Among Colors

Fresh Pond, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Autumn strolls are coated in colors...
   ... I feel the warmth and often think how autumn brings me closer to the Sun...

In summer, leaves absorb coming sunlight and transform the Sun's energy to the Life's energy.
It seems that most colors of the light's visible spectrum are being utilized...
   ... except the greens...
In autumn, chlorophyll - these green shades of life - is being withdrawn from the leaves...
   ... and the Sun's energy is released to the world... in million colors...

   ... I feel the warmth...

What About Birds?

Mass Audubon Drumlin Farm Wildlife Sanctuary, Lincoln, Massachusetts

Drumlin Farm... patches of farmlands, meadows, and woodlands...
  ... birds love this place... 
    ... it is autumn and many are gone... the ones that stay blend with the colors...
    ... looking for seeds, berries, worms...
    ... coming and going...  

    ... all is known - each berry, each grass, each leaf...
       ... and there is this comfort of being at home...

Southern Accents

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Sourwood or Sorrel Tree... or Oxydendrum arboreum...
This tree is native to eastern North America but I have never seen her in wild... and why?..
  'cause Sourwoods are at home in southern forests of the lower chain of the Appalachian Mountains.

I have learned about southern versus northern...
   ... longer days... more of sunlit and warm hours...
      ... more of radiant energy and southern extravaganza...

      ... which brings me back to this little tree...

The Month of Colors

Bradley Palmer State Park, Massachusetts

October is the month when trees seem to be all in work, preparing for the winter...

It all starts even earlier, says Peter Wohlleben in his book The Hidden Life of TREES. In late summer, the forest is in a strange mood... Exhaustion is setting in, and the trees are waiting for the stressful season to end. They feel just like we do after a busy day at work - ready for a well earned rest... Trees use last warm days to store energy and reserves from leaves. Also, they break down chlorophyll to be stored and reused by the next year's leaves...

As the chlorophyll is pulled out, the leaves change from green to endless shining colors... 
... and the trees are ready for a good winter's sleep...
   ... coloring the world into million blissful breaths...

The Story of Monarch

Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, Concord, Massachusetts

It is October on Great Meadows...
... Milkweed seeds are ready to leave... with their silky hairs, waiting for the wind...
   ... and Monarch butterfly comes to mind...

Monarch's life is inspiring storytelling of the nature's basis of being where all of IT matters...

The story begins (and ends) in central Mexico where Monarchs spend winters on just a few mountains in the microclimate of Oyamel (Abies Religiosa) trees. As the spring starts warming northern territories, the butterflies journey up north to Canada in four or five stops. On each stop, Monarch mother lays eggs on the leaves of Milkweeds and ends her life. Milkweeds provide food for her young and give them toxins for protection. In a matter of days, they transform to butterflies and take to the skies until the next patch of Milkweeds...
... and then the next... and the next...
... with the fourth (or fifth) generation of butterflies reaching the final destination.
In the fall, these "super" Monarchs head back to central Mexico by direct flight...
... where their life cycle begins again...

Milkweeds... Milkweeds... the name given to the toxic plants by humans...
... I wonder what is their name given by Monarchs ?...