Wordless Wednesday…backlit

A Monday walk in the park

It’s difficult to know which photos to share for my recent walks in the park that I’ve enjoyed visiting while back in Illinois, but let’s start with a photo of something I’d never seen there before: an owl. Silently walking among the trees just at dawn, I saw an owl land not far from me. I managed to get three shots before it flew away, two of the back of its swiveled head. This one had to have some work done on it because of how dark it was in the woods, but I was so chuffed at having not only seen it but gotten a halfway decent shot that I didn’t care.

Sometimes it pays to get down low and smell the clover…or at least take a photo of it.

I often came around corners to find swaths of flowers, often too wide for one photo to contain. Bliss.

There were still some of my favorites: dead plants festooned with spider webs.

One more first time spotting, this time something getting a bit of warmth from the rock, an illustration of the usefulness of telephoto and cropping.

If you enjoyed this tiny walk even one tenth of how much I enjoyed that morning, I’ll be happy to have made your day better. Jo, thanks for hosting these walks when you have the time and enjoy your time away from hosting as well. Your efforts and beautiful walks are much appreciated.

for Jo’s Monday Walk

Morning has broken

Monday walk…in memoriam

Every so often, we got a day where it wasn’t actively raining and we seized the moment to enjoy it to the fullest. While my s-i-l took one of the dogs for a long run, I (who am a fast-twitch muscle/sprinter/100-200m “distance” runner), took a nice walk to find a memorial in the forest.

When it’s been raining, you start seeing fungus and although there were many that had dried out due to the long drought, some survived, while others were beginning to thrive.

Bundle a number of these branches together and you have a broom of the sort used before you could just go buy one and still used by some.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Weathered…in the Vosges

At a time when weather in the northern US has been a hot topic (or a cold topic), “Weathered” is an apt theme for the Photo Challenge.  In the annoying tradition of making a word a part of speech it wasn’t meant to be, those of us in that part of the country have been getting (winter) weathered like crazy.

But my example comes from a summer day in the Vosges Forest of France, a place where you don’t expect to come across a chair of any sort while following a trail.  This chair obviously had weathered more than a few nights in the forest and come out the worse for wear, something with which we who’ve experienced many days and night of sub-zero Fahrenheit temperatures might identify!

Morning light

“We went down into the silent garden. Dawn is the time when nothing breathes, the hour of silence. Everything is transfixed, only the light moves.”
~Leonora Carrington

French forest fungi

Finally, fundamentally fabulous, fantastic French forest fungus.  Fun!  🙂

Yes, alliteration has struck again.  If you’ve been following my blog for some time, you know that where I go in France, I’m deep in the Vosges forest.  This is where we walk the dogs each day.

Although we love to hunt for (edible) mushrooms, much of what we find is, although fun to see, not edible and might even be poisonous.  Despite not being edible, fungi can be eye-catching, as I think you can tell from these photos.

Wordless Wednesday…gettin’ down in the forest

In the Franche-Comte

It’s been another beautiful day in the Franche-Comte, possibly one of the most under-rated and unknown, at least to Americans, areas of France.  Hills, mountains, and forests characterize the area; the eponymous Comte cheese is one of the delicious attractions. If you click on the above link and find Lure on the map, you’ll know basically where I am.

Each day we walk in the forest, suitably attired to keep the numerous ticks from attaching to any part of us.  The dogs must be carefully checked when we return.  The last time I was here, we searched each time for mushrooms, death trumpets which, despite their name, are not only harmless but delicious. Unfortunately, they aren’t in season. (I’d include a link, but as I’m on my iPad, I’m horribly frustrated by its lack of ease and cooperation. Just trust me: they’re difficult to find and well worth the effort.)

Anyway, here are a few shots of what it’s like here.

Not everything is large. On moss-covered logs, you’ll see a microcosm of the surrounding forest.

Bonjour!

Forest Rain

Forest Rain

Heavy grey clouds pull
    curtains of rain across the sky,
    tangling them in forest trees;
    too late for most in the death march
        of the crisp, brown ferns,
    skies’ tears for the departed.

Mushroom spores glory in the glut of moisture,
tiny frogs break out in song,
orange slugs lie fatly quiescent.

Multi-colored carpet of leaves lies cold and sodden,
    muffling all sounds
    save the constant drip of raindrops 
    and the parachuting acorns.