Fall Trees, Creek, and Cat, Part 2

November 6, 2019. Leaves!

On November 6 we trekked to the creek and found the leaves had made their appearance, big time. It was all like, Tree Parts Department, what can we help you with today?

Franklin throws a glance my way while on a nature investigation of his own

Tulip tree leaf bops on

Better act fast, we’re moving along!

Traces of forest, as seen on the creek surface

Trees at the house a day before this creek walk

Stay with us, we will have an important environmental message at the end of this post.

Bigleaf magnolia leaf scoots along

Lookalikes in the water

All these colors are gone now. I have a limited activity capacity and I’m slow to do everything. I’m always out of sync!

Some leaves stay at the edges

Ritzy fall colors adorn the creek

We’re on our way

Bright sunshine brings out color on a November day

All water, no solids here

Stones we can step on. Sometimes they shift a little.

I can’t resist the wild, found abstracts

Unreal, but . . .

The trees, around November 11 and 12. One of those afternoons was so bright and sunny it would have made a good creek day but it was so bitter cold I didn’t go that day. I did go later in November and I’ll make another creek post, hopefully next week.

We waited for this!

Sweetgum turning

They changed late, we welcome them

Oak leaf jam session

For Curtis

Happy Holidays to all as those days draw near. Don’t forget that my book Catwoods would make a great gift! We now have more feral cats to feed and TNR, (their photos and stories will be posted in the future). And, the book includes nature and coloration in nature, animals other than cats, some details about art groups, cats, and lots of different stuff! Here is the link to Amazon, and the page with several online booksellers is in the header bar:

Catwoods, Stories and Studies of Our Feline Companions at Amazon

Almost all the leaves are off the trees now. Two windy nights brought them down, along with the seasonal creep towards winter. Everything changes.

I have fun making and posting these pictures, but I also want to show everyone the beauty of the creeks, forests and wilderness near the southernmost end of the Appalachians. Lately I’m concerned as to whether I will always be able to protect this sweet creek. I’m not in good health, my husband and I are aging, friends are becoming seriously ill; and friends in our age group and even younger have died in recent years. Will I be able to make these autumn excursions next year? And, deforestation is happening in some areas around us.

Beyond this small place that I know well, we have so much freshwater biodiversity in our state, and it needs protection. The US southeast has a multitude of rivers, creeks, wetlands, and other waters. Our creek flows into a larger creek, which flows into a river. The Mobile-Tensaw Delta is known as “America’s Amazon”. We have people who are actively looking out for those natural spaces and resources here. We also have many who want to protect them. We may be not always be highly visible outside this region, but we are here, we do exist.

The International Waterkeepers Alliance protects water worldwide.

We have so many Waterkeepers for so many waterways in Alabama I can only list a few:

Hurricane Creekkeeper‘s website with beautiful fall pictures of another creek I know. My own favorite! Check it out!

Black Warrior Riverkeeper

Cahaba Riverkeeper

Mobile Baykeeper

Little River Waterkeeper

All these Waterkeepers and others not listed have Facebook pages, too. Check them out!

So if advocacy for natural spaces is something any readers are into, I just want y’all to know that we are here and would love to be recognized! We too want a clean natural environment, and if you’d like to help us in any way we would so welcome you!

Stay tuned for more pictures, I still have more from this fall!