Although many think of tourmaline as individual crystals in pink, green or in the famous water melon tourmaline – a combination of those two, it can often be found embedded in quartz, or in a matrix with other minerals.
The photos below show a variety of examples including a striking cluster with pinkish-lavender lapidolite (and a closer in view of this one), as well as a number with tourmaline crystals embedded in quartz.
Examples may be found from sources around the world, and some of them, especially those with larger crystals, can make remarkably beautiful display specimens. Most of those shown in the photos below are on the smaller side. A prior blog post discussed tourmaline’s remarkable color range.
According to Menotomy Rocks Park, A Centennial History by Don Mattheisen, White Pines were planted after a devastating gypsy and brown moth invasion in 1902. It was hoped that the needles would not interest these hungry pests. In any case, no such massive invasion of destructive moths recurred then or now.
As to the unusual abundance of pinecones, recent high winds might have played a role in bringing them down, but could not explain why there were so many on the trees in the first place. Perhaps the White Pines planted in the 1900’s were approaching the end of their natural lives and providing for the perpetuation of their species. Or newly abundant rains the last few years had created favorable conditions for baby trees. Squirrels seem to be going after the seeds already.
There are places in the Park where many young evergreens all seem to be about the same height. I will keep an eye out for more patches of young trees springing up, especially where sunlight reaches the forest floor.
There is something about rivers and their many moods. Perhaps it has to do how the weather affects everything or how they flow. Some, as in this case, seem to breathe with the tides inviting me to slow down and pay attention.
The photos below were taken over a number of years when I visited an Inn that was right on the Kennebunk River, In Maine, USA. Once I saw a seal stick its head out. Ducks often gathered in the early morning. Mostly I just let go into all that was before me, allowing all that radiance to seep in.
I was walking around Hills Pond yesterday and came across a woman holding a small pumpkin up in one hand. I asked her if she would mind stopping so I could get a photo of the lovely image. She told me she was bringing that pumpkin to mark the spot where Scouts would be leaving 75 other pumpkins for the “Spooky Walk” that evening.
Sure enough, I noticed her pumpkin sitting on a hill as I continued around the pond and decided to return in the hopes of getting a few good photos. A full moon should help even though it would be getting quite dark by the time of the event. I had seen people setting up for the Spooky Walk in a previous year and it looked like it could be quite interesting.
As she had told me would be the case, that “starter” pumpkin had been joined by many others – a back row spelled out “S P O O K Y.” Hopefully, the photos below will give you some idea of the highly creative nature of this home spun event.
As I walked back along the path through the deep woods I was glad that I had remembered to bring a flashlight. By that time, quite a few other points of light were coming toward me along the path. I could hear parents reassuring their children that the pond where the event takes place was quite nearby.
I have noticed that the colors this fall have been a bit different. While there are fewer trees or plants with deep purples and bright reds, there is a richness. It does not feel like something is missing. More like under the surface a dreamy depth has been added. And it is all so welcoming – like you could curl up and take a nap in the soft colors’ warm embrace.
These images were taken in the last few days at Menotomy Rocks Park in Arlington, Massachusetts USA with its paths, woods, pond and outcrops, as well as in nearby Lexington. Besides woods, Lexington’s Dunbar Meadow conservation area has truly spectacular wetlands and meadows.
I expected this fall’s crop of mushrooms would be different from last season’s given our highly changeable conditions these days.
Fungi, slime molds and lichens can tell when conditions are right to produce fruiting bodies and disperse spores. That window of opportunity appeared to come quite early in spring and summer this year. But interesting examples are still popping up. If I manage to capture worthy portraits of their splendid forms, I will add them below.
The tiny fruiting bodies above are those of lichen – not mushrooms
When I went for my walk this morning, there was quite a gathering on the crest of the hill in Robbins Farm Park. The sun had not quite risen and a pink dawn mixed with gray clouds. There could easily be over a hundred of them – one of the largest gatherings I had ever seen in this park.
I asked a young man why they were here, he told me that it was “Senior Sunrise.” Evidently, my town’s high school takes advantage of the opportunity that the park presents for seniors to witness the dawn of a new day over Boston.
I had come out hoping to catch sight of the “super blue moon.” This second full moon of the month is referred to as a “blue moon” because they are relatively rare. In this case, it was also a “supermoon” which occurs when the moon is closest to us in its orbit around earth making the full moon appear a bit larger than usual.
I was lucky to catch it – just visible in a gap between trees to my right:
As the crowd began to disperse, I overheard a young lady say, “The bad classes only got worse, while the good classes got better but I find it hard to concentrate after 45 minutes no matter what class it is. I’m glad that’s over.”
Although I refuse to consider myself superstitious, I was surprised to realize that getting older has only made me hope all the more that the conjunction of a lovely sunrise and a super blue moon might prove particularly auspicious for these young people who were moving on with their lives in particularly challenging times.
At first, I thought it might be the unusually warm days and all the rain, but lilies, especially the common orange day lilies (not true lilies) that were brought by early European settlers, had long graced my town. Perhaps it was just that specific gardeners had planted lilies where I could not help but notice their joyful spirit.
A woman told me that she was the gardener who had planted all the different lilies in the “hellstrip” by the sidewalk. She told me that she did not own the land where they were planted. I said I was sure the town would not mind, especially as she had carefully added stakes to keep the riot of color and form from flopping out into the street.
Once again it has been an unusually rainy spring and summer with mushrooms in mossy spots in the woods as well as in our yards and even cracks in sidewalks.
Now that I have been paying more careful attention for a couple of years, I am finding examples that you might not normally think of as mushrooms, as well as slime molds with their fruiting bodies deposited where the wind can help with propagation.
Wasn’t it a bit early for mushrooms? I had never seen such a fuzzy yellow growth. Perhaps it was something else. When I posted a photo online, I learned it might be a young dyer’s polypore. Evidently, the timing of all kinds of things is more variable these days.
I found two. They both started out as fuzzy yellow lumps and kept changing. Dyer’s polypore seemed correct as there were certainly pores rather than the usual gills on the undersides.
I learned dyer’s polypores can be used to stain fibers a number of different colors – yellows, various shades of browns and even greens – depending on the type of fiber and how it is pretreated. This video shows it being used to dye wool lovely shades of yellow.
The first two photos below show the two I found mid-way through their cycle and the remaining photos show the changes that each went through closer in.
Young one – quite yellow and quite fuzzyBeginning to turn brownExpanding and flattening outChanging colors around the edgeGetting harder with light edgeAfter rainAnother young oneSeen from the sideA few days olderTurning colors and flattening outSeen from underneathAfter rainSeveral days laterGetting harder and drying out
Radiant Refuge 