Detroit in December!

These were taken right down the street from my house a couple days ago. Of course, flowering pears are aliens, so they do not respond to the climate cues as well as native trees. But meanwhile, it's been so cold, probably the leaves are mostly fallen now. The poinsettias are at our local florist, just down the street. That shot was taken at night.

I'm afraid our long warmish fall is over and winter is here to stay--we're supposed to get two inches of snow tomorrow.

And below is my latest art piece (click to view it larger):

More Transitions

Now we are seeing three seasons, winter, fall and summer. Winter in the Santas, fall in the colored leaves (at St. Paul's Church, along Lakeshore!) and summer in the fact that we still have flowers blooming OUTSIDE--but probably not for much longer!

At the Belle Isle Zoo Again

We went near sunset. Many of the leaves have fallen, but some still remain. I would have liked to have explored more, but we would have been visible to the nearby road had we gone any further. We were not vandalizing, just looking and taking pictures, but we wouldn't anyone to think we were responsible for all the destruction there.

1)BB observes the old zoo from underneath the elevated walkways.
2)inside the lady's room
3)inside the office/entryway
4)a leaf in the courtyard.

Enjoy your week!

Nashua Creek from Vista Way Bridge on Belle Isle

Here are two views of Nashua Creek from Vista Way Bridge on Belle Isle. The first was taken about ten seconds before the second. I also ortonized it slightly after the fact. To take the second one, I rotated my body about ten degrees. This is for VP who praised the pristine scene. In the second one, you can see the garbage I edited out with the way I chose to stand. (There is a LOT of garbage on Belle Isle!)

Also, these pictures were taken from the same spot as these, and if you click on this link you will see how much the scene has changed in color in a about a week's time, or just over that.

In the last picture, the map of The Nashua Creek trail, We parked at the red star with the purple square and walked the white trail to the zoo and through the zoo and back to the white trail to Vista way and back the edge of Nashua Creek on the White trail to the car. The photos were taken from the red star with the orange square. Click here to see Allen Chartier's map of Belle Isle from which this came. The woods in the center of Belle Isle hold the trails.

Balduck Park

It's nearly the peak of fall color, but starting to go by in some spots, as the leaves have been falling like mad. I walk by here nearly every day. It is right in Detroit. The park has baseball diamonds, a man-made sledding hill, a picnic area and the woods. Guess where I like to go.

The sign for the Aspen Trail is on the fence and there is no trail entrance nearby and no aspens, but there is a woodland trail. And lots of color right now!

Just leaves

All around, signs of fall. I need to do some city sidewalk scenes with all the fallen leaves before too many of them get raked up.

Overlapping seasons

The fallen leaves are making tannin prints on the sidewalk, the snow and ice is covering the Thanksgiving pumpkins, the stores are already full of holiday decorations, and some of the homes are switching from fall to Christmas.

leaves

The leaves are almost entirely off the trees. And those on the ground have mostly lost all their color.

*frosted leaf this morning
*leaves in the frozen bird bath (it's very cold here)
*leaves the sidewalk

These are all red oak leaves, which were last to fall. Quercus rubra.

Autumn!

I'm home. When I left, it was summer and when I returned, it was
autumn. It rained the whole time I was gone. I was camping and got
good and wet, but the Dodge Poetry Festival was fantastic!

Recognize this plant? (It's poison ivy!)