wilted

Flowers at the end of life wear an interesting form of beauty.

gray

It's a gray and wet day today, matching my last day in Acadia. Luckily a good rain jacket allowed me to go on a reasonable outside walk this afternoon.

It's going to take a lot of water to erase the extreme drought that remains in place here; the rain is welcome.

along Park Loop Road on a foggy morning

photos! Acadia

Photos from my recent wander in Acadia National Park are available for viewing in the gallery autumn, Acadia.

from the top of Cadillac Mountain

Interested in words too? My ramblings are in the blog entries tagged Acadia 2016-10.

caught

A fallen leaf, caught between two blades of tall marsh grass, creates a sense of serenity.

blue surround

I love this splash of autumn color surrounded by the clear blue of the sky above and reflecting water below.

early voting

This is the first year that Massachusetts has early voting.

It was highlighted in the Boston Globe and I received a robocall from the town where I live with a notification of the location and the hours. Early voting runs from October 24th through November 4th, all day (business hours), every day except Sunday. The ability to avoid what I believe will be very busy polling places on election day seems like a good thing.

I voted yesterday.

from Cadillac Mountain

Evergreens share space with brightly colored ground cover and bushes. It was a beauty of a fall day on top of Cadillac Mountain.

in the garden

Last Monday was probably my last visit of "flower season" at The Garden at Pineland Farms. Most of the flowers were well past peak but a few late season beauties caught my eye.

fog

It rained overnight, and our morning wanders were decorated by fog!

We headed into Acadia for a walk along Ocean Path, sometimes walking on the rocks, sometimes on the trail. It almost felt like we had the park to ourselves this morning. Sea gulls wandered and ocean waves crashed on the rocks, creating a kind of music.

After our walk we headed home.

Fog followed us between Ellsworth and Bangor, alternating between a reasonable sight line and very soupy. Denise said she wanted to stop to take a picture of a field where she spotted bright red ground plants as we drove by on Monday. She thought the red and the fog would make an interesting contrast, and I think she was right. The field was in the middle of the heavy fog - we were very lucky to see it as we drove past. We turned around and headed back, looking for (and finding) a good off-of-the-road spot for the car.

Now that we're home again I think I'll help Denise find some more places to wander.

--- Rover

foggy morning in Acadia National Park


along Route 1A, somewhere between Ellsworth & Bangor, Maine

park walks

It was a good day for walking today. The air was crisp with temperatures in the low 50s. I was warm enough, and Denise had the right layers so she was warm too.

We started out with a walk from our B&B to Sieur de Monts Spring, following quiet and mostly empty roads before jumping onto Jesup Path in the park. The trail turns into a boardwalk above what is usually a wet area; the drought must have followed us here because the water was mostly missing.

Park Loop Road was our focus for the rest of the day. We left the car at the Sand Beach parking lot and walked and walked. Whenever Denise saw something interesting we stopped. Sometimes it was a photo stop. Sometimes it was a sit and absorb the beauty around us stop. Both were good.

After we switched from using our feet to sitting in a car we continued our moving and stopping behavior.

Clouds rolled in during the afternoon. When Denise saw the cloud-painted sky she decided we should head back up Cadillac Mountain to see the late day light. It was pretty chilly up there, but oh! it was beautiful. I think I'm starting to understand why Denise likes the sky when it is decorated by clouds.

--- Rover

seeking color

Instead of doing a long walk today we drove and walked, looking for interesting color and reflections, stopping whenever something interesting jumped into Denise's eyes. I thought our first stop would be Asticou Azalea Garden. It wasn't; we stopped two places before arriving there.

There were still clouds in the sky when we headed out this morning. They disappeared by the time we arrived at the azalea garden leaving a pure blue sky.

Our next stop was Jordan Pond. The drought we are having at home seems to have touched this area too; there was less water in the pond than I expected. We did an out-and-back walk, wandering into the woods whenever we saw something interesting.

Even though the sky was not wearing Denise's preferred cloud decorations, we drove to the top of Cadillac Mountain. It was a warm afternoon so it was very comfortable up there even though it was windy enough for me to stay in the camera bag for safety. Denise traded stories with strangers while we all enjoyed the sunshine at the top of the mountain.

--- Rover

subtle color as seen from the top of Cadillac Mountain

to Schoodic

It was a combination driving and wandering day today. We followed I-95 to Bangor, then headed toward the coast. When we got to Ellsworth we turned to the northeast. Our wandering destination for today was the Schoodic Peninsula.

I think Schoodic is one of Denise's favorite places in the park. We walked over the rocks.

OK, really, I bounced and Denise walked. Happy...

We walked, we looked at interesting shapes and at pools of water on the rocks. We listened to the ocean and watched the waves. I agree with Denise - Schoodic is wonderful.

--- Rover

highway views

There were several spots along the road where Denise really wanted to stop to take a picture. She behaved though; it's not good to stop to play when you're driving on a limited access highway.

The color was pretty amazing. Trees painted yellow, orange, and red popped out, with evergreens adding a touch of darker color. As we moved further to the north and east we started seeing some bare branches and a slightly quieter tone of color. It was beautiful!

--- Rover

reflection captured on a quiet a back road

red

It's funny, I don't remember seeing oak leaves turn to brilliant colors in the fall. This year multiple varieties of oak have jumped in front of my eyes, some wearing the brown color I remember, some wearing bright red.

soon...

Our habit is to visit Acadia National Park at least twice a year, once in the spring, once in the fall. Next week is our fall visit; I told Denise I would write our blog entries so she can focus on photos.

We'll start with a quick visit with a friend in Yarmouth, Maine before heading further to the north and east. I know I want to bounce on the rocks of the Schoodic Peninsula. I'd like to see the ocean from the shore and from the top of Cadillac Mountain, and I plan to help Denise choose some of our hikes. I'm always ready for an Acadia visit!

--- Rover

mirrored

A simple scene wears quiet beauty. Evergreens mixed with deciduous trees wearing autumn colors are reflected in a pond at Harold Parker State Forest.

lines and leaves

Trees wearing colors leaves reflect in a pond, creating a vision of autumn.

purple petals

Looking across a bed of flowers I see a sea of purple.

flowers into fall

The temperature this morning dipped into the 30s, not quite to the freezing mark, but still cold. I headed to the garden late this afternoon to check the state of the flowers. There are some that continue to wear bright colors.

song of the sea

It was a clear, cool, and windy day, a good day for a walk by the sea.

The ocean was beautiful, waves rolling and crashing as low tide approached. The sound of crashing waves accompanied me as I walked the beach at the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge.

rain

Today's all day rain was welcome; we need many more wet days to make up the current rainfall deficit.

The gray skies made me treasure yesterday's wander with my camera. The bright red edges of the leaves pulled me closer to this plant where I found tiny purplish buds adding to the autumn decoration.

sculpted

Leaves are wearing green touched in places with a red paintbrush, showing holes chewed by little creatures.

Treasured Lands

I ordered a copy of QT Luong's photo book titled Treasured Lands before its October 1st publication date. He is a photographer whose work I admire; when I heard he was publishing a photo book with shots from all of our national parks I knew the book was one I would treasure.

I've just started wandering through the book. I quickly jumped through several chapters to see the photos of my favorite parks. Now I think it's time to begin at the beginning, to enjoy the photos, and probably to tag new parks that I need to visit.

leaves

Early autumn, leaves start to wear new colors. This maple chose rusty red as a complement to growing season green.

late flowers

Dahlias continue to delight the senses as temperatures edge into autumn levels.

a surprise

I was surprised to see a hillside sprouting pops of crocus as I wandered in Maudslay State Park this morning.

While I was introduced to autumn crocus last month, these appear to me to be the same crocus that covered the hill in the spring. No matter which name the flowers wear, they added a bit of beauty to my day.

berries, bright

Leaves remain green but the berries on this tree are showing bright color.

droplets

Light rain fell on and off today, decorating leaves with droplets of water.

flannel sheets

Temperatures during the past week have reflected autumn with cooler days and cooler nights.

Fresh air always feels good (to me) but the chill overnight was something I noticed with my summer jersey sheets on the bed. For some reason it takes longer than it should for me to realize that a change is needed. Yesterday I (finally) switched to my used-in-colder-weather flannel sheets. The flannel promotes comfortable movement without hitting cold spots. It was time.

And oh! can you believe it's October!?!