I'm once again going to be presumptuous, and start a new thread. Since we've seen Terry's great spiderworks and Nicola's autumn colored geranium leaves, I thought we should just start a thread for Fall photos.

Here is a great shot my cousin sent me. She lives in the mountains in Northern New Mexico.

What a way to start the thread, thank you for that one Carolyn.

Oh wow, it's enough to make you feel dizzy!

That really is so awsome Caro, thanks! I wonder if she laying down or standing to get that great angle?

Just had a thought. Visited last night with lovely lucky couple heading off to visit the leaves 'up north', soon. Maybe if we all behave ourselves when they get back,,,, they'll share some leafy digi pics with us. Huh Stephen huh ??? :-)

Carolyn, That's beautiful! J

Look what was out in my cousin's backyard this morning!

Do you suppose this means it will be a mild winter, since this fellow is not yet hibernating?

oh my gosh! Where was that taken?!? I keep hearing it's going to be a tough winter but I can't even tell since my plants aren't thriving and putting on enough seed to even determine.

Hi Folks! I'm Rebecca, Carolyn's cousin. My daughter and I live in Angel Fire, NM, about 25 miles NE of Taos. It's not quite hybernation time for the bears, as we're just having our Indian Summer. After the bears hybernate, they reemerge in the spring, with shrunken bellies, forraging for berries, and small things. By this time of year, their tummies have stretched, and they are full carnivors. They want meat! and enuf to keep 'em full all winter. Thus, the zoom lens! I'm grateful he didn't attack the dog or cat, OR ME!! Adios, amigos, Rebecca Crouch

Hey Becky! Thanx for posting. Please feel free to share your fab pics on the forum. As you can see, so far today, the tree photo has been a hit. Am sure there will be more comments on the pic of your visitor.

You keep em coming Becky, hope you have strong doors and bars on the windows J Strange how they turn canivorous when full and eat the small stuff when starving, wonder if they need to feel strong to be confident enough to go hunting. Is it a Grizzly or a Black, Becky? It looks broad enough to be a Grizzly, but the face looks more like a Black.

I agree guys - Becky needs her own thread!
You can't imagine my amazement to open this page and find a bear on the site!! What a wonderful shock and much nicer to find one here than in MY backyard. When we got the leafy pic, I had been thinking 'how romantic to live in the wilderness of NM', but as always, romance finds it way back to reality :-) Altho, I'm sure the residents there are better geared to living among the beasts than I would be here! Thanks Becky, that was such a delight to see!

Hi Susan J. Are the leaves starting to turn in Washington? Bet your Japanese maples are gearing up for a great show.

Oh my gosh, I hadn't thought about Susan's maples. Susan, please take a pic for us when they are in their colorful stage.

Only one of our Japanese maples is turning color so far. We've got a great photo, but I'll have to scan it in again. It looks just horrible on the computer monitor.

We had an unusually dry summer, and many of the native Vine Maples began turning bright orange in mid-August. Trees in people's yards have been a lot slower to turn color.

Becky's photo of the bear was a real treat!

Looking forward to your maple pics, Susan. For me, Japanese maples are just a dream. I only have 1 large tree near the house, and here, Japanese maples must be "understory" trees because of the sun and heat. But, oh, how I would love to have them. I actually have seen the one called Coral Bark planted on the north side of a house in a flower bed. Since it is relatively small, it seemed to work well. It was such a treat in the winter, to drive by that house and see that gorgeous orangey bark showing up well in front of a pale yellow house.

I want one I want one!!!

I've tried two in the past 5 years. Not enough shade to keep them happy where I garden. I do love them though. Recently I've been thinking about putting one in a large barrel and keeping it under the patio....hmmmm, plant sales this weekend?

Here's a photo of the fall color of 'Shigitatsu sawa.' Last year the leaves turned solid green in June and the fall color was light yellow. This year the leaves retained their green-on-green markings and turned the colors you see.

I had that one, but I think something got at the roots and it suddenly died. I was a little upset at the time...now I'm even more so. Yours looks to be doing very well, mine in it's short life never turned anything other than as green and then brown.
Do you find, Susan, that if you get an early cold spell some of the acer foliage dies and remains on the plant all winter?

That's gorgeous!

Do you attribute the difference in colors this year to lack of rain? Its difficult to imagine the Seattle area being dry. Whenever I've been there, it looked like a rain forest. Gosh its a beautiful area!

Terry, our local organic guru, Howard Garrett, says that if the dead leaves stay on the tree, the tree is probably dead or dying. I don't know if that's always true, but a couple of years ago, several of my oak trees in the woodlot died, and the leaves stayed on them.

Nope mine is fine this year Carolyn, but it did look a mess all winter with the dead leaves on it.

Terry, That's too bad about your 'Shigitatsu sawa.' We bought our tree three years ago. We planted it in the spring. That fall its leaves all turned brown, crumpled up, and fell off. We figured that the tree hadn't become established yet. Last year the tree had a soft yellow fall color, and you can see this year's color.

We haven't had an early cold spell in the last few years. Last year our fall was unusually warm. We never really got a winter. Most of our Japanese maples lost their leaves in the usual way, but 'Osakazuki' had a lot of dead leaves that stayed on the tree all winter. We put Christmas lights on that tree, and I remember how annoying those dead leaves were - the strings of lights would catch on the dead leaves when I tried to twine them around the branches.

Carolyn, I do think that the color of the native vine maples was caused by the dry weather, but I'm not so sure about the maples in our yard. Last summer was not unusually dry, and our 'Lion's Head' maple had the best color it's ever had. Usually it's red, but last year it was gold and orange. I'll keep you posted as our trees turn color.

I do have a 2 yr old ssp A. palmatum, which seems to be the most durable here, in shade. (I was whinning about wanting a A. shig for the bark color.) Friend BJ has several varieties, altho many have trouble with them in this area. And they are sooo expensive to watch die!
One of our best color trees around here is the 'Red Oak' Quercus rubra - that is if we get enough fall to start its colors before the first freeze, which would turn its green to brown without the show. Its so sad when that happens.

Maggie, What about a smoke tree for color? Cotinus coggygria has purple spring foliate, and the native Cotinus obovatus has light-green spring foliage. Both trees have fantastic fall color. According to my reference books, they should grow in Texas.

Here's a photo of the fall color of our American smoke tree. My husband pointed out that I should have taken a closeup of the leaves, but it's too late now. The leaves all fell off last week, before our roll of film was developed.

I had one of those trees too a while back Susan
Cotinus Your Image Here...same colour too J

Wise acre ;-). Susan sent me the picie, for me to have a go...

Oh noooo we will all got into picie withdrawal until this is resolved ... whaaaaa
That does it,,, now we HAVE to have the new forum installed. I'm going to have to learn how to purr before L gets back.

Well, go figure,,, i could post a pic on the swap popup. weird. and it seems to load good and fast anyway.

Maggie, That Lycoris radiata is a beauty! I love the foliage. Too bad I can't get to your plant swap. L

I wish the pic wasn't so reduced Susan, it is so much more delicate than the pic shows. And there are even raindrops on it! We should have it stuffed.

The foliage is a tender varigated ginger that can return in our mild winters, such as the last 2 or 3 we've had lately, but I think I'll take precautions with it this year. I am expecting a rough winter. Anyone else have any gardeners premonitions. I have heard 2 conflicting 'experts' long term forecasts. Oh, I should go to the weather board with that one ;-)

Susan, please try to post that pic again - nothing has been modified on the forum since we had all those probs..... Maybe it was because there were so many topics open at once. Now the double posting has quit, maybe the picie prob has too.

Here goes, but we may have a grove of those golden Cotinus Your Image Here trees.

Success! I was reading about smoke trees in my garden reference books and discovered that there are male and female trees! The male trees don't have the "smoky" look when they bloom. I've been wondering why our tree has such feeble blooms. Of course nurseries never mention the sex of the trees they sell you, even when it makes a big difference in the tree's behavior.

Well it's true what they say "where there's smoke, there's fire". Thank you Susan, for reminding me why I like Autumn...our constantly dull rainy weather was beginning to make me wonder.

Gosh that's awsome! And I had not heard about the male/female thing either Susan - thanks for posting it. Mine was in bloom when I planted it last year and they were kinda scrawny, but I hope it is only because of being young. If not, and it is a male, at least the color will still keep it worth its space. Can't wait till it does its autumn thing this year!

Yet another of my cousins sent me this photo and the story below, along with a note that he didn't know if any of this was true, but the photo is too awesome not to be shared.

Story:
This awesome picture was taken in Bitteroot National Forest in
Montana on August 6, 2000. The photographer, John McColgan,
is a fire behavior analyst from Fairbanks, Alaska. He took the
picture with a digital camera. Because he was working at the time
he took the picture, he cannot profit from it ; however, the picture
is a once-in-a-lifetime shot and should be shared.

Not only a great photographer, but probably holds the world record for sprinting backwards.

Good one Terry! Amazing how these things get around, I have also rec'd that E pic a few times. It really is awesome.

I stopped by last week to see what new pictures had been posted and was delighted to see some of your fall photos! It inspired me to take a walk through our woods. Even though we are way past peak color here, I found a few spots worth snapping a picture. I had such fun I'd like to get back out there and take some more pictures to add to my web pages.

While in the woods, I was tracking by sound some wild turkeys, but of course they were too fast for me to get a picture. I just saw some tail feathers heading up the mountain. Daniel Boone I'm not!

oops! Let me try again

That really does look like fall MK. Love the composition of the shot. You are such an artist.

What a wonderful walk that must be MK, thank you for sharing it with us. We would love to see more!

Can you imagine, our annuals are still blooming and growing in our spring-like temps and these wonderful autumn rains. As much as I look forward to watching the foliage turn here, I still dread trading it for colorful borders. With everyone's pics above, I get to have an autumn AND my flowers! Keep up coming guys!!!!

I have to ask MamaKane, is that a dry stream bed in the photo or just a well worn path. It looks as though you are about two weeks in front of us here in Yorkshire, England, our trees are just starting to turn.
This is a beech tree in our local woodland.

Another great shot, Terry. Don't you just love Autumn?

My guess on MK's pic, is a dry creekbed, which is a familiar sight around here.

It seems that the sun is going to shine on us today. The morning started out with low fog, but earlier, before daylight, the stars were out. Here are a couple of my fledgling attempts at capturing the moment.

All beautiful pictures. Mamakane, yours makes me long for a walk down a mountain path. If I didn't have family keeping me in Texas, I'd head your way!

Good mood capturing there Carolyn, you could be in England with those scenes. What are the shapes in the lower pic? I can only guess pig pens or rolls of hay.

I love the morning mist/fogs. Everything looks so soft and cozy to me. Carolyn, you did a great job capturing it in the pics! We see those round hay bales everywhere here. I always think they should be in a picture, but never have my camera.

That's a creek bed with leaves floating on what little water is there. But one small thunderstorm or a day of moderate rain and it will roll! There's a lot of run off from the mountains.

I didn't do as well as Carolyn, but here's some of my morning mist.

This 1st picture is the view from our front porch.
The sheep can be seen from the front porch also, off to the side.

Thanx for the kind words about my very amateur photography, but MK, you really know what you are doing! What an awesome view to enjoy each morning.

Terry, I'll verify that those round things are hay bales.

Terry, does MK's second picture look like your part of the world?

Caro, I keep getting the urge to sing.. Home, Home on the Range.
Who wrote something like ... the fog crept in on little kitten paws - not quite it, but close. Think it was about San Francisco. It's got me all poetic about your next shot. Makes me feel you have caught the dawn sneaking in over the still-sleeping hay bales. They are such a great subject. Do you hire out the hay cutting? Bout time we shared some beautiful Texan scenery 'round here. Thanks Caro,, Keep um coming!

Even though someone asked someone else,, I'll put in my vote too - those W Virginia scenes remind ME very much of rural sites in England. As always, MKs pics knocks our lights out too.

Mamakanes pics remind me more of Scotland than my part of England, we tend not to have such an abundance of trees on the hills, more moorland caused by rabbit population explosions in the past and maintained in many areas for Grouse shoots. Those trees would be drawing me like a magnet....but then I remember about the bears, so now I'm putting on the brakes. Wish I could remember the joke about the hunter, the little bells and the bears. Something about you can tell the bear droppings they are the ones that contain the little bells that novice hunters wear to scare away the bears.

Carolyn, looking at your pics again reminds me of the beautiful sunrises and sunsets we used to see when we lived in Maryland. We don't get much color to the skies here in WV.

I was wondering about your hay also. How many acres do you cut? Do you get enough to last through the winter? I know a lady here that puts all her own hay up in round bales by herself, and she's at least 65! Takes care of a bunch of cows too. I hope I'm still going as strong when I reach 65.

Maggie, it was Robert Frost.

MK and Terry, we cut about 40 acres. So far, we are still getting our hay from our other farm. Although I have a lot of pasture here, with the drought, I was uncomfortable cutting it for erosion reasons. I have kept my livestock in one area for the past several months, and have plenty of "standing" hay in other areas to get them through the winter, plus what hay we got from the one cut at the other place. Until 3 years ago, we got 4 cuts each year. Last year, we got 2 cuts, this year only 1. Wouldn't I love to go back to the 4 cuts a year?

We hire out the haying. I keep toying with the idea of getting the equipment to do it myself, but with homeschooling and the animals, etc., I really don't have the time. Plus, after years of watching others hay, something always screws up with the machinery, like the baling twine gets messed up, or something breaks, and I am not at all mechanically inclined, so that could be a problem. Until Neal retires, we will probably continue to hire it out.

I couldn't stand not remembering it just right ..

The fog comes on
little cat feet.

It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on. Carl Sandburg (1878-1967)

Here's a piece of Robert Frost's 'Mowing' for your hay pic (sans mangled baling wire and machinery:)
....The fact is the sweeetest dream that labor knows.
My long scythe whispered and left the hay to make.

Autumn comes slow on little snail feet (!) to Texas guys. Lookie lookie, at last a sign - the first mum buds have burst.

And another sure sign of the upcoming chance of leaf changing time is when the tagettes bloom.

Your autumn looks just like our summer, Maggie.

Isn't it amazing! We get the equiv of 2 spring seasons here - one at each end of summer. This makes the furnace weather more tolerable - to know there is a rainbow at each end of it.

Lovely pics Maggie.

Terry, Autumn is just about the best time of year for a Texas gardener. We usually have regular rains, the temperature has cooled off to "bearable," the flowers bloom, and veggie gardens thrive. Rarely, do we have the severe storms like we commonly get in Spring, although it does happen from time to time.

I actually had to mow the lawn yesterday. Just mowed it last week, which was the first time in ages and ages.

Sometimes we have our first really cold weather in time for Halloween. Obviously, that didn't happen this year, which is just fine. In years of early frosts and freezes, the leaves turn and fall early, everything turns brown, and then the weather returns to the 70's and 80's, but everything looks ugly.

One last try from my Acers, then we head into winter, at least snow would be a change from the rain.

Beauties Terry,, mine has little burnt fingernails, that will ruin the red if comes. But its better than nadda.
Noticing one is in pot, are yours taken in for winter?

No I don't take them in Maggie, I believe they are really hardy characters, but they seem to do better in pots. I put it down to the peaty compost being far better than my sandy stoney "soil". Did you notice also how small a pot they need, but they have to be watered well, no problems there this year.

Your rain must be contagious. It's been doing here and is meant to continue for several days. Such a treat! well, for Us anyway ;-)

I'm loving it! Nothing like a good book, a good window to the garden and a blanket.

You forgot a lap cat Gail. (bet she's off to Mom's for the holiday).

Lar and I went in search of autumn in Ft Worth today and found it at our town's Japanese Garden. WOW it was enchanting! Took the digi... stay tuned , hope to do a mini or reg Virtual Stroll on it soon.