Hammond Pond Reservation, on a cold colorless morning

[urbpan]

Winter conditions (let's be honest) make us look harder for the beauty and life. We stumbled upon a whole row of witch hazels that we had no idea were there. Since these are blooming in the fall, there's a good chance they are the native plant American Witch-hazel Hamamelis virginiana. (Putting that Sibley book to use right away.)






Poison ivy clings to trees with myriad nasty tendrils.




An oyster mushroom pokes out of a woodpecker hole.


Back at home I plucked a twig from a tree I wanted to identify, and inadvertently disturbed a spider.




Afterward we went to one of our old haunts, Steve's Kitchen in Allston, for eggs and coffee.

Comments

[belen1974.livejournal.com]

is it bad that the only comment i have is: wtf is that thing in her mug?????

just kidding, the other pictures are awesome as usual.

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

It's milk and coffee not quite mixed, dude.

Thanks!

[weofodthignen]

Gods, that just confirms me in my hatred of milk . . .

Wow, these are intriguing and wonderful.

M

[m0053.livejournal.com]

Love these pictures! We were just studying advanced and primitive flower structures in Dendrology this past week, and Witch Hazel was among the primitive ones we looked at.