In the Right Place: Evil

Now that the leaves are disappearing, we can see the invaders casting aside their cautionary yellow sheaths and exposing their dangerous red weapons.

The golden husks on the Asian Bittersweet vines (Celastrus orbiculatus) are opening to offer, like the Devil in Eden, their destructive red berries to the innocent birds. The birds then spread this tempting and beautiful evil seed so profusely that humankind has not found an effective way to prevent the python-like vines from sprouting anew to suffocate more and more trees.

The State of Maine has admitted that this plant’s killing is too rampant to be stopped. However, to slow down the damage, it has listed the Asian Bittersweet as an invasive species and prohibited its sale and distribution here.

There is a native version, equally beautiful and aptly named American Bittersweet (Celastrus scandens), that is environmentally innocuous. But, that’s another story. (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: All in the Family

Today we’ll consider two cousins that we saw on Wednesday (October 16). We suspect that they were the last of their kind that we’ll see here in 2019. Each is well under two inches long and both are members of the famous Odonata family, but there the similarity stops.

The one shown above apparently is a Blue-Fronted Dancer, a Damselfly that slowly rises and dips in flight, as if doing a solitary waltz. Below, we see an apparent Autumn Meadowhawk, a Dragonfly that skims over the ground and water like a strafing fighter plane.

The physical differences between all Damselfly and all Dragonfly members of the Family are most easily seen when the cousins are resting: The smaller Damsels politely fold their wings together above their bodies; the impatient Dragons hold their wings out, ready to leave.

There are other differences: Damsels have “bugged” eyes with spaces between them, while Dragons have larger, wrap-around eyes; the Damsels’ two sets of wings are usually the same size and shape, while the Dragons’ hind wings are larger than their front ones; the Damsels’ delicate abdomens seem to be brittle-thin, while the Dragons’ stouter abdomens are sturdy-looking.

(Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Goodbyes

As the days get shorter and the temperatures get cooler, the sun’s last reflections linger longer and their colors get warmer, at least as seen from here. This is the sun’s burnt orange goodbye to us last night, as watched from Great Cove Ridge.

Red sunsets are on their way as we approach the last of Daylight Savings Time on November 3. (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Chortling

Thursday’s massive Nor’Easter brought some destruction and inconvenience, but the storm also brought much-needed rain that filled wells and revived our dry woodland streams. Here we see one of our favorite mossy-banked streams happily chortling over the obstacles in its path yesterday.

As it flowed and the fall foliage fell into it, the stream created its own flowing abstract art that constantly changed from one beautiful interpretation to another:

(Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Richness

Waking up to today’s silent beauty was quite a contrast to confronting yesterday’s howling weather spirits. This morning, as the temperature reached for 50 degrees (F), several does were still abed in our North Field, languidly enjoying the rising sun while their yearlings played nearby.

Several hundred yards beyond them, Dream On, a local fishing vessel, was taking a shortcut through the blue waters of Great Cove. It was a moment of real richness.

Nonetheless, as we speak, we’re still on generator and there is no reliable prediction as to when we’ll get regular power restored. That’s okay, if the propane holds out. (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Cozy

As we speak, the rain is coming down steadily; wind gusts of up to 60 miles per hour are sending fusillades of water across the landscape; trees are down and, where they impede traffic, being sawed by good Samaritans, and we’re one of 157 thousand homes without power in Maine. But, not to worry; our generator is keeping us cozy.

We went down to Naskeag Harbor early this morning to see how the fishing vessels were doing. They seemed fine, as you can see above.. Here’s what Naskeag Point Looked like:

The weather tellers say that this Nor’Easter will abate as the day moves on, which would be nice. (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: A Good One

There’s no doubt about it: we’re having a good fall here, colorwise. Among all the eye-catching sights, the fruit-producing trees are especially stunning now. Most of their fruit is still red, orange, yellow, and/or green, in vivid contrast to the absence or autumnal spectrum of their leaves.

Above, we see a cluster of Japanese Crabapple fruits in a tree that was mostly devoid of leaves yesterday. Gere we have a fruiting Mountain Ash with turning leaves:

(Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Hightailing

Many of our Red Squirrels are now growing into their thicker, salty gray winter coats and storing food obsessively. They’re blissfully unaware that about 75 percent of their young will not survive their first year, according to some research, and they and many of their mature relatives also stand a good chance of suffering an early and violent death.

These rodents are a favorite food of just about every meat-eating animal bigger than they are and the State allows them to be hunted as pests, without limit. In the woods, they’re constant complainers that loudly growl and curse at intruders, which can be a bad idea when the intruder is a predator or squirrel-hater. And then there is their suicidal practice of hightailing it across busy roads.

Nonetheless, we have plenty of Red Squirrels and many people consider them cute – until they invade the house or garage. (Brooklin, Maine) See also the image in the first Comment space.

In the Right Place: Weapon of Choice

Here we see last night’s full Hunter’s Moon rising above Naskeag Harbor. This bright October moon reportedly was named by Native Americans to commemorate the period after the harvest when they would hunt in the newly-cleared fields for animals, especially deer, that came to scavenge the remains of the crops.

Some Native Americans also called the October full moon the Blood Moon, apparently another reference to hunting, or the Sanguine Moon, which apparently was a reference to the optimism of the annual fall feast that many tribes held.

Curiously, the Hunter’s Moon occurs this year during our archery hunting season for deer (October 5 through November 1). Guess what was the weapon of choice for many Native Americans when hunting deer before the Europeans arrived? (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Fall Colors

The Fall colors this year are vibrant as we speak, especially in some Blueberry fields where the little plants are doing a good job of holding their breaths and turning scarlet. The occasional bursts of bright yellow Goldenrod in those fields provide an autumnal contrast.

The blending of color has been good, especially during a light rain, when the fallen foliage collects itself into abstract art and the living leaves become misty hues. Errant leaves that flutter into lonely places become jewelry or collectors of magnifying raindrops.

Ferns are giving their last performances with their usual dramatic yellow and bronze flare before they exit with dry punctuation.

Raspberry bush leaves are turning brown before they drop, Viburnum leaves are mostly staying red, and Stewartia leaves are like pouring purple wine.

In the garden, the last of the Hydrangia blooms are meeting the first of the Montauk (Fall) Daisies, while the Japenese Silver Grass is turning gold.

(Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Winterization

We suspect that most people don’t think much about what happens when Maine waterfronts are winterized by a force of talented people and specialized equipment, a process that has been ongoing around here.

First, of course, the boats have to be hauled out of the water, cleaned, and stored. Smaller ones usually are “hardscaped” in sheds; larger ones may be wrapped in protective material and left outside.

Mooring buoys and tackle usually are removed from the water to avoid damage and dislocation from ice that might take the mooring for a ride or damage the buoy. Here we see Vulcan, a local mooring tender, pulling larger moorings from Great Cove recently. Mooring anchors and tackle can be quite heavy. (One published rule of thumb for larger vessels is that the mooring anchor(s) should be 10 times heavier than the length of the boat.)

Moorings for smaller boats often can be pulled up by chain and ratchet on a raft, as we see the WoodenBoat School harbor staff doing recently. (Another rule of thumb is that a 200-pound mooring anchor is adequate for vessels of less than 25 feet.) Mushroom anchors, which bury themselves in the mud, are a favorite here. Mooring gear often is left outside during the winter, although some buoys may be put under cover.

Pier floats and their gangways can suffer serious damage from ice and winter winds; they are removed from all non-commercial piers here, as far as we can tell. Below, we see A.H. Marine’s unique unnamed workboat approaching our neighbors’ pier in Great Cove yesterday morning at high tide. This Brooklin vessel is there to remove the pier float and gangway, after shooing away the daily coffee klatch of Herring Gulls on the float.

The crew of this highly modified, no-name barge first unfastens the gangway and places it on the pier. Crew members then untie the float and push it to shore, where it is tied onto a wooden runway there. (If it is not high enough on the runway, our neighbor will pull it to higher ground with a tractor.) Then, no-name departs for her next job.

(Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: The Eyes Have It

This image of a male Wood Duck appeared yesterday in our monthly column in the Ellsworth American.

To read the column, click here: http://www.5backroad.com/montly-column

(Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: A Tree for All Seasons

When it comes to year-round botanical wardrobes, nothing is more consistently fashionable than a Japanese Stewartia (Stewartia pseudocamellia). It’s a smallish (about 25-foot), non-native tree that likes Maine and shows its appreciation by always being seasonally sartorial.

As you can see above, it’s now wearing its Burgundy-wine-colored leaf cloak, accessorized with pale green buds. Soon, the cloak will be discarded and we’ll gasp at the beauty of its shapely, textured trunk, which goes very well with snow:

In the spring, it will cloak itself in luminescent green leaves studded with subtle reddish buds:

In summer, the Stewartia likes to wear a lot of attention-getting jewelry in the form of yellow-centered white flowers.

Some think those blossoms look like camellia flowers, hence the tree’s species name (pseudocamellia), which translates to imitation camellia. (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Smiles

Yesterday morning, the sun peeked into the open door of this boat shed and found Aretha, an 11½-foot shellback dinghy. She seemed to smile poignantly at the attention.

Well, actually, we were the ones who were poignant as we also peered into that WoodenBoat School building. We knew that the door soon would seal her and her kind into that shadowy place. We also knew that our clear memories of Aretha’s summer days cheerily bobbing on the water would fade into uncertainty. She won’t feel direct sunlight again until late May or early June of 2020. We hope to be there when it makes her smile. (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: In the Eye of the Beholder

“Found Object Art” is defined as art created from objects that are not made for creating art and that usually have functional purposes. Such art often makes one see the ordinary in extraordinary ways.

 Here we see a local rectangles-within-rectangles creation that might meet the test. This creation also might be considered part of the “Temporary” (or “Ephemeral”) Art school, at least in part. It lasted about 20 minutes – until the unknowing but fastidious creator finished a nearby job and put the ladders back into his truck.

 Nonetheless, abstract artists that can find spirituality in geometric forms (as did Piet Mondrian), probably would find intriguing symbolism in this scene with or without the ladders. (Brooklin, Maine) Click on image to enlarge it.

In the Right Place: Unpredictable

It’s raining here as we speak and periodic wind gusts are reaching 19 miles per hour, according to closest of the three weather stations that we monitor. Weather reports are a significant part of the lives of small coastal town people, like traffic reports and subway delay alerts for people in large cities.

Nonetheless, we do have unreported and unpredictable squalls – very localized darkenings bringing wind, rain, snow, and/or sleet to a small area for a short time, often while calmer weather is just yards away. We got caught in one Friday afternoon (October 4).

Ancient apple trees became silhouetted in skies that were half storm and half sunshine; Great Cove turned almost black with fleeting patches of gray, while the sea’s horizon remained sunny and blue. After a little rain, our sunny afternoon returned in about 10 minutes as if nothing had happened.

(Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Ins and Outs

Here we see Brooklin’s Colby & Bryce yesterday at the Town Pier.

A crew member said that the vessel was bringing in her “outside” lobster traps to store for the winter, but that she’ll still fish “inside” awhile. That is, she’ll stop fishing the (outside) federal waters that are from three to 200 miles from shore, but continue to fish the (inside) Maine waters that extend to three miles offshore of the State. (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Warm-Up Act

Hundreds of thousands of ferns, especially the large Cinnamon Ferns, are now putting on a woodlands imitation of a fireworks display, shooting copper, bronze and gold fronds into the air before they burn out into char.

Some of the fronds are creating colors that we’ll see nowhere else, perhaps never again:

 We hope that this is a good omen for the main act, our fall foliage.

(Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Personal Taste

We like this image of an ebbing tide in Great Cove last week, but we’re not sure why.

Perhaps it’s a scene in search of a metaphor. Perhaps it’s just a rock in the water. But, it doesn’t matter; we like it. (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Righteous

This is a good time to go mushroom hunting, whether for food, visual delight, or to play the often-frustrating game of trying to identify all the strange and colorful fungi in your own area. The image immediately below, we guess, is of Hygrocybe coccinea, which also is known as the Scarlet Hood, Scarlet Waxcap, and – our favorite – Righteous Red Waxy Cap:

In addition to the Righteous specimen above, we’ve been working on identifying the following from a recent walk; see how you do:

1 2

3 4

5 6

7 8

9 10

(Brooklin, Maine)