A foggy walk in the woods

The weather around here has finally thawed enough for me to comfortably walk outside! I have been out there the past few months, just not so comfortably. A few days ago, a thick fog rolled in. I rushed out to a wooded area where I knew I could get some good, spooky fog photos. The two forest areas I visited did not disappoint! I find it interesting how these photos look like they could have been taken in November. These don't feel like March photos to me. Actually, I think the snow preserved those leaves in exactly the same place they were in November. Our winter came in really fast this year.

Looking up... If you've never tried taking a photo above your head in the woods, give it a shot. It's sometimes surprising to see what's directly above your head.

It was pretty peaceful in the forest. I saw one squirrel and heard loads of seagulls for some reason. 

This one is possibly my favorite photo of the group.

So this is a different forest area. It's actually named "Sherwood Forest". It's so hard to believe that this area can ever look as sparse as this. Not that this is all that sparse, it's just super dense with leaves during the rest of the year.

I call this giant fallen tree "The Snake Tree" and I'm sure you can see why!

I think this is the spookiest of the photos. I didn't feel spooked when I was actually there, but looking at this now, I am.

Anyone know what kind of tree this is? These look like little cherries or berries hanging from the branches. Whatever the little berries were, they were really rough and textured looking.

This is a favorite area of the woods for me. 

The water droplets were still hanging off the tree branches. If you look really closely, you might see some upside down tree shapes in those drops. I kept thinking that it had started to rain again when I was in the woods, because I thought I heard a steady rain. It was probably just the sound of the water that was already there dripping.

You guys might remember this last tree from a previous blog post. I can't even imagine how tall it is. I probably have a photo of this tree during every season, because I like its shape so much. 

Hope you guys enjoyed looking at these photos as much as I enjoyed revisiting them. It's amazing what I don't see until I get home and have a chance to study my photos. I was walking pretty quickly at the time, hoping to get these photos taken before the fog lifted or I got rained on! Luckily, neither of those two things happened. But now that I'm home looking these over, I'm liking what I'm seeing and thinking about maybe using some of these photos for some kind of future project. 

Bright Leaves on a Dark Day

Last Sunday was a dark, rainy day. I took a walk around a lot of tree-lined streets and a few forest areas. It was a good time to be out photographing trees and leaves, because the autumn colors had started to appear. The leaves have changed only recently. I like going out to take pictures after it has rained, because I can capture the raindrops, like in this pic I took of a leaf-covered street.

Looking up from the ground, this is the entrance to one of the forest areas I like to walk.

How beautiful are these wet leaves? I was getting a nice contrast between the leaves and that dark, wet pavement. 

Right as I was entering the forest, I heard some geese. I looked up and just had time to take a photo of them. I like how the geese are soft as the camera focused more on the branches.

Once in the forest, I turned around to take a pic of the path I'd just taken. It seems a little unusual to see this many orange and red leaves on the ground with nothing but leafy green trees above them. I don't think I've taken any pictures like these before. Usually, the leaves that are still on the trees have turned when the ground looks like this. I really like the contrast, though. It's like someone put down a leaf carpet.

Once out of the woods, I was walking along the sidewalk and got more leaves. 

Now into a different forest, which may look similar to the last one. I know the difference from walking these paths so many times, though. I'm recognizing the trees.

It's like the tips of these leaves got cold. 

This forest is super hilly. I've read that kids used to sled down these hills in the woods back in the day. As in 80 or so years ago. Can you imagine? I've walked these paths in winter and it can be interesting when there's ice.

Have you guys ever seen a black Maple tree?

I like the red stems.

I like walking this street. There's something comforting and old-timey about it. This is also a great place to find acorns! 

I hope you enjoyed this little virtual walk! It couldn't feel any more like Autumn out there. 🍁

Plants fit for a potion

Several days ago at our local park, I was taking some photos and felt a theme coming together. Something about the light at that time of evening and the unique plant names I saw made me feel like I was in a fairytale. The kind of fairytale where a witch lives in a forest and goes out to collect plants for her brew.

So after noticing a few unique plant names, I started looking for the most witch's brew-worthy ones I could find. If you're ready to use a little bit of imagination, you can take a fairytale tour of our local park and gardens with me.

Care to take a trip into the woods? Legend has it that there's a garden of magical plants on the other side of this forest. People say there is a witch who lives near these woods and collects the magical plants nearby for her secret potions. Let's see if we can find some of those plants...

Deeper and deeper into the forest we go...

There is a wise old tree gnome in this enchanted forest. Can you see him?

The tree gnome says "Just walk straight down this path and you will make it to the forest's clearing. You'll know you're in the right place, because you'll find a magic walking stick. Take it with you and you'll be sure to find all the magical plants you're looking for." Sure enough, at the forest's clearing it appears that someone has left you a walking stick for your journey:

And here is the herb garden!

What will we find here?

Our first find is The Wooly Woundwort:

Yes, this is as soft as it looks!

Sneezewort:

Sneezewort has some cool, patterned leaves:

Soapwort:

I wanted to see the results of boiling the roots/leaves of this plant, so I looked up some videos. You can get some pretty good lather out of these flowers! I was surprised to also find tons of recipes and soapwort products for sale!

Sneezeweed (not to be confused with Sneezewort)

Rough Horsetail:

It looks a lot like bamboo and has these cool little pinecone things:

Snake's Head Fritillary:

I love the name of this one, but it turns out I didn't take a picture of it! I took photos of three other plants, not knowing which was the Snake's Head. Turns out, this is a spring flower. So that's why it wasn't there. I had to look up Snake's Head Fritillary to see what it actually looks like. It's beautiful:

The Snake's Head Fritillary - A Chequered History

I'm trying to figure out the "Snake's Head" name. Maybe the checks on the flowers look like a diamondback snake? Those snakes have check type shapes on them anyway.

Dark Vader Lungwort

How threatening does this sound? Even the "Lungwort" part. It's a cute little polka-dot plant, though.

Primal Scream Daylily:

Prince Tut Papyrus

This made me wonder if there's a King Tut Papyrus that's maybe larger. I took a look and yes there is: King Tut Papyrus And yeah, King Tut is pretty big. The King can grow 48-72 inches tall!

Bonefish Coleus:

These really do resemble fish skeletons, don't they?

Dark Towers Beardtongue:

Dark Towers is a foreboding name. It makes me think of Dark Shadows. And the "Beardtongue" part is pretty creepy too if you visualize it. I wonder where that came from? OK, I just looked that up and got a result that has nothing to do with this photo. Supposedly, some types of beardtongue have the appearance of a hairy tongue protruding from a mouth. Eww.

It has a fittingly Gothic look for a plant named "Dark Towers".

Last but not least, Elvis Lives:

Appropriately, it looks like "The King" of hostas. It's massive!

So here we have what sounds like the perfect ingredients for a Witch's brew:

Wooly Woundwort
Sneezewort
Soapwort
Sneezeweed
Rough Horsetail
Snake's Head Fritillary
Dark Vader Lungwort
Primal Scream Daylily
Prince Tut Papyrus
Bonefish Coleus
Dark Towers Beardtongue
Elvis Lives

Wow, what do you think would happen if those were all mixed together?

Well, you have the chance to find out because guess whose house we've come across!

I think she'll be nice enough to cook us up some of our little finds from the garden. The kind old witch says we picked the winning combination for a lucky brew!

Well, after finding all these mysterious plants, and sampling some brew, it's time to head home. There are some curious creatures to see on the way back, like this friendly fish.

He looks so happy because he spotted that clover. The purple fish ate the clover right after I took this picture.

Another cool creature in the park was the hummingbird moth. If you've ever seen one of these, you know why they have that name. You'll see a large buzzing flying critter coming toward a flower and swear it's a hummingbird, but on closer inspection it's an insect.

I've seen orangish ones like in the first photo, but I'd never seen one with yellow stripes before. Their wings move incredibly fast, so they're a challenge to photograph.

Well, here's your entrance back to the woods. Hope you enjoyed this garden tour!

P.S. ~ A little piece of trivia: The word "wort" in a plant's name comes from the old English word "wyrt". "Wyrt" means "plant". You can go back further with the word and read a list of "wort" plants here: List of Worts