Bigleaf Magnolia

We've been surprised this year by our Bigleaf Magnolia.  First, way back in June, it bloomed for the first time.  Now it has the most interesting, enormous seed pod.  A really interesting and unusual tree in several ways.

It started back in June, when about 6 of these enormous flower buds showed up on the small tree. 

Bigleaf Magnolia, Magnolia macrophylla, is known (surprise, surprise), for its big leaves.  In fact they are giant leaves!

These leaves are over 6" wide, and about 18" long.  They are described as the largest leaves of any tree in North America.


This is the tree when the blooms came out.  It remained a small shrub for several years, and appeared to get frozen off each winter at first.  Only in the past 2-3 years has it grown up to its current 8-10 feet.

The flowers are huge too - known as the largest flowers of any tree in North America.  I should have got the step ladder out to get a view of the bloom from above.

My arm will help you judge the size of these leaves and the flower.

I did like this view from below.  I was surprised to read that the original range of the Bigleaf Magnolia is across Mississippi and Alabama, but in spite of that it is quite hardy, all the way to Zone 5 if you know your plant hardiness zones.  That lets it survive in the northern states, and here in southern Ontario.

The enormous seed pod is just as interesting as the enormous leaves and flowers.  This was two weeks ago.

Now the seed pod has opened up and started releasing its seeds.

The cells of the seed pod open up and the seeds fall out, but hang briefly in mid-air by an almost invisible filament.

We've got some unusual 'Carolinian' trees on our property, but this one beats them all!

Four sleeps left now!

Livestock in the Fields

I've been seeing a lot of cattle and other livestock out in the fields these days.  Sometimes they've been turned out into hayfields where the last cut has been taken off.  With the cooler weather, I think the animals enjoy being out more than during a hot summer.

This is the nearest herd to home.  On occasion they seem interested, but usually they completely ignore me.

This one at least looked my direction.

Maybe this big fella was embarassed that I caught him in the act!

Just around the corner are the horses at Hope Haven.  I always like driving past to say hello there.

And up the road a bit are the young Alpacas, grazing quite close to the road yesterday.

Finally, up near Meaford are two sheep farms.  One pair was relaxing on the manure pile, while a lamb was desperately trying to keep up as his (or her) mother walked toward me.

I'm not sure the little lamb, obviously a late one this summer, even let go while the ewe was walking.

Until finally they both stopped and looked up at me.

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Sunrise and Evening Skies

I've caught a few interesting skies recently - one sunrise, and some evening skies.

The point on the eastern horizon where the sun rises has moved a long distance south of course.  At this point it was rising right in the gap between the trees.

I got one pre-dawn shot, and then the sun appeared in that gap.

The clouds were fascinating, but this formation all dissipated shortly after.

More recently, I grabbed these shots on my cellphone while on my evening walk.  The clouds seemed really interesting.

But the iphone did a terrible job on the sunset shot, one of my worst sunset shots ever.  Should have had a real camera!

The move has begun.  We got the keys to the new house today, and sat there waiting for our appliances to be delivered by Sears.  We breathed a huge sigh of relief when they did arrive, and then Mrs. F.G. spent an hour and a half taking the protective cling wrap off the fridge!  For those of you not in Canada, Sears is one of our biggest department stores, with a long history.  We have bought appliances there for 45 years, and seem to feel a certain loyalty, even though it's just a commercial store.  Now they've announced they're going bankrupt, possibly any day now.  So we were glad to get things before that happened!  Meantime, thousands of employees will lose their jobs, and the managers will get paid big bonuses.  It's not fair!  Our loyalty has been to the employees, not the corporation!

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The Birds are (Mostly) Gone

The birds that migrate here quietly start disappearing in August.  All those bright colourful birds that make spring so interesting just quietly melt away.  How do I show you the birds that have disappeared for the season, when they're already gone!?  I guess I show you the few that are still here!

The only two noticeable birds that will migrate south soon that I am still seeing at this time of year are the Turkey Vultures and the Great Blue Heron.  This one rose off the roadkill before I got the car stopped, but landed in a nearby tree to pose for me today.

Only one of four was left on the road at this point, but a lot further away.

This is the pond where we sometimes see our local Great Blue Heron.

He was there the other day, and I happened to have my telephoto lens.  I think the auto-focus worked very well on this one.  There are a couple of other species still around; at least I think I'm hearing Flickers and Robins squeaking a little when I'm on my walks.  But other than that, it's the birds we'll see all winter - Blue Jays, Crows, Chickadees and a few others.  The summer birds season has almost ended.

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Crops Update #5

My last Crops Update this summer was in mid-August, when the wheat harvest was underway, but other crops were still green and growing.  A lot has changed, and the fields mostly look just dull brown now.  Mixed grains have been harvested, and finally on Friday I saw them starting to work on the soybean fields.  Soon only the corn will be still standing, slowly drying out enough for harvest.

This is the field of mixed grain I've been following just around the corner.  In mid-September they came along and cut the grain.

And later that day they were back with the rest of the equipment, the combine in the distance running down the rows of cut grain.  Note the grain piled in the grain wagon on the left.  By the looks of this equipment, this is a smaller local farmer who owns his own combine.

Farmers have continued to bale their hay, some getting two harvests.  The landscape is dotted with long white lines of hay bales.

And now the soybeans are dried out, brown and ready for harvest.  This is one of the fields I've been watching up the road.

As I passed the barn, I realized they had just started.  This big combine had done one loop around the field, being followed by the tractor with a grain wagon.  But they'd parked all the equipment up for the weekend.  I expect tomorrow they'll be hard at it.

There was a second combine parked there, the header waiting to be attached.  A set of equipment this large, requiring at least four people, is undoubtedly a travelling cash crop crew rather than a local farmer.

And beyond that was another large tractor, complete with what I think is a seeding outfit, complete to the rollers to pack the seed down at the end.  I'm wondering if they're going to immediately follow the harvest by planting winter wheat.

There's just one farm up the road where the soybeans are still looking mostly green.  This farm changed hands last year, and though the new owner moved in and got the former pasture fields ploughed up as soon as he could, the crop ended up going in very late.  Hopefully he'll still get a good harvest, if late.

The corn continues to grow, and will be standing in the fields drying out, likely for some weeks yet.  The corn harvest will be the final crops update of the year when it finally happens.

Meanwhile, some farmers are preparing the fields for next summer.  This was a winter wheat field this year.  I posted pictures of them combining this field and then baling the straw back on Aug. 15th.

It's been fascinating to follow these crop fields this summer, and it's also opened my eyes to the farm year - from preparation through seeding, growing, harvesting and preparing it again for next year.  It's a lot of work!

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Suddenly the Sumach is Red!

The Fragrant Sumach, when it turns brilliant red, is the epitome of fall for me.  I looked out the window this morning, and the clump of it up on our front meadow had turned from green to red.  In only 4 days it made the switch, and now it's glowing a brilliant colour in the sunshine.

There's just nothing to beat the sun shining through the red Sumach leaves, and I can't believe how fast they've turned this year.

The double lines of leaves  create fascinating patterns of shadows and teeth along the leaf edges.

The shadows of higher leaves in front border the top of these leaves in an interesting pattern.

As you can tell, I'm looking for nearby photos and simple blog posts these days, while I busy myself filling yet another box with stuff!  I'm now at the 3rd degree of ruthlessness in getting rid of stuff.  At this point I'm thinking I don't need to keep anything except my camera, computer, and some plates to eat off!  But we did enjoy a great Thanksgiving dinner tonight, in at Steven's Restaurant, which has saved us from cooking for several recent Thanksgivings!

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