Tag: Fall colors

Falling for Autumn

Post author By Karen GoatKeeper
Post date October 25, 2024

Picking out a picture book I found “Pete the Cat Falling for Autumn” and cringed a bit. Still, I checked it out as appropriate to the season.

My Opinion of Autumn

Autumn is a prelude to winter. Going out to the barn in the dark and cold is not my idea of fun. Dealing with cold animals is no fun for them or me.

Then there is putting on all those layers of clothes in the attempt to stay warm. When it really gets cold, my layers include long johns, jeans, flannel shirt, vest, hoodie and jacket. It takes almost as long putting everything on as it does to do chores!

In addition, autumn is the end of the summer garden, wildflower hikes and basking in the warmth. It brings killing frost and clearing out the dead plants from the garden.

Such thoughts make autumn one of my least favorite times of year.

Hiking one of the trails at Montauk State Park, we crossed this ravine. It was mid-afternoon with the sun lighting up the colors on the hill above us.

“Pete the Cat Falling for Autumn”

I do enjoy the Pete the Cat picture books. I opened this book. Guess what? Pete wasn’t thrilled with the end of summer, beginning of autumn either.

As I turned the pages to see Pete’s discoveries, I found many of them resonated with me. It wasn’t just the colorful leaves. There were many things to like about autumn.

It made me think of some of the things I do like about autumn. Pumpkin cookies top my list. This is one of the recipes in “The Pumpkin Project”.

There may not be lots of flowers, but nature hikes are still good. I’ve been out admiring the fall colors around home and at Montauk State Park.

Fall colors are really vivid this fall for some reason. The only real rain in months was when remnants of Hurricane Helene went by. Yet, even the oaks that normally turn a dusky red are glowing reds and oranges. This view was worth the walk up and around the hill above our house.

A New Opinion?

Autumn will still not be a favorite season. However, after thinking about the nice things in autumn, it isn’t so bad. The problem wasn’t with autumn. It was with winter cold and dark.

Tags Fall colors, Hiking, Montauk State Park, Pete the Cat

Latest From High Reaches

Fall Parade of Asters

Post author By Karen GoatKeeper
Post date September 27, 2024

Most of the sunflowers have gone to seed. They are replaced by the fall parade of asters painting the roadsides white to blue to lavender.

Although fall is not my favorite season as it is a reminder winter is close behind, the parade of asters is lovely. Wild ones may not be as big or showy as garden varieties, but they are prolific.

Several asters have large sprays of half inch flowerheads. Some are lavender. This one is white. I’m not sure which one this is – yet.

Which Is Which?

Like the sunflowers, asters are difficult to identify. They are like the sunflowers in that they have a ring of ray flowers surrounding a disk of tube flowers.

In the summer, the fleabanes started blooming. These look a lot like an aster, but their rays are very thin and numerous. Heath asters are the same size and similar in color, but their rays look fat and are a single ring fewer in number.

When I take pictures of the asters, there are several important ones, if I want to identify the aster. There is the flower, but the cup under the flower is important too. The leaf matters as some clasp the stem, others have long petioles. The petioles may have wings.

Spreading aster is the first larger aster to bloom along my Ozark gravel road. The flower heads are a bit over an inch across spread out along the several stems reaching out across the ground. The heart-shaped leaves clasp the stems. The cup under the flowerhead is light green and smooth with a few darker green bits.

Some leaves are long with a sharp point. Others are heart shaped. Some plants have basal leaves growing from the ground and stem leaves hanging on the flower stalks. Others have only stem leaves.

Stems are important. Some are smooth and shiny or grooved. Occasional hairs adorn some stems. Short fuzz lines others. Longer fuzz makes the stems look soft and white.

New England Aster is a tall plant, up to six feet, with numerous branches topped with flowers. It is sold through nurseries. I enjoy seeing it growing along my Ozark gravel road where the ground is a bit moist. Many pollinators including bumblebees tromp over the many tube flowers sipping nectar.

Admiring the Parade of Asters

The identity of the different asters matters for my Dent County Flora project. However, the asters are worth looking at for their beauty.

My favorite is the New England Aster with its deep purple rays and golden disk. There were lots of these along the road for years until it got mowed too often. They are making a comeback this year.

All of the many asters, large and small, make my fall walks pleasant.

Tags Fall colors, identifying wildflowers, Ozark wildflowers

Latest From High Reaches

Hidden Bushes

Post author By Karen GoatKeeper
Post date November 12, 2022

Over the summer all the plants leaf out. Hidden bushes are there in plain sight, but hiding among all the green leaves.

Autumn arrived. Yellows blazed out. As those leaves fell, the oranges and reds glowed on the hillsides.

Now those leaves are gone. Most of the trees are bare brown and gray branches. Most bushes are the same. Not all bushes.

The hidden bushes are now easy to spot. They are the ones still hanging onto some of their red leaves. These are often the bushes I didn’t know grew here.

This Carolina Buckthorn is a native shrub in the family Rhamnaceae. It can be a large bush, but is usually smaller and hidden by other bushes growing around it. In the fall it is one of the last to lose all of its leaves. Then its red to yellow leaves with the strong ribs are easy to spot. Some even still have black berries although those are relished by many birds.

All summer I’ve been walking the trails at ShawneeMac Conservation Area because I saw many bushes I never saw here. Some I was glad I didn’t see as they are invasive. Some I assumed didn’t grow here.

My Hidden Bushes

The hidden bushes are proving me wrong in several cases. Carolina Buckthorn is one of them. It’s a pretty bush and can get ten feet tall. I’d never seen it except around the Lakes.

Burning Bush is one I’m not as glad to know grows here. It can become quite a nuisance. There are several still sporting red leaves and fruit.

The advice is to kill out invasive species. I’m sure the reasons are good. But it is a lost cause. Nurseries still sell these plants. People still plant these plants. They have spread into many places.

Eliminating these plants in one area does nothing about the rest. As soon as you look the other way, more of them are growing where you thought they were no more.

At first glance this bush is a lot like the Carolina Buckthorn and may be called that by some people. There are several differences in the shape of the leaves, the darker coloring and the occasional thorns on the twigs. Now that these hidden bushes have been spotted, I can watch them in the spring to verify what its name is.

Another hidden bush is not identified yet. The tentative name is for a bush unknown in the area and rare in the Bootheel. Now these hidden bushes are spotted, I can keep an eye on them in the spring when all those green leaves try to camouflage them again.

Tags Fall colors, Ozark wild plants

Latest From High Reaches

Winter Watch

Post author By Karen GoatKeeper
Post date October 14, 2022

Fall is here in the Ozarks, yoyo season. Winter watch is on as days alternate between fall and winter.

On the Hills

Sycamore trees are striking in the fall with their white bark and muticolored leaves. These should turn yellow. A good number stay green as they fall to the ground. Many turn brown.

On the hills the trees are sporting their fall colors. It’s interesting to watch the change creep over the hills. Robust summer green takes on a yellow tinge for a week or so. Overnight the tinge becomes the dominant color as hickories, pawpaws, elms and hackberries turn various hues of brilliant yellow. Oaks take on a dusky red.

Approaching winter doesn’t faze my High Reaches Nubian dairy goats. They are spending the days gobbling up persimmons, fallen leaves, acorns and grass. This is a time of plenty for them.

Wind comes through for the winter watch. Leaves start their spirals to the ground. The black walnuts are first to have bare branches except for the walnuts. These seem to delight in watching me pick them up, then littering the ground again.

I miss walnut season. No one is buying walnuts in town this year. That’s a shame as my trees have big crops and I have a friend willing to cart them away, those not left for the squirrels.

In the Garden

My raised garden bed has several crops growing including spinach, flat leaf parsley, mizuna and winter radishes. These wil take some cold, but the plastic turns the bed into a little greenhouse making them much happier.

The garden too is on winter watch. Light frosts, a couple of hard frosts have laid the summer crops low. The summer squash had buffers around it and the plants are still trying to grow more squash.

Tomatoes are gone. I’ve pulled the vines off the shade house and will put plastic over it for the winter. Cabbage, bok choi and Chinese cabbage need little protection, but grow faster with warmer air around them. The Chinese celery and rosemary need protection.

The raised bed has already been covered with plastic overnight. For now, the cover is pushed back as fall is in style this week. Winter watch begins again on Sunday.

Tadpoles still swim around in three rain barrels. The ones with legs might beat winter. The ones without will perish when winter pushes fall away leaving ice on the water, branches bare and a garden put to bed for a few months.

Tags Fall colors, fall gardening, Ozarks