Henry Powderly » fall

At the very end of fall

Henry E. Powderly II — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 02:13:21 +0000

It’s a tossup for the most depressing end of a season between late late fall and late winter.

While winter tends to linger, and slushy, gray snow, cold wind and barren trees can get a bit maddening by the end of February. But the end of fall, when all of the wild colors fade to subtle brown, when the dead leaves crack and curl in their piles, and the empty trees creak in the chilling winds, well, it’s a real bummer.

These are the last photos I took of the season, just a few days before a fierce blizzard blew in with winter.

It’s all sticks, save for a few red berries. There are even a few photos of my barn, which seems to frown in the cold.

Enjoy the photos.

Falling furthur

Henry E. Powderly II — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 02:10:11 +0000

This next batch of photos comes from late fall, but not the end of fall. As you’ll see in later photos, this period of the season still had plenty of color left in it.

The middle of fall was marked with bright yellows and plenty of greens, from still healthy lawns, stubborn-to-change leaves and knotty vines. But, closer to the end of the season the greens disappeared, replaced by yellows and reds, while the old yellows turned brown.

At the same time, the leaves on the ground, which once looked waxy and pliable, had browned and shriveled and dried.

So, enjoy the photos. My next batch will come from the very end of the season, when most of the colors were gone.

The thorns outside

Henry E. Powderly II — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 02:36:49 +0000

Now that winter is here, having dumped more than two feet of snow on Long Island this weekend, it’s time for my usual scramble to get my photos from the previous season online. You’ll see handful of posts coming in the next few days.

The first batch is a small one, featuring a few of the now bare, thorny vines on my property. They’re from either small rose bushes or the thick and abundant vines that create one of my favorite property features, the rose tree.

Of course, these thorns, like sharks teeth, look ominous, especially in the fall when the flowers and the leaves are dead and they haunt in the open.

I’ve taken a fair amount of these in the arms or the legs when I ride past them on the lawn mower, you’d think I’d learn to give them a wide berth. I guess the roses make me forget, and I don’t have to mow in the winter or the fall, when they’re gone.

Enjoy the photos.

Stuck in the middle of fall

Henry E. Powderly II — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:41:11 +0000

So here’s the next batch of fall photos I’ve taken this season, which, on the Northeast has been generally mild. For that, I am not complaining. Anything that keeps the cold away.

This group comes from the middle period of the season, when the leaves left on the trees were bright yellow and red and the leaves that had already fallen had not yet dried and turned brown.

It was during that time that my daughter had her first Halloween. Also, I got to pick my own cabernet franc grapes in the North Fork of Long Island for wine that I’m helping to make.

As I’ve said, most of the trees on my property turn yellow, so the whole yard shone gold in the middle of fall. It’s been beautiful.

Enjoy the photos.

Sights of early fall

Henry E. Powderly II — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:44:05 +0000

While I have held back on the photo posts recently, trying to get more writing done than photo taking, I have plenty of photos I’ve taken this fall that I’d love to share.

So here’s the first batch, taken right when the leaves started to fall off of the trees. These are a lot of the same tress and bushes I photographed in the summer, like the hosta, which has lost its flowers and turned yellow, and the hydrangeas that have left behind brown, dried shells of flowers.

Of course, it’s the up close colors and patterns of the leaves that inspire me the most.

Enjoy the photos. And, as always, you’re welcome to download any of them you would like. I’m not good enough a photographer to be stingy with my pics.