Long-legged Beasties...

It's Halloween again!  Time to celebrate the creepy, spine-tingling, eerie delights this autumnal celebration offers! 

I like to spotlight the macabre artistry of folks who really get into the spirit of the season. This house has been overrun by big, hairy spiders. (Don't miss the white one creeping around off to the left of the house - it looks positively poisonous.)

I'll admit that I'm happy this isn't my bedroom window.  I might just wake up in the wee hours having nightmares of being carried off into the depths of the Forbidden Forest. 

What a perfectly horrifying display for a fright night. Most excellent, don't you think? 

Happy Halloween!

A Little Local Color

I simply couldn't let the season go by completely without sharing more of the spectacular autumn color we had this year.  The weather had been so dry during the summer that I thought any fall color would be far more muted than usual. That will teach you just how much I know about anything!!

 

You're spared any extra rambling thoughts today - I didn't think I could possibly say anything that could add value to what the trees communicate so eloquently. :)

Spooky Spinners and Ghost Frost

These pictures were taken last October while I was walking with Baloo in his Big Field. It seemed fitting to continue with the Halloween theme, since All Hallows' Eve is nearly upon us. 

On chilly mornings, frost will linger on fine grasses and spider webs. The sun's lower angle backlights the ice crystals, bathing the field in a ghostly glow. 

This frost-fringed wild asparagus plant is a perfect example of the effect. Usually bright green, the fine ice clinging to tiny leaves creates an otherworldly white aura. 

Baloo happily snacked on autumn olives in the background of this picture while I took a quick break from trying to get the right angle to capture the spider webs in the grasses nearby. He wondered what I found so interesting and why I didn't come and nibble, too. (I miss that boy so much!)

The right lighting can be hard to find, but sometimes it makes the spiders' handiwork positively ethereal.

Mad Mycology

With Halloween coming right up, it's only fitting that these bright beauties are showing themselves again. After all, they are a lovely autumnal gold and orange -- and a little bit scary. 

The bone-shaped bulb and stem to the right of the mushroom adds a little extra eeriness, don't you think?   Then, there are the little tattered veil remnants along along the edges of the cap and down the stem that make it look like unraveling mummy wrappings (click the photo for a larger view). I know - I  have a vivid imagination. 

Some people use this mushroom as a psychedelic, and while nobody has died from ingesting this particular member of the Amanita family in quite a few years, identification can be troublesome and mistakes disastrous. I am of the opinion that anything that can do serious damage to the liver or kidneys should not be ingested unless absolutely necessary. 

Besides, nature provides enough magic to dazzle the senses every day, right?

Rowdy Raptors

Here is a dramatic trail camera picture from earlier in the season (you can tell because the trees are still green).  I have a number of great candid shots from the trail cameras and, since I'm not at home to download and share my trusty old portable camera's pictures, I thought I would take the opportunity to give you a different glimpse of life out in the family woods. 

The adult eagles (one golden and one bald) are vying for food to give their youngsters and they're getting pretty testy about the whole procedure. 

I cropped the picture so that you could get a little closer look at the food fight (once again, click on the picture to enlarge). 

I always enjoy seeing things that I wouldn't otherwise get to observe in the wild and the trail cams capture rare moments that are hard to see in person. I hope you enjoy it, too. 

Night Visions

The trail cameras sometimes catch interesting action during the night - both unexpected visitors and sometimes humorous poses.

This was one of the bean-eating culprits discovered in the act by the bean patch camera. I'm just glad the beans were finally able to keep ahead of the mice - it was touch and go for a while!

Another mouse was caught scampering along by one of the other trail cameras. It was such an earnest little fellow that I had to include him.

Sometimes the predators come around at night. Here's one of our resident bobcats trotting along the trail.

A doe was caught passing very close to the camera. We've actually gotten pictures of just noses and whiskers before, but this was more recognizable, if not quite as humorous.

Once again out in the bean patch, this woodcock came to look for worms. I always love seeing those guys. In the spring we like to sneak out at dusk and watch and listen to them do their mating spirals.

Cool Beans?

I thought it might be fun to share a few more candid photos from the bean patch trail camera.

A charming little goldfinch came to take advantage of the garden puddles and bugs.

She's not quite as brilliant in color as her male counterpart, but she's still a beauty. 

The grasshopper above made a break for it - I wonder if a bird was about to swoop in to try and catch dinner. I have often surprised grasshoppers into flight when out walking and they're surprisingly pretty, with their dark wings rimmed in yellow. They have always been too fast for me to photograph, so I was glad to see that the trail camera caught the action.

There was also a cute house wren that came to visit.

It took over the bluebird house when the bluebirds had finished with it and would scold like anything whenever we got near it and its brood while tending the garden.

Finally, I was delighted to see the portrait of this lovely yellow warbler. I can spot them sometimes, but have never managed to get a photograph. What a marvelously sneaky little candid trail camera!