Sort of an explosion

Maybe it was our early cold spell last month, but for that or some other reason, our fall color seems much more vibrant than usual this year. It could be that more leaves turned all at the same time, rather than gradually, because of the early chill. Or they might actually be brighter, who knows?

Regardless, I'm certainly enjoying the show. Here are a couple of round-the-'hood shots to demonstrate:

as usual, it's cedar elms that are the brightest participants

a Chinese tallow in the park

I particularly like it when the ground at the feet of these guys looks looks like it just snowed colorful leaves...

In fact, our front yard and driveway have been practically carpeted in color lately...

cedar elm leaves make our sidewalk look like Midas'

a "red carpet," for sure! from our neighbor's ornamental pear

a close-up of the vibrant red guys

So even though it's kind of a pain having so many leaves getting tracked into the house, not to mention the near-constant irritant of leaf-blowers in the area, autumn's show this year is a real treat!

Wordless Wednesday: Thankfully not prophetic

 

Visiting the old homestead...

...well, sort of.

Henry got to attend his 50th Rice reunion last month (I didn't get mine due to *&#%&# covid!) and we had a pleasant day visiting the ol' stomping grounds. Although (as I've told you before) the campus as it exists today is barely recognizable as where got our B.A.'s in the early '70's. The super-cool fine arts building you see above is but one of the snazzy new buildings that have gone up in the last few years.

After a nice party for the class of '72, we opted to take a stroll at dusk around the west end of the campus; it was just parking lot and fields when we were in school there. But now there's all kinds of buildings, as well as this wonderful installation:

When we were here before (it's featured at the end of this post, which describes our visit to the campus in its centennial year), it was just called the Skyspace. But now it has a different, longer name.  However, it is just as impressive and we spent a good bit of the magic hour here. The Medical Center skyline even color coordinated itself with the pink part of the pavilion's cycle:

Here's a couple of shots highlighting the structures changing color, as well as it's "skylight" hole in the roof...

that's the Shepherd School of Music in the background,
another post-Henry-and-Kathy addition

...and another view as we departed...

Not far from the pavilion is the home of the Baker Institute, a relative old-timer (1993) at this end of campus. It has a very nice fountain:

Of course, most of the buildings we knew intimately are still there, although occasionally refurbished and added-on-to. One landmark for Henry that doesn't look different (at least from the outside), is the old Hanszen tower, site of many undergrad hijinks:

And another site we were happy to see as unchanged, the Rice Chapel, where Gramma and Grampa got hitched, not quite 50 years ago:

to see what it looked like during our nuptials,
check out this 2011 post, at the end

Of course, there was also a football game this reunion day, although the less said about that the better. However, the Rice MOB entertained as always, especially with alums participating:

I'll close with another piece of campus art. I think you'll agree that, even if you're not an alum, this campus is a spot worth a visit if you're looking for something new to do in Houston.

A late finish

Thanks to an unreliable senior memory, I thought I had finished my series of Maine blogs...but, no. I wanted to show you a few sights from the lovely Evergreen Cemetery near the kids' house. As you can see by the fact that I have a "cemeteries" label to this blog (on the right) I do enjoy exploring these memorial parks. They're especially interesting in New England, where some of the memorial customs (like the rows of family member headstones you see above) are different from what you find in the South.

They also have more really old graves, like this one, whose occupant was born just after the birth of the nation, in 1792 (although the headstone has obviously been replaced more recently):

Also, in contrast with many graves and memorials in southern cemeteries, if you see a Civil War notation here, the person fought wore a different uniform. "GAR" on this emblem stands for "Grand Army of the Republic," which Wikipedia tells us is a fraternal organization for Union vets:

(I've been doing some genealogy research this past year, and found that I have ancestors on both sides of that conflict.)

A rather interesting memorial that I noticed during this latest visit is this rather rustic, but enormous, boulder...

...with this plaque to tell you about the honoree, another 18th-century baby:

Nearby was this very sad chronicle of a family's grief. It's the backside of the family headstone, with two children's names. I hope you can read the inscriptions (click on the photo to enlarge), but if you can't, it tells us that Howard, Jr., was born and died in 1923, and Mary Dell was born and died in 1927. You know, intellectually, that back in the day it was likely many of a family's children would die as infants, but seeing a record like this, in stone, really brings home the sadness. And makes this grandmother so very, very thankful that we are living now and not then.

That does finish up tales of my trip to Maine, but some closer-to-home excursions are coming up.

Wordless Wednesday: ready for winter

 

Fabulous fungi redux

Last year I shared some Maine fungi photos and I saw more of these fascinating woodland growths on this year's trip. The slime mold you see above was spotted on a delightful excursion with a group of my granddaughters' friends and their moms. We hiked around Robinson Woods, in Cape Elizabeth, and one of the little girls got so excited when we came upon these colorful growths. That's how I know what they are!

Another good example of flourishing fungi on this hike (note the pink rainboots of one of the little girls in the background; it was a little muddy, a good fungi environment):

a fungi family on the Robinson hike

And here are some more handsome, yet unidentified, mushrooms. We saw those on another hike in the Hawkes Preserve, in Gorham:

Yet another hike took us to the Sewell Woods, in Scarborough. (My son's family is so lucky to have so many wonderful places to hike, not far from their home!) Here are some big boys there:

There were even fungi on display at Bunganut Pond, where my son's in-laws have a cabin and where I told you about the mammoth job of dismantling their dock for winter. Amazing how mushrooms grow so profusely when a place actually gets regular rainfall!

Wordless Wednesday: if you live in New England, you will get these jokes