Fall Colors Peak

  I figured our extreme dryness (only 0.75" in the last 40 days) would put an end to any hope of a colorful autumn. It's been too warm. But I was wrong.

09/30

 By the end of September some promising golds began to show on the maples. This shot is of the late day sun shining through limbs of the maple nearest the kitchen window (north of the house).

10/01

 A look at the south side of the house showed equal promise, especially the large maple on the left.

10/01

 Here's a closer look at the  same tree. The top areas in particular were beginning to go gold.

10/08

 A week later and this same tree, now viewed from the second floor bathroom window, was awash with brilliant colors. Even without looking out a window, the golden hue permeates the house, as though there is a nearby fire. It is beautiful but it is also a bit frightening. How can anything so deep green suddenly switch to this shade? If we had never seen fall colors before, we'd drop everything and cry.

10/08

 Same tree again - now from ground level -  shows its carotenoid pigments. The chlorophyll is gone for this year. The colors are a science to themselves.

10/08

 As I start back the neighbor's lane for my daily laps. Pinehaven sits chilled in the early morning air while the trees all stoke the fire.

10/08

 The north maple - looking up from ground level - still holds most of its green and gold leaves. But not for long, I'll wager. Give them a week and the tree will stand bare until next April.

10/08

 This maple is at it's golden peak. It will soon darken and  drop its leaves, almost overnight. Tom and I will man rakes and complete our yard work for another season.

10/10

 And two days later, the darkening has begun. Of course the sky is cloudy, too, and that deepens the final shade. It is a hint of the short days, the darker days of winter to come. But for these few final moments, we attend a magic show, science doling out its hidden liquids that were there all the time.

 The rabbit was already in the hat.

Two More Pines Down

  The pines continue dying. It's mostly the changing climate, I think, though Tom says these trees are old enough that I need to expect them to expire. I planted most of them about 32 years ago.

 Nine days ago I called Dave with Joe's Tree Service. We always have him do our work: best prices and excellent work. The clean-up afterwards can't be beat, either. He sent me a text this morning that a larger job was cancelled due to the predicted high winds (up to 40 MPH) but that my job was small in comparison and could he come today?

Dave started with the spruce at the northern edge of the property, adjacent to Clayton Road. I'd say both trees were in the twenty foot range, too big for Tom and I to tackle. And this one was  too close to the power lines; the other was too close to the house.

 He starts by taking off all the side branches. A worker on the ground collects them as they fall and runs them through a chipper/shredder.

 Tom provides ample supervision ...

 Within 10 - 15 minutes the tree was down.

 He cut several large sections while still upright, dropped them to the ground and then cut them into manageable logs there. He cut the stump so close to the ground I can easily mow over it. Bravo!

 Now to the tree alongside the driveway. We might have been able to do this one except for it being so close to the house. A mistake would be costly. And the electric chain saw we have has but a 14" chain and this tree would have been on the ragged edge of possibility.

 Dave used the same procedure for both: take off the side branches then begin cutting the trunk in fairly large sections at the top first.

 I'll miss that tree. It was a beautiful blue spruce but it began dying several years ago and was completely dead this year. A companion tree was removed years ago.

 A bucket truck is a real plus (and probably a necessity for safeties sake).

The logs were left beneath each tree per contract but Tom began moving them all to this pile by the driveway. A neighbor who heats with wood is going to pick them up and haul them away.

 So Pinehaven becomes yet a little less of its namesake.

Next day. Dave cut the stumps off so close to the ground  they're virtually non-existent. How did he do that?

North tree ... South tree

Caesar Creek Fossil Hunt

  Tom and I met Jim Saylor at his condo in Lebanon about 10 AM yesterday and drove to Caesar Creek Lake for a fossil hunt ...

 We spent about three hours combing both sides of the spillway located  about a mile south of the Visitor Center. Permits (free) are required. Check in here for location and additional information. And here's a good post specifically about fossil hunting at the spillway.

 Due to COVID, the Visitor Center was closed. But a ranger told us to call the phone number posted on the door and we could get a verbal permit. Jim gave his name and the type of car we'd have parked at the spillway and the ranger said that was all that was needed.

 Both sides of the spillway are  cut  into the Ordovician strata. That's the  same as the railroad cut in  Miamisburg where Jim  and I previously hunted. To the right of this photo is a large, level plane (see below) , also littered with rocks that share the  same age (488.3 to 443.7 million years ago).

 This area is known for brachiopods, cephalopods, bryozoans, gastropod, crinoids and horn coral and trilobites. We were specifically hunting for trilobites, but found none. The others are easy to find. Jim talked to another man who was also hunting trilobites. He also left empty-handed.

 The wall on the south side is marked "no climbing"  but it's a fairly gentle angle and is easily scaled. Here's Tom (l) and Jim near the top. The north side is a much more gentle slope.

 I, meanwhile, stayed closer to the bottom. As I age (71) I find walking on rough ground more difficult.

 Jim really got into this work.

Every rock has thousands of fossils embedded in it.

When we got home, Tom sorted through his collection and left them atop our picnic table for the rain to wash clean.

 These are typical of what we found. Brachiopod (l), cephalopod (2nd from left, top), gastropod (below), another cephalopod and who-knows-what on the right.

 This free four page pamphlet is available at the Visitor Center.

----------

 Here, for comparison, are some fossils I found in Miamisburg in 1970:

Trilobites

Crinoid

Pelecypod

Apple Cider Cupcakes with Brown Sugar Cinnamon Buttercream

  It seemed like the perfect time to try this new recipe. I've been wanting apple cider anyway so when I came across this recipe I had another excuse to buy a carton.

 The recipe is here.

 I have only a few comments about the recipe:

a. I had to bake mine for 21 minutes.

b. I used salted butter and margarine and skipped the addition of salt.

c. I'd say the recipe for frosting makes easily double what you need. Look at the picture above. I piled the icing on thickly. I saved half for some future project.

d. How does it "serve 15-17" when it makes just a dozen cupcakes? Use all the batter in an even dozen for normally-sized cupcakes.

 When the cupcakes came out of the oven they had tiny craters on top. I'm not sure  what that's all about but it's actually nice. The indentations hold onto the icing.

 I'm always making my applesauce-raisin cupcakes. This is a nice variation that makes use of the apple flavoring in another way. They seem perfect-made for the fall season.

 

Moonflower blooms

 The past week or so our Moonflower has bloomed reservedly. But I could see last night was going to be special. There were buds everywhere. And so this morning I walked out and found  ten gorgeous blooms.

 Last year I noted the plant blooming on 09/04/19. Check it out here.

 Unlike our Night Blooming Cereus, this plant keeps its flowers open well into the day. It seems to take actual sunshine to make them close. Both, though, bloom only at night.

 The fully open flower in the back is a gorgeous pure white while the bud (foreground) is ivory at best and almost "dirty". It spirals open something akin to the mechanism of an inside-out umbrella. I wouldn't be surprised if that's where we got the idea for an umbrella.

 This bud is ready for tonight. And there are many more.

 So it's blooming a little earlier than last year. I grew these from seeds from last year's plant so while it is not the same plant, it is its progeny.

It is no surprise ... [quote]

NBC Blooms Again

 We call it our NBC - Night Blooming Cereus - because it's easier. Technically it's not that at all but a common Epiphyllum (Epiphyllum Oxypetalum - Queen of the Night). It's too late to change now and, frankly, all of my friends who has one calls it the same thing. But maybe that's my fault?

 I won't belabor the point nor repeat background information. Simply use the search tool on this blog to find past posts about this same flower.

 I have gotten in the habit of taking it from its overwintering spot on our enclosed porch to the back porch each spring after the last frost. There's no doubt the plant relishes this spot in the sun and with country air flowing all about. It is a cactus after all.

 Earlier this spring it developed three buds. But two fell off on their own and I broke the third off when I was moving the plant slightly. So I figured it was done for this year.

 By the way, my mother and grandmother both thought the plant bloomed about every decade but this is clearly not the case. A happy Epiphllyum will bloom every year. And sometimes even more often.

 A couple of weeks ago the plant again began developing buds - eight to ten of them. And we've watched them expand with every day. (I've also been careful to keep hands off).

 Sunday night (08/09/20) I walked out after the sun had set and darkness began falling and saw that five of the buds were beginning to open. I've never seen that many at one time. Usually when Mom and I would get up during the night and view the plant on the porch, it was for a single flower.

 Tom and I went back out about 10:30 PM and saw flowers opening in profusion. The two pictured at  the top of this post were side by side. Mom always loved the scent but I can smell nothing. Tom said it smelled like "fresh linen air freshener". Even my grandmother mentioned how the sweet scent was what drew her to the blooming flower. She was usually unaware that the plant was even considering blooming.

 In this shot you can see a flower that is just beginning to open and another bud to the left which is perhaps a day away from glory.

 Last night (08/10/20) I went to bed (it had been raining) but Tom went out about 12:30 AM (actually 08/11/20) and found three more blooms fully open and another well on the way.

 It's sad to see the beautiful white blossoms now lying on the cool concrete porch. They look like deflated balloons. But I know they'll show themselves again next year ... and the year after that.

 The plant provides a lesson in humility. This plant itself is one of the ugliest we have. It is spindly and lank and has a hard time standing up under the weight of its one branches. But inside courses a beauty that seems not to come from these thin branches but from somewhere entirely removed.The heart of all matters is deeply hidden.

Later: The eighth bud bloomed last night (see dates below the pix) and that will do it for this go-round. Even so, Tom discovered two new buds on the plant. Can we even imagine that it will bloom again this summer? That'd be the third time.

08/11/20 - 10:02 PM 

08/11/20 - 10:32 PM 

08/12/20 - 7:35 AM