Monday, November 3, 2008

shades of brown



We awoke this morning to heavy clouds and wind twirling the tops of the tall oak and poplar trees around the house. It wasn't cold (temps in the 50's), but it looked it.  All day the fall colors were intense in the overcast light.  

It was late afternoon when I finally got to take Radu and Winston on a walk.  I wandered around the kudzu hill, checking out some mushroom things I've been keeping an eye on for a couple of weeks.  They have become the weirdest looking things I have ever seen.  I thought they were mushrooms, but now I think they are stalked puffballs, even if the stalks are almost as big around as the puff.  The first time I saw them, the top of the things had big "cracks" that were dark brown in the buff colored mushroom top.  Cool, I thought.  Each time I checked them the cracks got deeper, wider, and darker.  Today they were all covered with light-brown spores, the cracks all but invisible.   I tapped one with a stick - TAP TAP TAP - and it sounded hollow, and a fine puff of spores floated up above the mushroom, or whatever it is.  I thought about drawing it, but ....   Ok, ok,  maybe next week, when I come back from my niece's wedding in Georgia, I'll draw the THINGS.   Today I decided to sit out in the fading afternoon light and draw some of the frost-bitten wild flowers and grass on the pipeline.   

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