and pick y'all up. I think we should all get together on one of those porches in the pictures for coffee
and a good chat. Besides the coffee, we'll need apple crisp
. How about some brandied pears
and/or peaches
, too?
I just click twice on the image
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As an old California landscape photographer, I've done plenty of fall leaf photography across the state. Most state urban residents don't consider fall here to have anything interesting in natural areas because few visit locations outside summer, where deciduous trees do have good leaf changing colors.
The above is downsized for web 2016 subject I worked while on a 5 day backpack on September 10, 2016 , with the full image 6000x4000 pixels, a single frame, 8 shot focus stack blend with my Sony a6000 and Sigma 60mm. These are the first two native species that change color and are just turf height. There are several other tree species like aspens that tend to peak in October. Note, that is melting frost on some leaves as it was a frosty morning at about 11.5k elevation and on one blustery day had a dusting of snow.
From the camera's, back lit position, the translucent leaves are more colorfully saturated. I carry a small blue plastic tarp scrap to lie atop to get low to the ground in such wet conditions. I love getting close up to nature, where there is much beauty if one patiently takes time to look closely while moving about slightly for best light.
Uncertain if I will bother driving the 250 miles east to work anything this autumn, as I have an abundance of strong work, am more currently involved in music, and hate the long drive. So any trips would be more about enjoying the experiences than capturing more strong work.
Text from my website:
Dwarf bilberry, vaccinium caespitosum, is widespread in the Sierra above about 8500 feet and is most common between about 9500 and 11500 feet. In fact the bilberry is widespread across alpine areas across much of North America especially far to the north. For most of summer bilberry is short, green leaved, and inconspicuous at turf height most often growing together with grasses and mosses on the periphery of wet meadows, ponds, and streams.
The plant branches out over or slightly below surfaces of turf with rhizomes. Most high country visitors are likely to take little notice of the nature of turf plants other than they appear to be a complex of several leaf shapes and are green at boot height. The bilberry tiny white to pink bell shaped flowers occur early summer and are barely noticeable. However by mid August with the completion of the growth cycle, the green chlorophyll in its leaves begins to disappear leaving reds, oranges, and purples. The easiest place to view the plant during this color period for those road side bound, is on Labor Day at Tioga Pass around the Tioga Tarns that is just below 10,000 feet.
In the image above, the red leaves are bilberry while the yellow to green leaves is another common species in our alpine turf, arctic willow, salix arctica. The willow tends to occur in smaller patches than the bilberry often against boulders, and can also add an aesthetic yellow to orange color element in September. This willow species is unusual in not being of a bush form but rather like the bilberry is short and inconspicuous at turf height with spreading twig sized woody stems. Arctic willow is also widespread across alpine areas of North America.
Below is a 100% pixels crop showing the full detail. So now you see the frost quickly melting in early alpine sunlight.
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