Dusted with Snow

A few fall items covered with an early coat of snow ...

ornamental cabbage and chrysanthemums

Fulton Fall (Winter???) Folk Festival

A blast of winter greeted the FFFF this year and made for some trying conditions.

These little gourds can be had for 3 or 4 for a dollar and are a fall staple of the festival's sales spots, along with mums, pumpkins, apples, whoopie pies, and ham & bean soup. Not to mention that everything under the sun can be found at the yard sales and impromptu flea markets that sprout up across the county for this four-day festival.


The FFFF parade on Saturday also faced miserable weather conditions: cold rain interspersed with spitting snow. Nonetheless, even the little guys came out to see the tractors ride through town.

A cat can dream ...

... of a pine siskin snack.

Fulton Flora & Fauna

Some more photos from our last stay at my parent's:

Alert deer heads emerging from a field is a classic Fulton County scene.

This flower probably has an official name, but we always knew it as Butter-and-eggs. I guess that name comes from the colors of the flower. I like the smell of the plant - not the flower, but the foliage.

Chicory could be called a roadside weed, but it is also one of the reasons that blue is my favorite color. I was always frustrated by the fact that chicory blooms only last for about half a day, and fade quickly when cut. I just had to view them in their natural habitat :)

And here's how I took advantage of Mom & Dad's hummingbird portrait studio. These little guys were fascinating to watch!

Midnight Marauders

This last weekend, Ansel (the cat) alerted us to some activity outside the dining room window at Mom's house: bandits at the bird feeders!

I have never seen a flying squirrel up close and in person before. They are not shy when peanuts are at stake. We were at the window, talking loudly and shining a flashlight - we even opened it slightly, about two feet away from them - and it didn't slow the thievery at all. The cat was about to burst :) I got the photos by going out on the deck and leaning out around the corner of the house.


Here you can see the extra skin that stretches along their sides, enabling them to glide from perch to perch. I have to admit, the squirrels are the quintessential "cute" animals - fuzzy bodies, gigantic eyes, endearing antics. But, when they started scurrying up and down the chimney at lightning speed, they looked like dark flying shadows and came across as something out of a scary movie :)

Blue Birds

The last time I was at my parent's house, my Mom told me I should take my camera, go outside, and try to capture a pair of bluebirds nesting in her birdhouse at the end of the driveway. I was up for it, obviously :)

After about ten minutes, I had some shots of small blurry birds. Then, I noticed that Dad had come outside and was getting his tripod out of his truck. "Hmmm, maybe he's going to bring that over here?" I wondered. Yep, here he comes, the tripod attached to his camera, the camera attached to a supermondo lens. But the birds weren't cooperating too well, and it was cold, and Dad grew impatient. I was more than happy to take over the operation from him. This is the only picture I have where both male and female are in the shot at the same time.

Judging by the number of caterpillars going in, and the amount of "waste" carried out, the happy couple's eggs had hatched and hungry mouths were being fed.

More flower power ...

Here are a few more shots from Saturday morning's wildflower shoot with Dad. It was mostly too early for the trout lilies, but we found a solitary bloom by the edge of the creek.

Spring beauties are one of the most common of wildflowers in these parts. The closer up you get to them, the more beautiful details appear.

Rue anemone is another one of the more common wildflowers here. Between the anemone, the spring beauties, and the dutchman's breeches, the forest floor was fairly well covered with pretty spring blooms.

Maybe Sunday's rain brought even more blossoms out!

Birds ....

This weekend, Mom's birdfeeders were filled with gold and purple finches. I was able to capture a few of them sitting pretty:

The goldfinches have, for the most part, returned to their brilliant yellow summer coloring, but many still had olive-drab patches.

In a few more days, these branches will be obscured by the emerging leaves of the chestnut tree they are perching on. I was lucky to get the shots while I could!

... & Blooms

Dad and I spent some time Saturday morning, looking for wildflower shots. We stopped over at Salty's place first, taking shots of a few of his ornamental shrubs. This first is my best shot of the cherry blossoms.

This next picture is cardinal bush. I've always been fond of it, due to its color. I'm happy to have a few nice photos of it now :)

And lastly, we went to a little area in the woods were wildflowers were peeping up. We found plenty of rue anemone, dutchman's breeches (shown below), spring beauty, trout lilies, and one small patch of hepatica.

I'll have to post a few more of these, as the week passes.

First Shots with Increased Firepower

This past weekend, my father handed down to me a camera of his that he doesn't use much anymore, a Canon, of course. I immediately put the 10D to use on the short but fierce snowstorm that blew through Saturday morning:

The snow fell furiously for all of about 20 minutes, just enough to coat the grass and trees.

Within two hours, the snow had disappeared and the weather cleared off. I caught the above shot before the snow (hopefully the last of the year!) melted away.

On Sunday, I was able to capture some very close shots of Mom's favorite little red-breasted nuthatch.

Mom regularly sees one red-breasted nuthatch, along with four or five white-breasted nuthatches. I imagine its the very same bird that I posted a picture of back around New Year's, here. I had much better lighting this time :)

Harbingers of Spring

My grandmother was a dedicated gardener, and her garden always had a healthy percentage devoted to flowers. But the flowers weren't limited to the garden. Over the years, she planted crocus bulbs throughout the yard of the house, mostly at the bases of the large catalpa trees that ring the house.

Much has changed, but still quite a few crocuses were peeping up through the grass this weekend. As a kid, finding these out in the yard was as good as finding easter eggs!

Keeping up with Salty

I have been intending to post this photo ever since Salty shared his picture and the story behind it here.


I am keeping the picture small because it is badly out of focus. While, of course, I wish it were better quality, it remains a memento of a good afternoon spent with loved ones, and so I am quite happy with it :)

The Beautiful Boards

My friend Sandy has been to the "the barn" several times over the years, and has posted several of her favorite pictures here. Please check it out!


I decided to post a far less creepy picture of the barn, taken on the same day as the previous post. With those warm-colored boards, there's nothing scary at all :)

A Shadow of What You Once Were

I planned to post this for Halloween, because I thought it looked eerie. However, I got distracted by flowers and dropped the ball on that one :) This scene intrigued me because the shadow of the tree on the barn brought two types of wood into the picture, living and dead. Although dead seems like the wrong word for such beautiful knotty boards, and its only a shadow of the living tree.

My Cousin Chad gave me very good advice on cropping and editing this photo (big thank you!). His latest post tells about his experience with the barn.

Birds on the Brain

I've noticed quite a few posts about birds lately and felt the need to add another to the mix, as they are one of my favorite subjects :) But I had to cheat, this one is from a few months ago.

I was sitting on the deck at Mom's and she wanted me to take pictures of the hummingbirds. The hummingbirds sit in the chestnut tree at the side of the house when they are not at the feeders. I was having trouble with them, and started taking pictures of whatever bird would sit still long enough. I thought I had a nice shot at a goldfinch. But when I reviewed my pictures, I realized it wasn't a goldfinch at all!

After a great deal of time with two different identification guides, Mom and I decided it was an immature Chestnut-Sided Warbler (after the oven bird incident, Justin tries to tell me this is a yellow-headed crab finch - yeah right :). This shot makes me smile, because I had no idea what I was shooting at the time I took the photo: a type of bird I'd never seen before!

ETA: Ack! I tried to post from Picasa's "Blog This" feature. I assume that's what caused the problems. Here's the bird :)

For Sale

Colorful stuff for sale at the Fulton Fall Folk Festival. Getting a mum (or two, or three) is one of my fall traditions. I first saw the red pumpkin on Friday, when it was dreary and drizzling. I thought it made a nice sort of natural selective color situation. When we came back late on Saturday afternoon, the little red pumpkin was still there, but it was sunny this time. To my surprise, I like the pictures taken on the overcast day better.

My Walk in Details

My Sunday walk provided me with something I'd been wanting for a while: a decent shot of one of my favorite wildflowers (though some would call it a weed), chickory. A bumblebee was nice enough to point out this perfectly lit flower, but off he flew before I could get him in the frame.

This goldfinch is cropped so tightly that the shot is not good for much besides web viewing. But since I can't convince the birds to let me walk up and shake their hands, this is the best I can do :) As it is, I was amazed that this one let me approach so closely. I guess he was really determined to get the seeds from his plant.


And finally, one more leaf filter to round out the trip. This is an extra-munchy sycamore leaf, found down by the creek.

The Fording

The road doesn't end here, but the walk does, if you have shoes you don't want to get wet! The fording is where the road meets the creek, without advantage of bridge or culvert.

As the creek marks the boundary of my grandfather's land, its always been a good destination and sometimes turning point for my rambles. This Sunday, I turned right and headed overland, keeping close to the creek for a while. I found that, although no person regularly walks the grounds, there were plenty of paths worn into the forest floor. Deer make these trails, and I was glad to use them. I find it "endeering" that animals that have the run of many acres still create and stick to pathways, even when the underbrush doesn't limit them in any way. I soon stumbled into an area where four deer were bedded down, and we gave each other mutual heart attacks as they snorted, jumped, and ran for it.

Earlier this year, Salty posted about two individuals who had very different experiences with the fording than I had this sunny fall day. You can check their stories out here, if you haven't already done so.

Good Morning from Fulton County

Welcome to Fulton County! This is a view very familiar to me, as it is within throwing distance of my parent's home.


Sunday morning I went on a walk, just me and my camera and my binoculars (and some brownies, but that's besides the point :). The air was crisp, the colors were bright, the birds were singing and I was in heaven. I kept a mental list of the birds I saw that morning, including a friendly downy woodpecker that modeled for me.

I saw mockingbirds, robins, a titmouse, a kingfisher, a flicker, bluebirds, a flycatcher of some sort, chipping and white throated sparrows, goldfinches, blue jays, crows, a mourning dove, and cardinals. I heard a nuthatch, but never saw it. The woods and fencerows were crawling with winged critters, another advantage to morning.

I do a decent amount of hiking these days, but I don't have much of an opportunity anymore to stroll through woods and fields, completely off of any established trail, completely alone. But I did so for many, many hours in my earlier years. I recommend it to anyone, and I plan to share more moments from this walk in the next few days :)

The Sweet Side, part II

I wasn't really expecting to see a lot of folks I knew, but I ended up finding my grandfather, an uncle, and six cousins in amongst the various parts of the parade. Pappy surprised us by being third in line with his 1970s-era Mercury Marquis:


One of my cousins is a flute in the marching band (just like I was) ...


And another was proud of his tractor, and trying to play it cool while his photo-crazy cousin snapped a bunch of pics ...


Mom and I "fleamarketed" like crazy all of Friday and most of Saturday, but I'm glad that we took an hour or so out of our day to watch the FFFF parade.