The First Half of November
The Colors of November were brown (oaks and grasses), white (frost and snow), and yellow (tamaracks, beech, oaks, and sunrises). With a few blues and reds tossed in.
Shortly before 8 AM I took a photo of Mount Ascutney, similar to the one at the top of this blog.
Below are two photos taken from the same spot two minutes apart, looking in different directions. In the top photo, the peaks are (left to right) Moose Mountain South Peak and North Peak, Holts Ledge (center), and Smarts Mountain.
Thirty minutes later, the sun was just peeking through the fog on Lake Mascoma.
While Jann and I walked in Etna in the afternoon, I made this motion-blur photo.
I love backlight, when the light source is behind the subject. With this light the milkweed in our yard glowed.
And then that evening it snowed.
Dorothy Byrne has created a pocket park in Etna with two chairs for bikers and hikers that have climbed the hills from three directions.
I liked the muted yellows and the blue sky in this scene.
A friend and I took a 17 mile bike ride along the Northern Rail Trail on this cold day. Returning, a few miles from our cars, I noticed some nice clouds over Lake Mascoma. I went back by car. The clouds were not as nice as I remembered but still the reflection in the calm lake was very nice. This image is composed of six photos taken with an iPhone.
Hiking in Lebanon, we found a pumpkin that perhaps had eaten too much candy on Halloween.
I never tire of taking photos of the Baltic Mill in Enfield. Here the building is reflected in the calm water just above the dam providing a somewhat-puzzling effect.
That evening there was a conjunction of Venus and the Moon around sunset. They were a bit closer earlier than in the photo below.
On a much warmer day than our previous ride, a friend and I pedaled 19 miles from Canaan, through Orange, to Grafton and back.
At Mirror Lake in Canaan we found some colorful winterberries and about 70 Canada Geese with Mount Cardigan in the background. The geese were absent on our return trip.
We passed through “The Great Cut” in Orange which is the height of land separating the Connecticut and Merrimack watersheds. Interestingly, when walking the rail trail it is hard to tell if you are going slightly uphill or downhill. When on a bike, it is much easier to tell.
On our return trip I photographed a beautiful home with red barns.
Jann and I hiked Hogback Road in Norwich late morning. At one point many leaves tumbled down in front of us.
This was a day filled with photography. It started at 6:30 AM in Hanover with a view of Mount Ascutney in the early light.
At Post Pond in Lyme, I took a few photos of the Pinnacle up high against the morning sky above the frost and fog.
I liked this simple pattern in the calm water of the pond.
Still in Lyme, I took some photos of scenes in the fog.
The sun broke through the fog and I took this photo of a nice field and pond.
Along Route 10 in Orford, I liked the way the sun lit just a part of the scene with the river fog in the background.
Still in Orford, the oaks were glorious in the 8 AM sunlight. The frost on the low plants and the reflections in the water added a great touch.
In Lyme I took another photo of The Pinnacle from a different angle.
During a late morning walk with Jann in Hanover, we found some very yellow oak leaves. Oak and beech are two species that hang onto their leaves.
As the rain was letting up and some clouds could be seen on the horizon, I made some “Circles of Confusion” photos of raindrops on a window. Out of focus points grow large, and even larger when very out of focus.
That evening there were some iridescent clouds around the moon.
There was not much color in the sky over Lake Mascoma, but the sun peering through the fog as a duck flew past was quite nice.
And the reflections in the lake created an interesting shape.
In Orford I took some photos of Jacob’s Brook.
Nearby there was a group of puffball mushrooms surrounded by oak leaves.
I revisited the scene I had photographed two days before. It was interesting to see how it had changed in 49 hours.
In Lyme I found a sugar house in the fog.
And a cascading brook.
The fog and clouds were quite beautiful at Post Pond.
That afternoon, Jann and I hiked in Lyme, and I took a photo of some oak leaves hanging tough.
It snowed that evening.
There was snow in the hills in Enfield the next morning.
There was a bit of color in the sky over Crystal Lake.
The early light in the snow-topped hill was nicely reflected in the water of the wetlands. This is an excellent situation for reflections — when the water is in the shade and the objects reflected are in the sun.
I found a similar situation with shade and sun at a pond in Hanover.
There was a trace of snow on the ground in this early morning photo of Mount Ascutney from Hanover.
I revisited the tamaracks and photographed them before 8 AM.
Nearby was a small tree nicely side-lit against a dark background.
The chairs in the pocket park were snow covered.
Not far away was a backlit scene with a sun star.
Still well before 9 AM, the sky nicely mirrored the snowy ground.
The first half of November ended with more oak leaves. These were on Crystal Lake at sunrise.
And along the rail trail near Lake Mascoma, a scary rope swing waited for spring.
Spring starts in four months.