Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Under the Sea.......Dave's GB Fall Color Project

Have you ever went swimming and while underwater opened your eyes to look up at the sun through the water? It was a neat thing wasn't it? So different and wonderful.

I have been feeling like I am under the sea when looking up at the beautiful fall colors of trees. The sun shines through kind of like it does through the water. You know there is a sparkle coming from somewhere. But you can't see it for the water magnifies the sun's rays and somehow distorts the rays. Still you look because you are mesmerized by the way the sun's rays play on the surface of the water as you seek the sun. The leaves do the same by spreading the suns rays around through the canopy of the tree. Let's go under the sea to view some magical colors and sun.I think this was a maple. I took it in sunny Massachusetts on my recent trip to Maine. It truly gave me the feeling I was under the sea.

Forest pansy redbud. This guy just glows.

Sumac from Sumac Attack. Love the rainbow colors. Sadly, no blooms this year but that is okay. This is a volunteer sumac that is very low care. I love its spot and am letting it go wild. Perhaps it will someday reward me with blooms.

Japanese Maple in front of the house. This maple has not turned its color yet, but is a pleasure to enjoy when the sun hits it just right, as on this day.
A maple in Indiana. The colors were just glorious this past Sunday, the weather perfect for fall pictures....under the sea

Thanks for viewing my fall colors under the sea. For more fall colors do check out Dave at The Home Garden.

in the garden....

31 comments:

  1. Hi Tina - If I hurry, I'll be first today! Your description of being under the sea is perfect! And you captured it very well. I find those shots so challenging because the picture never seems to fully capture how it really looks - you did a great job!

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  2. We used to lie on our back under the trees when we were kids and see if we could find any "hidden" faces or creatures in the leaf patterns. A lady I knew kept a picture in her purse that she took, and she would pull it out at any opportunity to show you what she said was the face of Jesus in the leaves. I was never a deep believer in her picture, but I do feel more spiritual under a tree than under a steeple.

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  3. Hi Tina, how wonderful to have a sea of colorful leaves to swim in! This cold snap has started to turn our leaves also, I was beginning to think it wasn't going to happen and the leaves were just going to fall off without any pretty color. Did you get a frost? None here yet.
    Frances
    http://fairegarden.wordpress.com/

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  4. Tina,

    One of my favorite fall activities is looking at the sky through the leaves of the trees. So this is a double treat to visit you and see the sky and the beautiful fall trees. Very nice! Thank you!

    I just checked to see if we had frosted...no, but it seems we might have a hard freeze tonight...if I wait a few hours the forecast might change again!
    You're further north so how did you fair?

    Gail

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  5. I love seeing these fall trees Tina. And they are so striking against the beautiful blue sky!
    Thanks for sharing the pictures, and the link. I'll head over to Dave's after work!

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  6. very neat pictures!! I LOVE the first one especially.

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  7. What great pictures Tina. I too use to lie on my back & look up through the leaves to see what I could see. A very dark blue sky beyond made the leaves more vibrant.
    Turned really cold here. North wind blew yesterday so brought the cold air. Hope my garden has fared well.

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  8. Hi guys,
    Boy! We have lost most of our leaves long ago, some still remain, funny this year, I think because all the rain we had. Your looks to be the same, hopefully everyones will stretch out!

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  9. Those are beautiful photos Tina. I'm pretty sure that glimmery haze in the air is pollen;) Anyway that's what my allergies tell me. Just kidding. As much as I hated to see this first hard freeze, it will be a relief to my sinus.
    Marnie

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  10. What a great analogy for today's post Tina. :) I love the Sumac & Japanese Maple. Great trees for fall color & interest.

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  11. Cindy, I know the feeling. I always get a kick when I am first-which is not often. I really felt as though I was looking up thru water with these surreal views. It was cool.

    Les, I used to do the same thing! Leaves and clouds on a clear day in Maine and soft grass to lay on. Your friend had a true belief; which is always good.

    Frances, Yup, a sea of leaves for sure. I love them all and the smell and feel. No frost here. Though I finally broke down and turned on my heat yesterday. It was cold! We still have some time I think. Glad you dodged it too.

    Hi Gail, I love the trees. My husband says all of ours need to go but I would never let him do it. What kind of a place would it be with no trees? Mature trees are best. We were so lucky to get so many here and you have some gorgeous ones too. I'll take them all-even with the leaves! Nope, no frost. Things look great.

    MT, Glad you like the pictures. Trees are wonderful. Off the subject but are you going to spring fling? You'll meet all sorts of folks, including me as I am going. But Aunt Debbi said you all live close by and to Nola. It would be a fun thing for you all to meet. We have done it here in Tennessee and had a great time. Just throwing that out there. Now if you do meet and it goes wrong, you can blame me but it won't. :)

    Jillybean, That first picture came thru great. It was at a Subway in a quaint little town. What you don't see is the stream below it and picnic tables all lined up. It was so cool as it was limbed up quite high. Right then and there the idea for Under the Sea was born. Glad you got your blog up.

    Lola, Leaves are wonderful. Do stay warm! I am sure your garden will be fine. Thanks for posting yesterday! Great job on the comments!!

    Dawn, You guys are so far ahead of us in the fall and behind us in the spring. One thing I did not like about Maine, but that is how it is. We lose all our leaves by mid-November. Yup, I track it.

    Marnie, Must be a bad run right now with allergies. I hope the cold does sweep them all away. Of course, then comes cold season. But for now take it easy and enjoy it safely from inside with the sweet animals.

    Racquel, I sometimes get really creative. Sometimes. But really you can relate the tree canopies to under the sea. The sumac is quite nice but no blooms:( It grows on its own (read wild weed) and I let it since it is so drought tolerant. The Japanese maples are hard to beat too. I have too much brown in my yard and need the color. ttyl

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  12. I also love to look up through the leaves at the sky. It's an awesome view! Cameron

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  13. When you look at the trees from this perspective, it certainly gives you a different perspective. The sumac is spectacular!

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  14. Great post and pics. In my area of Maine we have lost about a quarter of the leaves and I thought the colors looked all dried up to start with but then they just seemed to burst to bright over night and we seemed to have had a really long period of magnificence, bright and shinny colors.

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  15. Going on a week long vacation puts one so far behind once home again! I still have mail to tend, emails galore and found more clothes to wash! Not to mention many newspapers to catch up. I had to stop my day yesterday to blow leaves, twigs and mess off the driveway then to town for groceries. Today I have the surprise task of getting all the houseplants back into the house. We are not to be below freezing this time of year in Georgia but as Lola said, that cold north wind came through yesterday and wow, what a wake up call that was for us here in the Deep South! Burrr, I had the heat on and that is not normal until Nov. Where is this Global Warming? lol....

    I love swimming through the leaves with you this morning Tina. Now that we have had cold and rain, maybe we will see more color here too! I will get my VA pics up this Sunday. That is, if I can get all caught up with everything! lol....

    I need to get to the mail now, several bills need my attention...arggggg.....

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  16. So true ... good observation. Our maples are the only trees that "turn" down here in south Florida. Our cypress lose their needles, which is our sign that winter is officially here, ... but we miss that splash of colors.

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  17. So ditto what everyone else says--I love your metaphor! I have a kind of reverse vertigo--I get dizzier looking up at tall things than I do looking down from the top. But it's a pleasant dizzy, especially when I'm on my back looking up through trees. Our leaves are starting, though thank goodness we're still pretty far from a hard freeze.

    And Tina, the seeds came last night! Thank you SO much--I was delighted by all the surprises, especially the datura--I'll keep you posted on my progress! It will be so nice to have so many reminders of you in my garden--I'm so grateful.

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  18. So ditto what everyone else says--I love your metaphor! I have a kind of reverse vertigo--I get dizzier looking up at tall things than I do looking down from the top. But it's a pleasant dizzy, especially when I'm on my back looking up through trees. Our leaves are starting, though thank goodness we're still pretty far from a hard freeze.

    And Tina, the seeds came last night! Thank you SO much--I was delighted by all the surprises, especially the datura--I'll keep you posted on my progress! It will be so nice to have so many reminders of you in my garden--I'm so grateful.

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  19. Cameron, Thanks!

    Rose, Thanks! That sumac hit me in the face I had to run to get the camera.

    Mom, You are quite a bit behind Dawn then? It was so glorious when I was up there. Not much color down here. Mainly browns, but some reds and oranges occasionally. You all have so many of the beautiful maples we don't have so many here, more the boring oaks (like mine). Oh well.

    Skeeter, It is so hard to get caught up and back on track. That is probably why I am always on here-easier to do a bit at a time then a whole lot. Take your time. I am doing laundry and housework myself. Harvested all my gourds. How are yours looking? Good I hope!

    Cosmo, Glad the seeds came. Sorry it took me so long to mail them. I am a procrastinator. Truly a bad fault. I also can get dizzy looking up and down! Gotta lay down for sure. You must have a much milder climate than us. We are overdue a hard freeze though not one yet. ttyl

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  20. Wow, I've never thought about the sea connection. It's so true! Beautiful thought. And the photos, more so.

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  21. Tina, your lovely photos are a great addition to Dave's Fall Color Project. :) Beautiful.

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  22. I was on a submarine in the Navy so I do know what it's like to "swim" underwater. Unfortunately, the swimming was accomplished by the sub and we didn't get a chance to look up through the water and see the sun. However, I did view a whale through the periscope once. Which was almost as pretty as viewing your fall photos.

    We have those weed tree sumacs all over the place here. But they sure shine in fall with their red color. I commented on your post "Sumac Attack," and wanted to know if you heard of 'Tiger Eyes' sumac. I have a couple of them, next year will be their third year here. The only negative so far is their unsightly method of leaf drop in fall. They don't go through a gradual phase of color as the leaves on a maple or birch, they turn a dirty black all of a sudden and then they're gone. I'd like to contact Bailey about this and see if it's natural.

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  23. Do a little bit at a time? Are you kidding me? I am the Miss Gratification Gal you know... lol...

    I got all the porch plants in the house. Kitty cats think they were being treated to a buffet but not so. I have them all up high out of paws reach or in the closed off guest bedroom. They are not happy about that closed door, A cat thing, lol but will get over it in time. They did last year...

    The gourds will probably be picked tomorrow! I saw two ways on how to dry them while in Jamestown and Yorktown. They contradict each other but both had good results in the end process. So I think I will go with the easy way and just hang them to dry out rather then scrap them…. I am thinking the guest bedroom since the room is closed off from the rest of the house. We do not have an enclosed or attached garage and they might freeze in the shed so to the house they will go…..

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  24. Tina, I probably won't be spring flinging this year (although I would really like to do that someday). Aunt Debbi, Nola, and Brenda From the Pines and myself all live within an hour or so of each other I think. I wondered if they would be interested in meeting sometime and thought I might ask them this spring. Thanks for mentioning it! :)

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  25. Beautiful pics.
    There's something magical about the change of seasons.

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  26. Kanak and Nancy, Thanks so much! The stream running by the first picture kind of inspired me too. Just imagine.

    TC, Would love to see a whale! What on earth did it look like thru a periscope?? I hope it was far away so you could really see it and not on the sub!

    Skeeter, My gourds started drying ON the vines! Could not believe it. I have a pic. I usually dry mine in the house or garage on a piece of cardboard or paper bag. You occasionally need to rotate them. I've never heard of scraping them before, very interesting. Bad ole kitties to eat the 'buffet'!

    MT, Sorry you won't be at spring fling. It would be so neat to visit with one another, especially the ones we talk to daily. Do meet up with Nola and Debbie! Debbie and Nola have met so you are the last one. You guys will talk for days I am sure. I've had such good experiences. I am getting ready to post on an Illinois blogger I met this weekend and we had the BEST time!

    Patsi, Love your blog! And welcome to ours. Glad you stopped by. Yes, seasons changing can be magical, and melancholy at the same time.

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  27. What wonderful and beautiful colors that you've captured! I hope you had fun on your trip to maine. it was great to see the photo of you and cindy together.

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  28. What a beautiful way to capture autumn's colors.

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  29. DP, Glad you like my colors. Yes, photos of the folks are nice. I still keep trying to convince everyone I look just like you but if I keep posting these photos I am doing myself in:)

    Thanks MMD! Sometimes I get creative and it felt like I was under the sea for sure. Good thing I could breathe:)

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  30. Tina,
    I love your fall pics! The colors are so vibrant, isn't fall the most beautiful time of the year? It just doesn't last long enough. Usually when I am driving in the fall I find my eyes are often on the beautiful trees rather than on the road. My daughter reminded me of this just yesterday. Can you imagine explaining that one to a cop!!
    Happy Fall,
    Machelle

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  31. It would be worth a try Machelle. lol You never know, he just might be a garden lover:) I would hope so for your sake.

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