hydrangea

Dove, Hydrangea and Burning Bush

brown dove
Last week I saw this brown mourning dove wander about in my yard.

dove on a wire
Soon after he noticed that I was following him (her?) around with my camera, he settled on this high phone wire in the back of my yard.

Oh, by the way, did you know that Noah sent out a dove: “And he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground.” But before the dove, he sent out a raven. I didn’t have any ravens showing up in my back yard.

burning bush bright red
My neighbor’s burning bush is quite spectacular – bright red at this time of year. Ah, another Biblical reference, except the burning bush doesn’t show up in the weekly Torah reading until winter time.

hydrangea flower dry
Here’s the how the dry oak leaf hydrangea flower looks – this photo was taken the same day as the red hydrangea leaf photos.

Red Foliage of New Jersey

foliage_red
Most all the leaves are now brown. Above is a multi-colored branch from East Jersey Olde Towne in Piscataway, taken two weeks ago.

hydrangea_red
My oak hydrangea (photographed last week) is even redder than it was a few weeks ago. What color.

For more photos with red, visit Ruby Tuesday:
rubyslippers

Signs of Times: Seasonal Shifts

bald_cypress_november
Here’s a leaf of my bald cypress, photo taken this November.

Gray Catbird in our Bald Cypress Tree, photo taken July 2009
The same bald cypress tree was photographed in July, with a gray catbird enjoying the branches.

hydrangea_november
My oak leaf hydrangea is almost all red.

hydrangea_october
It was much greener in October.

talltree_november
One neighbor’s tall maple was displaying yellow leaves in October.

birds-011
Here’s the same tree, back in January 2009. I looked an hour ago, and the tree is almost bare again, soon to look as it did in January.

For more Nature Notes or Signs of the Times, visit Rambling Woods.

Oak Leaf Hydrangea in Pink

Oak Leaf Hydrangea Turns Pink; Heuchera on the Side
Oak Leaf Hydrangea Turns Pink; Heuchera on the Side

Life has been busy. Birthday party on Sunday morning went well, and we (husband, middle son and I) went to see a movie about the 12th century scholar Rashi on Monday night (Rashi: A Light After the Dark Ages). I am trying hard to keep up with my work, so less time (and energy) to blog right now. Do I have anything interesting to report? Yesterday my car didn’t start in the Middlesex County College parking lot (it was lot 11 – they have lots of parking lots there) with three kids in the car. Triple A (AAA) fixed it – it needed a new battery – but while we awaiting AAA’s arrival, the girls (my daughter and her friend) found a little artificial stream to play in. They claimed to have seen two beavers, one a baby beaver. I was glad I didn’t have my camera, because I needed to focus on the matters at hand (getting the car fixed!).

A little less than a week ago I thought about writing a post called “Disagreeing Respectfully.” But then life got so busy, I can’t remember what I was going to say on the topic. Could be my subconscious need to avoid conflict.

Haveil Havalim, the blog carnival of the Jewish blogosphere, was hosted by Toby of Efrat in the Rolling Hills of Judea, The 4th of July Weekend Edition.

Did you have any car problems this week? Any other problems you want to talk about? Or you can just enjoy the oak leaf hydrangea with a bit of pink in the petals and the waving dotted heuchera (coral bells) next to the hydrangea flower.