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Monday, October 21, 2013

Autumn in Cottage Lake

Azure skies alternate with heavy cloaks of fog. The valley between here and Duvall is often filled with a vanilla custard of mist. Webs made by spiders the size of dimes lace the trees, and fireworks of red and gold blaze against the stately darkness of the Douglas-firs and other evergreens. One of the prettiest autumns ever. I go around one corner and feel as if I'm back in the New England of my college years; I go down another street, shuffling through leaves, and am transported back to the Long Island suburb of my childhood, knowing that the cold, damp walk will end in a brightly lit and welcoming home.

Native vine maples and other species in a garden

On the neighborhood loop walk

Red plum and (possibly) aspen in fall color

A weeping species of Japanese maple

Aspen on bright, warm day early in the season

Morning dew nearly all gone

The Douglas-firs resemble Ents on the march on foggy mornings

The entire garden is filled with these pinwheels in the morning

Spirea dressing up already in Christmas colors

The rather saucy mushrooms springing up in the front yard

Blueberry bushes blaze

View from office window, red maple in foreground

2 comments:

  1. I agree that the spiderwebs unmasked by fog are wonderful. I walk the neighborhood delighted by how many there are, how whole hedges are filled with the tiny webs of trapdoor spiders and how a tiny orb web hangs between the branches of a birch I walk beneath.

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    Replies
    1. And every window you look out at this time of year seems to have a doily draped over it, too!

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