I took a number of photographs this autumn which never quite caught the glory of the colors. I’ll post a few anyway.

This and three following three photographs were taken on 14 October. The colors are nearing their brightest.

Our woods are primarily hickory and oak with a few scattered pine, maple, beech, sumac, and other trees. The autumn colors tend to range from gold to brown.

Another spot of red, a maple leaf.

I periodically took photos from our yard looking straight up. This was taken on 14 October and we are now beginning to be able to see more sky during the day and stars at night.

This is another view of the sky from our yard taken on 24 October. Less leaves, more sky. The color shift is obvious compared to the previous photo.

A view of the sky taken on 27 October, just a few days after the previous photo. More leaves have fallen. By mid-November almost all of the leaves will be off the trees that lose theirs.

We have deer in our woods but most often the only obvious sign is either their tracks or when they’ve been in our yard and eaten the hostas.

When we see deer it usually is when they are moving. Running away, that bright white flick of the tail is commonest. Even if we do spot a deer in the woods after a moment they seem to disappear, melt into the background.

Last winter I posted a picture of a deer bed in the snow. That’s the most obvious signs of where they’ve spent the night. Other times of the year there are spots in the woods like the above photo where their bed can be seen in the flattened leaves (the palest area in the photo). Sometimes in other seasons the bed will be a spot of bare ground on the otherwise leaf covered forest floor.

There’s a deer hidden in this photo. The deer is in the upper right hand quadrant.

This is the enlarged quadrant; maybe now you can see the deer.

This is a further enlargement of the quadrant. Now you can easily see the deer.

A neighbor has a group of deer that spend a lot of time in and near his yard. He has a salt block out for them and also feeds them cracked corn at night. This deer was photographed from the paved road below his place. We both watched each other for a time.

Most deer are shyer. I was able to walk closer and take more photographs.

Last week we had a young doe spend a bit of time in our yard. Molly first spotted it from the kitchen when the doe was by the corner of the shop.

The doe slowly browsed on dry leaves and other munchables. She appreciated the ivy growing on the ground and up the shop wall.

The doe came around the hickory on the west side of the shop.

There is a cluster of plants in the center of the yard and the doe enjoyed munching the hosta seeds hanging from their stalk.

I began raking leaves in our yard in October and finished (finally) in late November. I carried leaves over to the garden to cover the paths and beds. I carried leaves over to the compost pile in the garden. There are two large piles of leaves on the edge of the yard and finally I resorted to the mower to chop up the leaves and blow them away.

This is a patch of wintergreen that grows in the northeast corner of our house where the house and addition meet and is shaded from sun.

Except for a few plants, like wintergreen, almost all ground vegetation is bare of leaves. Christmas ferns are a hardy exception. Even in a cold and snowy winter there will be green leaves visible in early January.

Most trees lose their dead leaves; beeches are an exception. These are young beeches down in the hollow to the west of our home. A deep gully is between these trees and the rocks and hillside opposite.

For some reason textures seem to stand out in autumn and winter. This is the inside of a tall stump, the remains of a hollow tree that fell years ago.

Every evening before bringing in the cats there’s the walk. This started with Bobo and Kitty Boy is an eager adherent. The walk is about a half hour sitting with the cats before coming inside for dinner. Bobo loved walking rather than sitting until he got older which is why it’s called the walk. Kitty Boy likes to sit on or near the walker. If other cats are nearby he’ll sometimes perform antics batting and chasing a nut or a branch. In this photo Molly and Kitty Boy are sitting on the shack porch. Kitty Boy is looking toward the large cistern. Tansy was nearby under the shack.

Sunset sometimes lights up the trees and hillside with color, even when it is not autumn. In autumn, though, the colors are dramatic. This is a photo taken late in the day in the hollow to the west of our home looking up toward the ridge where our home is.