Tag: Nature Photography

Around The Farm: Gaily Green ‘Gainst Gray

~ Forged Mettle Farm ~ 2 Comments

Today is one of those wet, dreary days that invites thoughts – albeit briefly – of simply getting back into bed and pulling the covers over your head. Of course, when you farm (or if you have kids, pets, or other obligations, as most of us do), that’s merely a briefly-entertained fantasy that you quickly pop like a soap bubble. Mud or no, chores must be done, animals must be fed, and other tasks must be addressed. And while finding beauty on a day like this may seem difficult, it’s really not: it’s there, just waiting to be found.

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Haiku: Fall’s Finery

~ Forged Mettle Farm

What constitutes a “perfect” Fall day? For me, it’s cool temperatures that bring crispness to the air and a touch of frost to the grass; clear, deep blue skies; a kaleidoscope of fiery leaf colors ranging from gold to salmon to crimson; and the welcome softness of the season’s light. It’s this quality of the light, in particular, that always causes me to take a moment to fully recognize that summer has departed for another year.

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Around The Farm: Spooktacular Spiders

~ Forged Mettle Farm

What’s Halloween without spiders? Certainly, bats, witches, ghosts, and all manner of ghouls are heavily featured in the day’s imagery, but spiders are right there, too. Despite the widespread biases against spiders, they are beautiful and fascinating creatures, worthy of respect and appreciation. We’re lucky to have a great variety of spiders on the farm, like those you’ll see in this post.

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Update #2: The Legend Of The Headless Caterpillar

~ Forged Mettle Farm
Looking for that perfect pupating place

As mentioned in my earlier post, there were signs that the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail was approaching the final phase of its growth before metamorphosis. Little did I know that what happened after its dramatic color change would be quite a shocker…just in time for Halloween, the headless caterpillar!

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Around The Farm: Frost, Fallen Leaves, And Fungi

~ Forged Mettle Farm

After a stretch of confusingly-warm weather, Fall has landed like a ton of bricks: last night, temperatures were only slightly above freezing. Along with the precipitous drop in temperature, the trees are rapidly shedding their leaves, birds have migrated (goodbye, hummingbirds – see you next year), and even on sunny days, the light has a soft, muted quality that murmurs that Autumn has arrived.

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