Some fall color

On Monday, most of you working stiffs will have to go to work.  Here are a few pictures.  You can look at them during lunch instead of at the slob in the next cubical.

I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I enjoyed taking them.

A red maple next to the dog kennel.

A couple of hybrid aspen, P. grandidentata X P. alba

Korean Giant pear (aka, Olimpic).  It is half Pyrus ussuriensis which gives it fall color.

Typical southern Michigan landscape.  Box Elder on the extreme left.  Sugar Maple center.  Blue Spruce right.  Power wires foreground.

Firewood in its natural habitat.

Burr Oak

Northern Red Oak

Mystery oak.  Nominally English Oak (Q. robar) but leaf size (large) and fall color suggest it is a hybrid.

This is a Q. robar with typical fall color.  Yes, green is a color.

This is a Q. lyrata by Q. macrocarpa hybrid that shows potential for really hot fall color.  This is one of the few oak I have been successful grafting.

Persimmons.  Prettier than any Christmas ornament.

More persimmons.  This is J-59 which has been very tasty this year.

There are still a few Liberty hanging onto the trees.

Once again GoldRush is bearing very heavily.

Chinese Chestnut in center.  Surrounded by Black Walnuts (background).  Chinese Chestnut retains it leaves all winter.  That makes it susceptible to ice damage but also makes it a dandy wind break species.  It can be a very heavy producer of pollen, so don't plant it upwind of the house if you have allergies to tree pollens.

Poison Ivy.  Give the girl her due, she is pretty in scarlet.

Blackberrys

A butterfly sunning itself.  Insects and reptiles regulate their temperature by sunning, finding shade or puddling.

Staghorn sumac framed by White Spruce.

This is a picture of the west side of one of my paddocks.  Norway spruce on the left.  Sawtooth Oak on the right.  Nuttall oak is being planted in the gap between the two.  That gap was in spruce and that is where the poles for the deer stand came from.

Chinquapin Oak.  Notable for being tolerant of high pH soils.

This is a failed grape breeding project I have not had the heart to terminate.  It is Vitis aestivalis-bicolor X cv. Cayuga White.  It is way too late for my climate.

These critters are the Bos!