A walk through the in between

The remnant of the cold front are blowing quickly to the south.

On Wednesday morning the dog and I walked to the west end of the dirt road to see what was going on.  The wind wind was blowing hard from the north after the passage of a cold front the night before.  The temperature in the mid 40's felt quite cool but the humidity was falling fast which helped dramatically.  I felt uncomfortably cold in the icy wind but as usual the dog loved the nippy weather.  Once we arrived in the cover of the trees , toward the end of the road, the wind was less brisk and the walking was a lot more comfortable.  As we walked along I was able to hear the wind blowing noisily through the treetops making them wave and causing leaves to fall all around us.   Winter in Grand Bay is coming on strong this year and making a fairly strong and early showing.   I don't know if this early cold indicates colder weather in our future or not because some years when it was cold early it became very hot in late December.  It is difficult to judge the weather here based on short term trends.  Grand Bay weather is fickle.

The Bracken fern like to grow 
in pinestraw.

Once we arrived at the end of the road I found some very green ferns growing in the pine straw.  This is the Bracken fern.  It grows all over the world and the young fiddleheads are eaten by many cultures as we would asparagus. I have looked into preparation and found a site called Honestfood.net which tells how to safely eat a bracken fern.  There is some care and caution needed as these ferns can contain high amounts of a carcinogen or cancer causing agent.  These ferns will probably be killed when the temperatures go below freezing on a regular basis and return again in the spring.

The Sweet Gum leaves go out 
in a flash of glory.

As we headed home  I found that some of the red leaves had collected in the grass along the road and created a snapshot of where we are now in the season.  Neither here nor there.  Not fall and not yet winter.

The clouds were overcome by the
deep blue sky.

When I arrived home I lay on the grass and looked up at the clouds whisking past and it was a very soothing scene.   The blue sky and white fluffy clouds moving swiftly to the south signal good weather ahead for the next few days.  We will celebrate Thanksgiving day tomorrow and we have much to be thankful for.  Thanks for stopping by to read my blog today.  Bye.

Warming up to winter

The sun is so far south now that the road is in the shadow of 
the trees till nearly 900 am.

On Sunday morning the dog and had a very cold start to our walk.  The wind was blowing hard from the northeast and the sky was a clear blue with a few fast moving cirrus clouds floating by.  The temperature was cold for me at 40 degrees with humidity in the 50 or 60 percent range.  When the wind blows from the north east after a front moves through we pretty much know it will not be long before the weather begins to warm up and become cloudy again.   We walked through the yard of the unoccupied home and saw a very pink Camellia growing there.

Alabama's state flower, the Camellia. 

 The Camellia is very popular here on the gulf coast because it blooms in cold weather when just about everything else is dead.  It is an evergreen so it's leaves stay on all through the year.

The trail to the woods is no longer in 
green grass since the frost.

We walked on down the trail through the grass to the opening that leads to the trail in the woods. I stopped to look at the beautiful view of the big blue sky spreading out over what was once the Soybean field. 

Such a beautiful morning should not be wasted inside.

The crisp clear air and bright sunshine make the available colors extremely bright and give the scene a life of it's own. 

We continued into the woods and saw that one Golden Orb spider is still hanging high above the trail even after several cold snaps.

The woods are quiet,
except for the wind.

These spiders may very well make it through the winter down there in the woods but as of yet I have not seen evidence that they do.  I have often wondered about whether or not there is any great difference in the air temperature in the deep woods as compared with the open areas where we humans live.  In my mind I it seems it would be warmer in the woods with all of the decomposing material on the forest floor.   Sounds like a job for the scientific method.  I will let you know how it goes.  Thanks for reading my blog today.  I hope it is as pretty where you are as it is here. If not, just wait, it soon will be.  Bye.

We're nutty about pecans

The dog was making shadow puppets on the road. 

Friday morning the air was cool in the mid 50's with nice mostly clear skies.  The dog and I walked up to the Turnip green field to have a look at their progress.  When we arrived we found the greens are now enormous. They are so green they hurt your eyes to look at.  More are being harvested as this is the time of the year everyone likes to have greens for supper.

One more sunny day for these greens.

People here say that greens are not good to eat until they have had a frost fall on them so I guess they should be ready now.   I love fried greens with hot buttered cornbread and butter beans.
We crossed the street to walk on the dirt road beside a former watermelon field. There are some pecan trees along the road and only one of them has produced any pecans.

A good looking example of  a pecan.

 I had to crack open a good many pecans before I could find a good one.  I think these trees have suffered from the fungus that made most of the pecan trees in this area loose their leaves and nuts earlier this year.

The dog always pays attention to me when I have pecans.

Once the dog heard me cracking  and eating the pecans he came running.  He really likes eating them and he will sometimes crack them himself although he much prefers that I do it because then he doesn't have to eat any of the shells which are bitter.  I really like freshly shelled pecans in blueberry muffins. They are really good to warm you up on a cold morning or evening.    I wonder if I have any of that Martha White muffin mix at home.   Thanks for reading my blog today.  Bye.

Yes we have some bananas, We have some bananas today.

The sky is so blue it hurts your eyes. 

Tuesday morning the dog and I walked out into a beautiful morning.  The temperature was in the low 60's and the humidity was around 80 percent.    High up in the blue sky the cirrus clouds were rushing past once again adding their dynamic character to an otherwise clear sky.   We headed to the west end of the dirt road to survey our domain and visit with the local residents.   I have enjoyed my walks so much more since the weather has gotten cooler.  Although it has only been cold in the morning a couple of times so far this fall, I know that the weather is fickle and change is likely in our future.

The Smilax berries are pretty.

As we walked I found that the Smilax Sarsaparilla has produced it's orange berries in a small bunch along it's vine.  The Smilax is a plant which produces a root structure that looks similar to a ginger root only larger.  The root is very aromatic and can be eaten when it is small though I don't know why you would want to. The tips of the Smilax springtime vines can be clipped and cooked as wild asparagus.   Consult eattheweeds.com for a description of the plant as it is easily confused with virginia creeper which is poisonous.

First green, then yellow, then brown, then delicious.

When we arrived home I walked into the garage and snapped a photo of a bunch of bananas that I cut down on Monday evening.   I hung them in the garage to allow them to ripen slowly.   I have done this before and the bananas were spectacular.  I am hoping to repeat those results again this year.   I will document their change until they are ripe so we will have a record of the time required for them to reach ripeness.  Thanks for reading my blog today.  Bye.

Low speed walk under high speed clouds

It looks normal but it was windy and cold.   

Wednesday morning I walked out of my door and 34 degree air slapped me in the face.  I have not experienced air this cold in nearly 9 months.  The dog was ready for anything though now that nature's air conditioner was running full blast.  We started walking up to the west end of the dirt road fighting a a cold north wind along the way.

The high clouds were
on their way to somewhere.

As we went  I could not help but be in awe of the beautiful cloud patterns that were drifting over head.  The very high cirrus clouds were being swept along to the east by the wind at amazing speeds. To me it appeared as though the clouds were being stretched out over vast distances by the wind.  It was striking against such a blue sky.  When the cold air arrives it causes me to loose my easy going gait.  I have a tendency to walk quicker and I feel like I just want to get the walk over with.  Fortunately the dog is there to slow me down and he helps me to stop and notice things I might otherwise miss.

Spider or Catipillar ?
You make the call.

 Today when I stopped to play tug with a stick he was chewing on I noticed a leaf rolling insect has made a cocoon from a bent oak leaf.  I could not tell if this was a spider or a Caterpillar so it could be either one.

The fungus is having breakfast. 

 We moved along and came to the end of the road where I spotted more of those bracket fungi.  These were on a very rotten standing tree that is about ready to fall. There were also some very nice looking red lichens growing on the wood.   Good old fungus.  What would we do with out it?  I'll tell you what we would do, we would be up to our eyeballs in dead trees.  The fungus breaks the dead trunks down into particles that other creatures can consume and break down even further until the nutrients can be used by the tree roots to make more trees.  The woods are the ultimate recycling center.  Nothing is wasted.  Thanks for reading my blog today.  Stay warm.  Bye.