When I posted the picture of the tree trunk and people ignoring it for the colored leaves, someone pointed that the roots are ignored too but just important. Well to take that a step farther, one must remember the ground the roots are in and the rock base where the ground rests on. The top of this rock wall is covered with hardwoods and pines and by this week, the contrast between the green and red foliage would be as striking as the ferns and red rocks below the trees.
Red and Green Below
The “leaf peepers” might not only ignore the tree trunks, but the late fall wildflowers too even if bright red and yellow like this little flower in the morning dew. A single blossom too little to be see driving by on the road but might catch your eye if a cluster of them are waving their colors in the breeze.
The Plains coreopsis, also known as Golden tickseed, Goldenwave, or Calliopsis, is a native wildflower to the Great Plains but has been introduced to most regions of the United States. And while the annual does not grow very tall and has to compete with taller grasses and wildflowers, it does attract a variety of insects such as bees, flies, butterflies and beetles.
And apparently some insect chewed a hole in the petal so while the people out driving looking for autumn leaf colors may ignore this wildflower, the insects didn’t!
Plains Coreopsis
With October around the corner, more and more “leaf peepers” will be out looking at the color leaves and most people will be looking up and the tree trunk will be ignored. It stands there silently supporting all the limbs that display the beautiful autumn leaves but it is often overlooked and forgotten.
Forgotten Tree Trunk
I wonder if this sea gull is keeping a watch on the time but then it probably doesn’t take 15 minutes to ‘unload’ and if it is trained sea gull, he will keep the white parking lines nice and white!
Unloading Sea Gull
This lab seemed to like retrieving the thrown tennis ball especially on a warm fall day in the 80s but I not sure I would like the 59ºF temperature of Lake Superior to go swimming in.
Retrieving Lab
The harbor in Cornucopia is protected by a breakwater which provides refuge from Lake Superior’s sometimes angry disposition. But sometimes the lake’s anger disposition still wins as it sounds like there were some issues after the current breakwater structure was built in 1957.
There is a long line of older wooden posts which probably was the original breakwater but are now abandon and feeling the pounding of Lake Superior. I saw requests for a breakwater for Cornucopia in 1911 so these weathered warriors probably started their duty sometime after the request was approved.
Weathered Wooden Warriors
Apparently these geese heard that hunting season was open and they are hiding in the reeds instead of the hunters.
Hiding Geese
While we had the autumnal equinox on Sunday and while the name equinox means ‘equal night’ in Latin, it wasn’t equal day and night on that day. The earth’s axis is not tilted away or towards the sun on the two equinoxes during the year but length of day wasn’t equal.
Since ‘sunrise’ is defined as the instant when the upper edge of the sun’s disk becomes visible above the horizon – not when the center of the sun is visible. In the same sense, ‘sunset’ refers to the moment the upper edge disappears below the horizon. At both instances, the center of the sun is below the horizon, and therefore the equinox day lasts a little longer than 12 hours.
And if the ‘center’ of the sunrise or sunset doesn’t add enough of a wrinkle, refraction and latitude play a factor also. The Earth’s atmosphere refracts sunlight and can appear to be six minutes longer in a day. And one’s latitude can vary the ‘equal day’ by days or weeks.
For me, today is the approximate date of ‘equal’ whereas the most southern cities in the United States have an extra four days before their ‘equal’ day and it doesn’t occur until October 17 if living five degrees north of the equator.
Equinox Sunset
A babbling stream can make a very soothing sound for one to enjoy and relax. And while this seems like a nice river with water creating gurgles and ripples around and over rocks, the sound was a bit noisier with the upper falls of the Siskiwit River upstream and the middle falls directly behind me.
The sound is not roaring as larger falls would generate as the Siskiwit Falls only drops twenty feet in a series of drops and slides, with the largest cascading slide having a drop of ten feet and the other three drops and slides averaging two to five feet as it empties into the Lake Superior less than a mile away. But little falls were still impressive as you could get right up to the falls and let the water spill over your hands as it dropped over the falls but one problem of getting so close, I kept getting drops of water on the camera lens.
Siskiwit Falls
The autumnal equinox occurred yesterday at 3:44 PM for my area and today marks the first full day of autumn. The trees must have been like me and haven’t looked at the calendar for a while as some of the trees were starting to show color before the equinox and this lonely leaf has changed color and has fallen already and now won’t be seen by the leaf ‘peepers’ who will soon take leisurely drives or walks to view the autumn range of colors.
Autumn Begins
