Walking in Schoepfle Garden, November 2019
December 8, 2019
It was cold and dreary last Sunday. I missed being out with the camera, though, so I drove out to Schoepfle Garden. My favorite time to take photographs is in the morning, but it wasn’t a good time for me that day. Arriving at 3:30, I had only an hour before the park closed. It gets dark early in northern Ohio, and I had unfounded hopes that I’d have some interesting light before it was time to leave. Instead, the sun never peeped out, as it does on some cloudy days just before sunset. But. I was out in nature, and I had my camera. That combination gave me all I needed. I noticed trees I’d never really looked at before. The first three photographs here attest to how one of them fascinated me. The lack of foliage everywhere meant I could look down from the cliff to the river and see its course far better than when leaves still abounded. Other treasures found me, too.
1 This tree has been through a lot. I was sure it was dead.
2 So I looked up, expecting to see only more trunk. Hah! The tree was not dead. What a trouper!
3 Do you know Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree? This is a giving tree: Algae, a woodpecker hole, and the trails of bark beetles testify to its generosity.
4 You know how you hear an unfamiliar word and for days afterwards you hear that word over and over? Overhearing people talk earlier in the week about Winterberry trees, I wondered what they looked like. Days later I took this photograph, then read the identifying tag: Ilex serrata, Winterberry.
5 According to its tag, this is a specimen of Cornus kousa, Kousa Dogwood “Milky Way.” I wonder if “milky way” refers to the candy bar. Where the outer bark has flaked off, the next layer resembles the nougat of a Milky Way candy bar. Ohhh, that’s probably just me; I loved Milky Ways when I was a kid. Probably someone thought the flowers and bracts among the leaves looked like stars in the sky.
6 The Back Pond, focussing on the tree reflections
7 The Back Pond, focussing on leaves in the water. If you follow the Back Pond link, you may be happy—as I am—to know that the eagle has been removed. But now they’ve added a second aerator. (?????)
8 This old willow frequently draws my attention. (See the next five photographs from previous months and years.)
9 The willow, April 17, 2016
10 The willow, April 17, 2016
11 The willow, March 26, 2018
12 The willow, April 14, 2018
13 The willow, May 27, 2019
14 Looking downriver last Sunday
15 Looking upriver last Sunday
16 Beach leaves hold on long after oak and maple leaves have carpeted the forest floor.
17 The appearance of Table Rock always changes between my visits.
18
Romancing Reality 
Fine set! 🙂
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December 8, 2019 at 6:32 AM
Thanks, Harrie. It was good to be back at Schoepfle Garden. I haven’t gone there enough lately.
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December 8, 2019 at 2:15 PM
I love the trooper of a tree, and all of your comments as well as the photos, Linda!
Marjorie
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December 8, 2019 at 1:39 PM
Thanks, Marjorie. I seemed to have more to say than usual. 😉
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December 8, 2019 at 2:16 PM
#11 is one of my favorites from this fine set, Linda. I like the light and shadows of the tree and background. Nice work.
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December 8, 2019 at 1:55 PM
Glad you like #11, Ken. Thanks. You may see a similar photograph in my next post. I went back to the river this morning and took another photo of the willow. The sun was sparkling off the river again, with shadows of trees across the river. Hope it turned out; I haven’t downloaded yet. Waiting for my camera to warm up to room temperature.
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December 8, 2019 at 2:22 PM
From the lower part of the tree trunk we certainly wouldn’t expect the actual top.
#14–16 definitely say autumn.
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December 9, 2019 at 2:26 AM
It’s the real autumn, isn’t it. Not the pretty colored leaves autumn. At least yesterday was sunnier.
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December 9, 2019 at 3:21 PM
I’ve witnessed trees like you’ve shared with their future approaching death yet covered with leaves at their tops. They remind me of small trees seeming to thrive in a crack of a rock with their future unknown.
The first image made me thing of “The Scream”.
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December 9, 2019 at 7:07 PM
When I see trees or plants growing in unlikely places, I often say to myself “the persistence of life.” Yes, The Scream—I can see that (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scream).
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December 9, 2019 at 7:23 PM
Good pictures, Linda – and particularly so 9 and 11! A 🙂
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December 10, 2019 at 3:17 AM
Thanks, Adrian. As I told Ken (oneowner), I took another photograph of the willow this Sunday. I had hopes. Dashed. Many a slip, it seems, ’twixt shutter release and download.
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December 10, 2019 at 10:58 AM
True reflections..Thank you !
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December 10, 2019 at 10:44 AM
You’re welcome. Athira. Thank you.
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December 10, 2019 at 11:01 AM
🙂
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December 10, 2019 at 11:14 AM
It’s delightful when the treasures out there find you. The first photo has a terrifying look to it, like Halloween but in a good way, and the detail in the second is beautiful, mesmerizing. The flat plane of perspective brings the branches up close – they seem to weave in and out of each other. Perfect composition with the Winterberry! I like your idea for how that C. kousa came to be called ‘Milky Way’ – they were a favorite of mine, too. The willow studies are intelligently done – the first one has a vaguely oriental feeling. The second, #9, is outstanding, wow! Starry night! I love the added texture of the fine branches in front of the trunks playing against the stars. #11 is a stunning composition. The trunks seem to drop down into the water. Gorgeous! I like the seasonal transitions in #12 and #13, it’s poignant. They’re beautiful. I can imagine Looking Downriver & Looking Upriver as side by side prints. Wouldn’t that be nice? They’re very soothing. (Oh, the roots of that octopus tree!!) I remember Table Rock from previous posts; it’s good to see it again. This post proves that we have to go out no matter the dull light, the late hour, etc. Thanks for being here, Linda!
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December 15, 2019 at 1:35 PM
Thanks for your good words and close observations, Lynn. Probably the willow studies are not finished. At least I’ll keep taking the photos even if I don’t post them. I could see the trunks dropping down to the water (#11) when I looked at the photo again. I’ve taken photos of the octopus tree that zero in on just the roots, but they didn’t thrill me on download, so I’m glad you noticed it in the looking-downriver photo. Where I have to stand to take that photo and the looking-upriver photo is at the edge of a cliff in a very small area crisscrossed by exposed roots of another tree. It’s always kind of scary to step out there, but you know I have to. 🙂 I took similar photos the next week in sunshine. I think they are better photos but not different enough from these to justify posting them. You’re welcome, Lynn—and likewise.
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December 15, 2019 at 3:04 PM
🙂 What we do for our image-making! Be careful. But I’m glad you’re going back again and again. 🙂
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December 19, 2019 at 1:19 PM
Linda, those are really nice sequences, that let us viewers take a virtual walk at Schoepfle Gardens, one of our favorite places around here. And when the sky is as drab and gray as it is now, I primitively enjoy your bright colors, which you manage to find somehow. Thank you.
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December 15, 2019 at 3:32 PM
Thank you, Larry. I think the trick to seeing color on a drab day is to narrow your field of vision. Overall, the day I took these photos (excluding some of the ones of the willow) was overall dismal. But color was still around in small areas. I guess it jumped out at me. (I love your use of “primitively” here.)
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December 15, 2019 at 3:51 PM