Nature's beauty, No. 23

After a couple days of thorns, I thought this next to last post in the nature's beauty series ought to reflect another aspect of the rose bush, the leaves.
 

Wide shot.
 

Close up, slightly to the right of the wide shot.

Nature's beauty, No. 5 AND Happy Birthday, Leland!

-->

OK. No blossoms here. But, just take a close look at this cloth-like spread of spiderweb. I cannot even imagine how tiny the spider or spiders must be who spun this exquisite patch between these small leaves. I'm making a decision that there were at least two spiders at work because I want to imagine one going this way, one going that way, over and over, until they were done. How in the world did they not run into each other as they worked?

I got off the bus to take this photo before they all blew off, they lit up the vista.

Wednesday, November 3, I decided to get off the bus and walk back east onto the Hawthorne Bridge. Too many beautiful trees had gone un-photographed by my trusty Nikon D50. Not wanting to be too late getting home, I decided to try this shot from the north side of the bridge approach, rather than walking down the stairs, beneath the bridge, and then back up the other side. I sort of like the railing at the top of the wall which shows up at the bottom of the shot. I especially like the golden tree in the center of the shot, as well as the green leaves mixed with the reds. While some of these leaves remain on the trees, in the last 12 days, rain has fallen and winds have blown. All over the city, leaves line the curbs, cover the cars that haven't been driven, and either cover or speckle the sidewalks. Slippery when wet applies.

Here’s a link to the Mayor Sam Adams' leaf pick-up fee fiasco, for which he’s taking the blame.


Later that evening after I got off the bus and walked east on our street, I took this photo. You can see that while leaves cover the parking spaces and most of the sidewalk, lots of leaves are still on the trees. Today they're all blown down, waiting to be removed. Click here to see lots and lots of autumn leaf photos from November, 2008, and to read all about the NW Portland Clean Sweep.

Autumn Interlude--Sky, Sidewalk, and Vehicle

A tree across the street from Lincoln High School, Saturday afternoon

A tree on NW Flanders at NW 23rd Avenue, Saturday afternoon

The tree to the left of our building's front door, before sunrise.

Nearby sidewalk, #1

Nearby street level matching accessory, #1

Shrub on nearby sidewalk, #2

Nearby street level matching accessory, #2, on NW 23rd at Glisan

Nearby sidewalk, #3

Nearby street level matching accessory, #3, on NW Glisan near NW 23rd Avenue

Nearby sidewalk, #4

Nearby street level matching accessory, #4, the corner of NW Davis and NW 22nd

NW Davis, a view I enjoy every afternoon after I get off the bus, taken Oct. 29 before it started to rain which knocked lots and lots of leaves from the trees

NW Everett, a view I enjoy every morning when I walk to the bus stop--although I took this photo in the afternoon on Oct. 29--it's too dark now to get a good shot in the AM

Part of the price for our autumn beauty--cars blanketed with leaves

The same car, different view

One last view of the autumn bounty.

All of these shots are within a four-square-blocks space, except for the one by Lincoln High School. They provide emphatic evidence of the necessity for Northwest Portland Clean Sweep--for us, the next one is Dec. 5--nearby streets either the week before or the week after. I found this on Portland Online:

PDOT and Neighbors West-Northwest have successfully collaborated for the past 15 years to clean the streets in NW Portland. Residents and businesses are notified in advance to remove their vehicles from the scheduled sweep area by 7:30 a.m. because City sweepers cannot make their way down NW Portland's narrow streets with cars parked.

Can you imagine how many leaves we'd have here if they didn't clean off the streets three times a year?

Tree to the left of our building's front door

I took this photo Wednesday morning about 6:30 a.m., right after I had walked Duncan. The street light provided enough light for a decent photo, I think, especially since the leaves are such a rich gold.

Autumn Blaze

I took this photo Sunday afternoon, in our neighborhood, the Alphabet District.

Y'all, I'm a little off pace with blogging--the World Series has grabbed hold of me. Mama is even missing Wheel of Fortune so that I don't miss an inning. Will wonders never cease? I've become a Tampa Bay Devil Rays fan, but I promise I'm not getting their haircut, the Rayhawk.

Healthy

Everyone's getting better, thank goodness.

Sunday, July 27, 2008 - Saturday's sky, for you on Sunday

Looking up from the MAX stop, SW 1st and Oak, downtown Portland ... tomorrow I'll explain how I happened to be there, looking straight up at the sky.

Saturday, July 26, 2008 - Green leaves, Southeast Portland

Walking on Mother's Day, along SE 37th between Division and Hawthorne, the contours, shapes, lines, and color of these leaves caught me eye.

Luckily someone had planted them in a narrow bed between the inner edge of the sidewalk and a stone retaining wall. Otherwise I would have missed the chance to take several photos.

What I have for you here are two tight crops, accentuating what drew me to the leaves in the first place. I especially like the overall shape of the leaves, sort of like funnels. See those drops of water? I wonder how long it took them to slide down into the plant.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008 - ABC Wednesday - W is for Wonderful

This morning I walked east to a bus stop three blocks from our apartment, instead of waiting for the bus at the closer stop. About half a block from that corner, I stopped to take this photo, something I've been wanting to try, to see if I could get the camera to see what I see. What a wonderful canopy of leaves and its myriad shades of green!


Right now I could get up from my little iBook and look out any one of our nine double hung windows in our fourth floor apartment and see many, many wonderful trees. I thank those Portlanders who had the foresight to plant and care for so many, many wonderful trees. And I'm thankful that my camera saw so clearly what I saw this morning as I stood in the slight, cool breeze and looked up.


If you're of a mind to, please go to Mrs. Nesbitt's Place for loads of other ABC Wednesday blogs! Look at the list of links per Mr. Linky.