Autumn Leaves + Winter Sunshine

“She seemed a compound of the autumn leaves and the winter sunshine …” ― Virginia Woolf, Night and Day

That’s the way this day in late November felt, now recollected: a compound of autumn leaves and winter sunshine, walking woods and field, the small system of Winant Trails in the state capital of Concord, New Hampshire.

Autumn leaves aplenty, some still clinging, many underfoot:

fallleafytrailWinantTrailsConcordNH25Nov2017rockyleafytrailWinantTrailsConcordNH25Nov2017trailtreesfallleavesWinantTrailsConcordNH25Nov2017starttrailtrailsignWinantTrailsConcordNH25Nov2017shinyleavestrailWinantTrailsConcordNH25Nov2017

And the sunshine!

beechswirlleavesWinantTrailsConcordNH25Nov2017
beech leaves swirling in sun
shortrockcairncircleWinantTrailsConcordNH25Nov2017
rock cairn and rock circle with oaks leaves and sun

Sunshine on wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens), some wine-leaved with red berries …

redleavedwintergreenredberryWinantTrailsConcordNH25Nov2017

And sunshine on this claw-like fungus …

pointyclawfangfunguscontexttreeWinantTrailsConcordNH25Nov2017pointyclawfangfunguscontextWinantTrailsConcordNH25Nov2017pointyclawfangfungusWinantTrailsConcordNH25Nov2017

I think this is turkey tail fungus (Trametes versicolor) but it might be false … I think because I can see tiny pores, it’s the real thing:

Here’s a little jelly fungus:

yellowjellyfungusWinantTrailsConcordNH25Nov2017

Some other little things —

Partridge berry (Mitchella repens), which has berries all winter long:

partridgeberryredberryWinantTrailsConcordNH25Nov2017

Leaves and stem of another prostrate forest floor plant, trailing arbutus (Epigaea repens), whose white or pink flowers I look for in May here in N.H.:

trailingarbutusleavesstemWinantTrailsConcordNH25Nov2017

This was another little thing I saw, not completely natural:

foundBeMineheartWinantTrailsConcordNH25Nov2017

And then these green washes: algae on fungi in a stump, like a gaping mouth with vertical teeth …

greenalgaefungustreestumpWinantTrailsConcordNH25Nov2017

… And greenness on this log; what made the perfect little holes?:

greenwavypatternsperfectholescuttreeWinantTrailsConcordNH25Nov2017

Moss grows in a cut tree stump:

mossgrowingincutstumpWinantTrailsConcordNH25Nov2017

Random trees are labelled:

AmericanhornbeamlabelbarktreeWinantTrailsConcordNH25Nov2017

And there’s a fenced-in water tank at the top of the trails:

watertowerskycloudsWinantTrailsConcordNH25Nov2017

A clearing midway up the trails provides long views of far-off mountains:

viewtowardmountainsWinantTrailsConcordNH25Nov2017

In fact, you can see snow on one mountain, which was not widespread in late November but is covering everything here now.

viewCardiganMountainmaybeWinantTrailsConcordNH25Nov2017

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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