Frost Then Color

Without question we had several consecutive nights featuring heavy frost recently.  Now many of the trees display color that draws visitors from distant states.  We spent more than one hour just driving around while taking in the sights.  Driving while looking at the trees is risky behavior but people driving on country roads around here go slow or are  stopped.   A couple out enjoying the leaves from their recumbent tricycles pulled over so we could pass.  Not far up the road we waved as they passed us.  We were stopped to take another picture.

All of these pictures showcase trees that grow on our property.  The lone Red Maple surrounded by Norway Spruce are ours while the lawn belongs to our neighbor.

Only the foreground trees and pasture belong to us.  The distant ridge is not ours but the view is free.

When this land was farmed many decades ago, stone was dumped in the middle of what could have been a small field.  I could find no possible reason for these stones' location but the spot is now marked by a solitary Red Maple.  The row of pine trees were planted to screen out the view of activities undertaken by the first owner of what had been farm but became a camping outpost.  Both new landowner and farmer's wife feared that the other would shoot them.  That never happened but neither now live in the immediate area.

This is the view from our kame terrace.  It is the highest ground on our parcel and we frequently drive its perimeter while taking in the view.

This is the view looking down from kame terrace.  The bedrock ridge is nearly gone here but seeping water and uneven ground prevent us from mowing to the tree line.  Our many years here have been amazing and we cannot imagine living anywhere else.  

 

Ragged Robin

Despite our recent scant rainfall, this level ground is still holding standing water.  Tree growth is on the remains of the bedrock ridge.  There springs steadily ooze water but there is no outlet.  Seeping into the gravel filled level ground keeps the depth of the trapped water from overflowing my shoes.  By stepping on the centers of the ferns, I was able to reach the pink flowers still some distance away.

Ragged robin is an old European import much like my ancestors.  We commonly see it growing in vast tracts on abandoned fields or in roadside ditches.  None of this plant was growing here when we purchased this land.  A fellow teacher gave me permission to dig some from her ditch.  That was one quarter of a century ago yet the size of our patch remains small.  My guess is that slightly drier soil would be more to its liking.

The mowed area is limited by level appearing ground that is littered with mostly dry channels where water sometimes flows.  Uneven ground with occasional chunks of bedrock is difficult to walk across and impossible to cross with a lawn tractor.  When we found this land twenty-five years ago, it was used to pasture horses.  They had free range over the entire thirty-six acres and their presence kept the fields free of invasive shrubs and briers.  With the horses gone, Japanese honeysuckle steadily claimed this ground.  It took us several years to regain control over this meadow.  Our mowing is intended to discourage Goldenrod and the bushes.  A great deal of time is spent  as this location since it is both beautiful and quiet.  This view is looking to the east.  The Ragged robin is located behind the darker. trees at the far right of the beautiful blue sky in this picture.  In my younger days I gained the land owner's permission to hike to the top of the ridge.  During the return trip we saw the dark hairy backside of a sizable animal disappearing into the brush.  It may have been a bear since this is the edge of several square miles of mostly wild land crossed only by one seasonal dirt road.

A ninety degree turn reveals the view looking to the north.  Just how the retreating glacier formed this land remains a mystery.  Four level meadows can be seen in both pictures each at a different elevation.  The highest one might be a kame terrace marking a location where glacial meltwater roared between the ridge and the ice mass.  It is the highest deposit in this area.  Standing on it suggests a location on an aircraft carrier. Long distance views are breathtaking but  road noise identifies nearby civilization.  We feel fortunate to have called this ground home.