Hard to believe it’s been a whole month since I’ve done a Thursday Tree Love post. Our esteemed WordPress blog hop host, Parul, was busy offline for the last one on July 8th and while I planned to do one anyway, before I knew it, Friday the 9th had already rolled around. But earlier today I took my camera, my husband, and our dog and went visiting the woods for my post today.
However, be warned – I got a little carried away with how many pictures I took. Okay, maybe a lot carried away…lol!
In total, I had close to 150 shots after wandering for over an hour. My first pass through all the shots, picking the ones that caught my eye, left me with about 60 to choose from, and try as I might, I couldn’t get the number down to my usual dozen or two. So I have 42 photos and 1 animated gif (instead of a video) to share with everyone!
Before I get on with the pictures, a quick shout out to my blogging friend Parul to say thank you for hosting this awesome blog hop every couple of weeks (especially knowing what a rough time you’ve had offline as of late). If you want to join in the Tree love blog hop fun, it’s really easy – here’s the description from her latest post today, called #ThursdayTreeLove – 111:
Thursday Tree love is a photo feature hosted on this blog on every 2nd and 4th Thursday of a month. The next edition will go live on August 12, 2021. If you would like to play along, post a picture of a tree on your blog, tell me where did you spot the tree and link it back to this post.
If you don’t see the pingback, please leave a link to your post in my comments section. Please make sure that your post’s link is showing up on this latest edition. I will link your posts on my blog in the next edition and spread some love. Let’s come together to appreciate the beautiful nature around us.
As for these photos, they were taken in my Durham, NH yard with my Nikon which was affixed to my handy dandy tripod. All were resized, then cleaned up a bit with PicMonkey (mostly the exposure and sharpness).
One last thing before I get started – a special shout out to another blogger on Hive who decided to join in the fun as well! On my last Thursday Tree Love post back in June, @sunnyag shouted out in the comment section to ask if he could participate as well, even if he didn’t have a WordPress blog. I told him to go for it, and earlier today he tagged me in this awesomesauce post Green Solstice Trees #ThursdayTreeLove. Be sure to check out the bazillion beautiful tree pictures he shared from Australia!
Now speaking of pictures, it’s time to share my own bazillion photos!
Visiting the woods on July 22nd, 2021.
1. It was a mostly cloudy day again today, but mid afternoon the sun popped out & I asked hubby if he wanted to wander with me and Sandy (our dog) while I snapped some shots. By the time we walked out the front door, this is what the sky looked like again.
2. However, there were still bits of blue showing (as you can kinda tell in the upper right corner of this shot), so I decided to go ahead with my wander. It can’t rain all the time, right? 😉
3. Had to stop at one of my favorite trees in the yard (the Shagbark Hickory that I’ve shared here many times before) to get a pic of the mossy green growing on the bark during these rainy days.
4. We’ve always called these “Fairy Eggs” because they’re so light (like blown out eggshells) and somewhat magical looking. However the more technically correct name would be Oak seed pods.
5. Speaking of tree seeds, here’s a small sampling of what covers the forest floor – acorns, pine cones, pine needles and leaves (with a sprinkling of clover).
6. Just a few steps into the woods – you can see the corner of our house on the left.
7. Tiny red mushrooms – looks like something took a tiny nibble.
8. Even without the sun, it was green and plush!
9. This tiny tree is pretty cool – even though it’s bent halfway over, it’s still thriving.
10. Bent but not broken.
11. It’s been at least a couple years since it bent like this, and now it almost looks like it was meant to grow this way.
12. Looking straight up the trunk to where the bend is – check out how many green leaves are still growing!
13. Looking at the woods with my back to our house and the trees seem to stretch back forever. Not surprising, given the property borders on acres and acres of town conservation land.
14. While it’s not surprising to see lots of mushrooms out this way, thanks to the aforementioned rain, there were even more than usual. Like these three little guys…
15. … and this bigger, orange guy.
16. About a foot away from the orange guy, I noticed this little one poking out from under the leaves…
17. … only a few inches away from this one.
18. And just like that, the sun was back out again!
19. Looks like someone else was snacking on mushrooms, but enjoyed this one more than the tiny red one.
20. Dappled sunlight.
21. I wish there were someway to share how amazing everything smelled at this moment – rich, dusky earth and slightly damp air. However you should be happy I can’t share the swarms of mosquitoes who were also enjoying the afternoon in the woods!
22. This picture doesn’t do it justice, but the sun hit this old, dead tree and made it look like it was glowing.
23. There are so many trees growing in the most amazing way – like this one, smack dab in the middle of a bunch of granite stones.
24. How it managed to push through and continue to grow so tall and strong is wicked amazing!
25. And nearby is an adorable Snoopy Christmas tree! Oh, and look to the right of it…
26. … there’s another tiny red mushroom (different variety from the first, but I don’t recall the names at the moment).
27. Such a pretty little thing, but pretty sure it’s not good for eating.
28. I don’t remember seeing these greenish yellow beauties before. I could do an entire blog post on all the different ones in the woods right now – in fact, maybe I’ll do that sometime soon.
29. A little deeper into the woods.
30. I never get tired of seeing the sun peeking through the leaves.
31. As you can tell by how many shots I took (and these are only a few of the ones I had on my camera).
32. Looking up at this group of trees, and at how green they are, and you’d never guess they were also sprouting out of another granite stone.
33. This is the base of those trees – hard to tell where the stone ends and the trunk starts.
34. Yet somehow, it’s managed to thrive.
34a. I tried to get a little video to share the vibe of the woods, but instead of hearing bird song and the breeze, all the audio picked up was a bit of mic noise. So instead of a video, I turned it into a pretty boring gif (which muted the color as well as the noise – oopsie…lol).
35. The sky was getting cloudy again (as you can see looking up at this tall Pine tree), so I told hubby it was time to start wandering back in the direction of the house.
36. But then the blue sky came back to tease me into staying longer. And while I can’t name them all (Oak and Pine are the ones I know for sure), I think there are at least three or four different types of tree leaves in this shot.
37. Did I mention how green it was?
38. This has me a little stumped. I’d been keeping an eye open in case I spotted any Ghost Flowers (also known as Indian Pipes), and at first I thought I’d found some. But as they’re typically white and ghostly looking (hence the nickname), I’m not exactly sure what these are.
39. And another mushroom I don’t know the name of was a few steps away.
40. One last sniff from Sandy…
41. …and one last mushroom I can’t name…
42…. and we headed out of the woods and back up the yard to our house. One last shot of the same spot in picture #2 (but this time with blue sky), and then we wandered our way back inside the house.
Hope you enjoyed coming along while we were visiting the woods, and happy Thursday Tree Love everyone!
Thanks for stopping by!
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My photographs are taken with my trusty Nikon,
sometimes utilizing my handy dandy tripod.
Blog graphics created on Canva
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Omg! I have never never seen colored mushrooms. Loved the shots, the green, the tall trees and lovely scene in your backyard. How I wish I had this right next door! I am so so glad you shared these pictures with us. I can’t wait to see what you will bring up on the 12, Traci! <3
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Stunning!!! I dont have words … Such a beautiful surrounding. Thank you for sharing your forest with us! 🙂
I love hiking through the woods! So relaxing and peaceful!
Omg! I have never never seen colored mushrooms. Loved the shots, the green, the tall trees and lovely scene in your backyard. How I wish I had this right next door! I am so so glad you shared these pictures with us. I can’t wait to see what you will bring up on the 12, Traci! <3