I visited my parents up in the North Carolina mountains in mid November. It was clearly a time of transition from Fall to Winter. Leaves still falling, but most of them a dull brown already blanketing the ground and crunching loudly when you walk. Very few flowers, mushrooms, or insects. I’ve never taken so few photos on a trip up there! Oh, but believe me, I still have plenty…

The Ruins Trail (Alexander Farm ruins) at Warren Wilson College:

The old dam at Warren Wilson College:

I haven’t posted in a while but not for lack of things to post! Just busy! I promise this week I am going to post it all… starting with this- My latest bird nest! It is a pair of Florida Scrub-Jay’s.

I did this painting a couple months ago and forgot to post it! I just remembered when I had a lovely encounter with some Scrub-Jay’s this week at a place called Lyonia Preserve.

Florida Scrub-Jay’s are very friendly birds. At Lyonia they have no fear of people and will even land on you. One landed on my head, and I gotta say it is kind of terrifying to have birds flying at your face!! But very cool, there are no other birds like them. They earn extra points for being family birds that work together to protect each other and raise their young.

Everything was looking beautiful after a thunderstorm this afternoon. I’m sure all the mushrooms didn’t just pop out of the ground right after the rain, but it looked like they did!

I have been too busy working for many outdoor adventures, but I did get to spare a couple hours to visit a local park. What wonders! I am crazy about this little mushroom…

And many other things…

The last one is a very camouflaged insect on a tree trunk. One must look closely in the woods, you never know what you will find.

Tropical Storm Debby is putting a damper on my daily outside time. It is rainy, humid, and very dreary. More like stay inside with soup and a movie weather.

But there is some magic to be found springing up with all this rain…

We’ve had a lot of rain lately, which means mushrooms are popping up all over the woods…

I have finished a new Mushroom Chart, I am calling it “The Morbid Mushrooms” because for this one I picked the ones with the creepiest names out there. I love having collections of paintings so I did this one in thinking it could compliment my previous Mushroom Chart, or the Carnivorous Plants Chart!

Featuring…
Witch’s Hat
Corpse Finder
Deadly Dapperling
Poison Pie
Destroying Angel
Deadly Parasol
Fool’s Mushroom
Red-staining Inocybe
Devil’s Urn
The Sickener
Dead Man’s Fingers
Deadly Webcap
Autumn Skull Cap

I end with the first Mushroom Chart I did a while back.

Both will be available as prints when my shop opens back up in May!

What to take photos of when there are no birds around? Hmmm…

Those baby pine trees are my favorite, so cute sprouting up everywhere.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here are some photos from the last few years…

Last year we drove Black Point Drive (bird watching drive). There were surprisingly few birds.

In 2009 my family and hiked and did a letterbox on the trail.

In 2008 I stayed inside and made Christmas decorations. I love to decorate for Christmas on Thanksgiving while watching the parade.

I love fall! But sadly we had a high of 85 today.