zebra stripes

This palette! Those zebra-striped leaves! Sumac is always among the first leaves to turn each September, but this bush seems to have dried out mid-change. Not sure what happened, but in my mind, the results are fantastic.

dried staghorn sumac leaves in fall colors

Orange and Green

I don’t know if it  is simply the over-commercialization of Christmas, but I like orange-and-green a whole lot more than I like red-and-green as a color combination. So I am always thrilled to see the mountain-ash trees every autumn. And look how cute are those little stars at the base of the fruit?

American mountain ash is a northern tree.This particular tree is probably an ornamental cultivar. Here are some little know facts about mountain ash: American mountain-ash is a preferred browse for moose and white-tailed deer. Moose will eat foliage, twigs, and bark. Fishers, martens, snowshoe hares, and ruffed grouse also browse American mountain-ash.

American mountain-ash berries in mid-September (Sorbus americana)

One day in mid-September…

This photo does not do justice to what I saw today; a whole hillside full of gray dogwood with the sunlight catching the magenta stems, set against the wine-red and stilll-green leaves sprinkled with white berries.  I was gobsmacked. I was on a quiet side-road and screeched to a stop to see what it was. It was one of the prettiest early-autumn displays I have ever seen. I could not capture the magnitude and splendor of the display for STILL. So you get just this little snippet. But if you let your imagination run, you can probably conjure up a hillside of slant September light lighting up these magenta stems set against the deep wine-red leaves. Breathtaking.

gray dogwood (Cornus racemosa)

soaking rains make for plump berries

I have never seen such an abundant crop of highbush cranberries as we have this year. I am sure it is because of all the rain we had in June and July. Steve and I have an event tonight (for his book launch) … so I am rushing a bit and I am going to quote Wiki. If your are not familiar with highbush cranberry–it’s a northern thing–here is what Wiki has to say:

Although often called “highbush cranberry”, it is not a cranberry. The name comes from the red fruits which look superficially like cranberries, and have a similar flavor and ripen at the same time of year. After removing the large seeds, the fruits, sour and rich in vitamin C, can be eaten raw or cooked into a sauce to serve with meat or game.

highbush cranberries in September (Viburnum trilobum)

Is there anything more perfect than a vine-ripened tomato?

My love of tomatoes is so deep it is hard to explain. It is my favorite food. I like almost any dish made with tomatoes. Salsa made with perfectly ripe just-off-the-vine tomatoes sends me into ecstasy. This heirloom tomato (midnight roma) is the last one from our dock-garden. The color gradient caught my attention. I am not sure why it has that pointed tip. I am almost afraid to eat it. It will be 10 more months until I get another locally grown, perfectly ripe tomato. That’s probably too much pressure to put on one little cherry tomato. I hope it can live up to my expectation…10 months is a long time.

heirloom tomato (midnight roma)