Stone Mountain Meanderings

No Time for Torpor

American Beech
In silver light.

 

© 141127-006  Last to Fall
   Fagus grandifolia
   Stone Mountain Park
   Thursday 27 November 2014
.

The Repose

Suspended in
delicate resignation.

 

© 141122-005 Common Cat Brier
    Smilax rotundifolia
    Stone Mountain Park 
    Saturday 22 November 2014
.

"I'm good!!"

Fall flower sniffing

May have consequences...

© 141115-001 Poplar Ripples
    Stone Mountain Park
    Saturday 15 November 2014
.

The Cradle

I have lived long enough.

My way of life is fall'n into the sere,

the yellow leaf.

Macbeth.  Act 5, Scene 3.

 

© 141114-004 Big Leaf
  Magnolia macrophylla
  Stone Mountain Park
  Friday 14 November 2014
.

Heart size.

Simplicity, the guise.

Elegance, the prize.

Heart size.

 

 

© 141110-007 Redbud Leaf
  Cercis canadensis
  Stone Mountain Park
  Monday 10 November 2014
.

Leaf Works

Towering Chestnut Oak with

Magnificently furrowed bark

Sustains a delicate leaf.

© 141110-005 Chestnut Oak
  Quercus prinus
  Stone Mountain Park
  Monday 10 November 2014
.

Trails by Klimt

Stroll November trails

From the brush of Gustav Klimt.

 

 

© 141108-005 Trail with Colors
    Stone Mountain Park
    Saturday 08 November 2014
.

Composing with color

The Fall palette

with goldenrod spice

brews escapist tea.

 

© 141107-001 Fall Palette
    Stone Mountain Park
    Friday 07 November 2014
.

Shrubs need love too

     This Winged Sumac, and its sister Sumacs, sometimes take a hit for suspected toxic berries (not true) and the shrub's relentless drive to invade and overtake old fields and natural areas.  Standing here, I prefer to admire its capacity, each chilly Fall night, to create a flood of anthocyanins, the pigments responsible for these intense reds temporarily stippled across the granite outcrop.

 

© 141101-008 Winged Sumac
  Rhus copallinum
  Stone Mountain Park
  Saturday 01 November 2014
.

Greetings:

Pine Cones of the World
Shout, "Happy Holidays!"




© 061106-005 Red Leaves w. Cone
Stone Mountain Park
Monday 06 November 2006

the lonely pine

Lone Pine! Lone Pine!
Our hearts are numbly aching
For those who come no more.
     -  Lone Pine, by E. Harrington


This determined Pine found a fragile niche
where hope could use some help.

© 071111-012 Lone Pine on Granite Slope
Stone Mountain Park
Sunday 11 November 2007
.

 

Hexagonal Ice Columns

+24°F (-4°C) last night,
        dashed to the Park early.
Located a patch of hexagonal ice columns,
        still nurtured by water vapor deposition.



     “This particular crystal habit of ice is characterized by hexagonal cross section in a plane perpendicular to the long direction of the columns. Growth by vapor deposition at temperatures of from -3° to about -8°C leads to growth of columnar crystals, though other crystal features (needles, scrolls) also appear in this temperature interval, depending on the degree of water vapor super saturation.”  American Meteorological Society.



©131128-001 Frost Ice Columns
Stone Mountain Park
Thursday 28 November 2013
.

to the light, RUN

within minutes
seconds really
rising early
had its reward

©131013-025 Sunday Sunrise
Stone Mountain Park
Sunday 13 October 2013
.

Paths that pose

     It’s often easy to overlook Park trails as anything more than a nice place to walk. Yet, at the right moment, any trail may glow with impressive beauty, and personality. Composition, color and texture. And one’s calming awareness of footprints by the thousands. Some planted ages ago.




©101125-009 Path with Beech Leaves
Stone Mountain Park
Thursday 25 November 2010
.

Toe music

     A cold 30 degrees in the Park this morning.  Leaving the heater behind, I tramped into an edgy wind, one blithely indifferent to jacket, gloves, sox, and all good intentions. My chilly toes cried out, “there’s no hiding place, there’s no hiding place down here,” apparently referring to sentiments in an Old Carter Family song by that name. (All my toes are old enough to remember such things.) Swept along thru the forest, the meander passed by Snow Mountain, currently under construction to receive the rush of holiday visitors anxious to witness and experience the ‘real stuff’ way down south in Georgia.

 

©131124-006 Snow Mountain
Stone Mountain Park
Sunday 24 November 2013