Only after the rain

I've always been detail oriented, but since I started taking pictures for this blog, I find myself looking at things in a different way. Especially the way light and water are mixed and present on a given plant.

It had been raining last night, and I woke up to sunlight painting pattens on my bedroom wall. Absolutely perfect conditions to find a spider web. But I would have to go looking now, before the sun burned off the beads of water on the fine stands of silk. I grabbed a quick breakfast and headed out.

It was chilly, fall is here. The leaves muffled the sound of my footsteps, everything was hushed, the calm after a storm. The air was so clean, I love the smell of fall. I crossed our dirt road, a small stream and followed a winding trail to the Flat Brook River.

I was thinking that the fields of tall grass by the river would have a good chance of holding a spider web.

Once I reached the fields, I stopped and looked around. I smiled and shook my head. Not a spider web, hundreds.

If you were to just glace at the field, you wouldn't see anything gut wet grass and that's about it. But if you take a lil time, and actually look, you'd see the hundreds of small, intricately woven strands of silk forming small insect death traps.

It was captivating, small beads of water clung to the fine stands of silk, and when the sunlight hit the webs it was an impressive sight.

I spent oven an hour looking at and taking pictures of the work of some of natures finest architects.

But, there are some things you cant capture with a camera. If you look at the water beaded webs from the right angle in the correct sunlight, tiny rainbows can be seen shimmering between the strands of silk.

I couldn't capture this in a picture, because it wasn't possible the get close enough to the web without block casting a shadow on the web.

Fascinating, how something so beautiful can only be seen after the rain, and before the sun burns off the rain/

An evening at lake Rutherford

                                     

It was late afternoon when I decided to take a walk and take these pictures. I'd been fishing (fishing, not catching) for the past two hours or so. It was kinda chilly, in the sun it was warm though. Ever notice how the sunlight is concentrated the last thirty minutes or so before the sun sets?

I sat down in the grass, and just sat there watching ducks fly in slow circles over the water. I looked up, and found the sun making the trees look contrasting colors. I decided to lay down and stayed there just looking up at the shadows and light on the trees, painting colors on the bark.

I love white birch trees, they never get very big but have a certain grace in there smooth white bark and small leaves.

Maple leaves are one of the first to turn from dark green to reds and yellows.

I flipped onto my stomach, and up close the moss looks like little foot hills.

The sun was starting to slide down close to the hills, so I decided to get a few shots of the flowers on the edge of the lake.

Thistles have some of the most beautiful shades of purple found in NJ

I noticed white puffs being tossed around by the mild breeze, there was about 100 of these plants next to the lake.

If you like to draw pine cones are a great thing to work with, all the cavities and spikes make it a challenge!

The lake was really low, and all the rocks where exposed. It gave the lake a very different look, it seemed more.... foreign somehow

I took one last shot before turning around and heading back, as soon as the sun fully dipped behind the hill it got chilly!

finding local history, lotsa acorns, and getting lost

It had been raining for a day or two, so I was ready to get out into sunshine yesterday afternoon! And before I continue, let me make a correction. I didn't get lost, I knew exactly where I was. I was somewhere in a State forest!

I found many leaves that had fallen in the storm, fall really is coming.

As anyone with oak trees near them knows, this is a year with alot of acorns!

  Not so pleasant on bare feet...

When I was little, I'd always use acorn caps as lil tea cups for my dolls. Do I still think they look like tea cups? Yes.

Fall is fungi season! All the different mushrooms are just starting to come out.

WE had gotten a pretty awesome storm the other night, A few trees didn't make it through.

These next pictures are of...well I don't know. I plan on exploring the area more, I was trying to local me house at this point. A found sooo many rock walls, some foundations to houses, and even  a well. Pretty cool if you ask me.

Who knows what I'll find next time!