Tagged With: Tree

Tree Flowers

Tree Flowers

Tree Flowers

These are the flowers on a small tree. Not sure what. Adds a nice touch of yellow to the otherwise mostly brown woods, though.

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Tree 365

Tree 365

Tree 365

I was out in the woods today and came across a tree with this metal tag on it. I wouldn’t have taken a picture except that the number on the tag goes so well with my Project 365 I figured I had to.

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Editing Exercise

Editing Exercise

Editing Exercise

I was dropping Dorothy and Chris off for band practice and Chris suggested this tree as a photo subject. Unfortunately, there was a basketball hoop in front of it. So, the exercise was to remove the basketball hoop (and a bench, as well) and make it look natural. Did I succeed?

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Ailanthus Leaf

Ailanthus Leaf

Ailanthus Leaf

This tree has already put on four feet of growth this year. Is it any wonder they are so successful in the environment? It has pretty leaves, though.

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Reflections

Reflections

Reflections

I went over to the Rio today to have a cup of coffee with a friend. It’s often good to have an excuse to get away from the office for a little while and doing it with a good friend is even better. We chatted about this and that and then headed back to our respective work. As I was going back, I noticed the reflections in the Sodexo building. I turned around and parked the car along Washingtonian Blvd and then walked down the side of the building. This is a reflection of the BroadSoft building (and a tree).

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Star Magnolia Bud

Star Magnolia Bud

Star Magnolia Bud

The house Cathy grew up in has two star magnolias (Magnolia stellata) in the front yard. They bloom early and their petals are quite tender so it’s actually more common for them to be frost damaged than not. The snow and cold we had yesterday has done a little damage to the petals, as you can see on this bud. Nevertheless, if it doesn’t get cold again, this tree could put on a wonderful show in a week or so. But we aren’t out of the woods yet, in terms of frost and there’s plenty of time for these blooms to be wiped out. They’re lovely as they are, of course, but on the rare occasion the trees bloom without any petal burn, they are quite spectacular.

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Tree Felling

Felled Colorado Spruce

Felled Colorado Spruce

I finally got around to cutting down the dead or nearly dead Colorado spruce (Picea pungens) in our front yard today. I took both before and after pictures and I may put two together into an animated sequence that switches back and forth between the before and after. For now, this is (obviously) the “after” picture. I cut the tree off fairly far up the trunk to be sure it wouldn’t reach the driveway. I could probably have cut it a bit lower and it would have been easier, but I got it down without incident. Since then (I’m writing this on Wednesday, October 11) we’ve cut and dealt with most of the branches although the standing trunk is still there and about 8 feet of felled trunk is still lying next to it. I took one van load to the dump and I’ve burned four wheel barrow loads. I still haven’t decided what I’ll plant in its place or even how much effort I’ll put into dealing with the stump and roots.

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Zelkova Trees

Zelkova Trees

Zelkova Trees

Getting pictures of the Zelkova trees that line Norbeck Road is sort of an annual thing for me. As I was driving east this evening I knew the light would be nice and with the bright blue sky and the scattered clouds, it seemed like an ideal day for it. I stopped at the grocery store but the light was still right when I was done, so I pulled off where the trees start and got out to take a dozen or so pictures. One thing that makes it hard is the contrast between the shady parts of the picture and the brightly lit leaves in the sun. But that’s part of what I like. They aren’t as fully in color as in previous years, but they’re pretty nice, nonetheless.

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Dogwood

Dogwood

Dogwood

There’s an old joke that you can easily identify dogwood by its bark but you can also spot them this time of year by the color of their leaves. The deep, burgundy color really stands out, particularly against the much more common yellow of many of our other native trees. The oaks tend to be dark orange or rusty reds. The maples range in color from bright red (as in the Japanese maples seen in yesterday’s post) to pure, electric yellow. It’s really a lovely time of year and unfortunately seems to be the shortest of the seasons. The rain last night knocked down a lot of leaves and the forecast for the coming week is for a lot more rain, so by this time next week, it may only be the oaks and beeches holding onto their drying leaves.

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Japanese Maples

Japanese Maples

Japanese Maples

Just over two weeks ago (on Friday, November 02, 2018) I posted a picture of Japanese maples from the other end of our neighborhood. I mentioned a week or so later that most of the leaves were down from those trees. Not all the leaves, however. We were driving home past that yard this afternoon about about 3:00 and the light was shining through the remainder of the leaves on one of the trees (the other trees in the yard are basically bare). This one tree was still amazing and I stopped to take a few pictures. A man stopped and said, “you should have seen the trees a couple weeks ago.” I said I know, they were amazing.

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Japanese Maple Leaves

Japanese Maple Leaves

Japanese Maple Leaves

We went for a short walk in the woods after church today. The church is near enough to Rock Creek Park that we can get there pretty easily from the back parking lot. The sky was clear today, which was very welcome after yesterday’s torrential rain. The sun was shining brightly on some Japanese maple (Acer palmatum) leaves and I took a few pictures of the back-lit leaves. None of them turned out quite as well as I would have liked, but this one is pretty nice. I really love the colors and the contrast between the leaves and the blue from the sky, filtering through the trunks of the trees.

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American Sycamore

American Sycamore (Platanus occidentalis)

American Sycamore (Platanus occidentalis)

Cathy and I took a walk in the neighborhood this afternoon. It was cool but the sky was an amazing blue and I stopped a few times to take pictures of trees against that blue. There are few that are prettier in the winter than the pale sycamore (Platanus occidentalis) against that blue and that’s what we have here. Just before I took this picture, we passed a yard with a large oak tree that had a fairly substantial branch which had broken off and which was suspended above the driveway and yard on some lower branches. The homeowner was trying to get a rope over the branch so he could pull it down. He was wearing a helmet and throwing a rope with a wrench tied to the end as a weight. It was pretty high up and by the time we got past he still hadn’t managed to get it high enough, but I assume he eventually did. Ah, the joys of home ownership.

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Snow In The Trees

Snow In The Trees

Snow In The Trees

We had our first real snow of 2019 starting early yesterday afternoon. It showed a bit earlier in the week but didn’t accumulate at all. This time we ended up with about six inches on the ground this morning. It was a few degrees below freezing and the snow was quite pretty, although it was fairly heavy when I shoveled it off of the walk and driveway. This is a view up into the trees in our neighborhood and I really love the lines of dark bark and the white snow. We were out yesterday evening driving in it, which wasn’t a lot of fun, but it meant that we got to see our good friend, Karlee, so it was well worth it. Today we’re pretty much sticking around the house. Hopefully the roads will be clear by tomorrow, when Dorothy plans to leave for school. There wasn’t much snow north of here, so the majority of her trip shouldn’t be affected, in any case.

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Hamamelis (Witch Hazel)

Hamamelis (Witch Hazel)

Hamamelis (Witch Hazel)

I’m a huge fan of witch hazel (Hamamelis species). They’re small trees well suited to the suburban landscape and wonder of wonder, they bloom in mid-winter! Many years ago my father, Cathy, and I went to Brookside Gardens in Wheaton Regional Park in February and I remember falling in love with witch hazel at that time. Now whenever I see them in bloom, I remember my dad and remind myself that this is a tree I want to plant in my yard. Now that I have a space in the front yard that needs a small tree, this may be the spring when one gets planted. There are varieties with red, orange, and yellow flowers and I think all of them are terrific. The yellow, perhaps, stands out as being the brightest but they’re all worth the effort.

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Calocedrus decurrens (Incense Cedar)

Calocedrus decurrens (Incense Cedar)

Calocedrus decurrens (Incense Cedar)

I’m a little late posting this but after yesterday’s snow squall, we had a nice cover of maybe as much as two inches of snow this morning. It was quite cool, down around 10°F (-12°C) and I put some salt down but being that cold, it’s not going to melt very much. I took some pictures in the yard before Cathy and I left for work. The sun was bright and was shining through the branches of trees that had some ice on them, which was lovely but hard to record very well. I decided to post this photo of snow on the branches of an Incense Cedar (Calocedrus decurrens) that is in the back of our yard. I planted four of them in the fall of 2007 and three survived. This is the tallest of them and is about 15 feet tall, I’d say. It’s starting to look like a real tree. The other two are doing fine but are not as tall, being about 12 and 7 feet tall respectively.

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Deodar “Flowers”

Deodar “Flowers”

Deodar “Flowers”

These aren’t flowers, of course, as the deodar cedar (Cedrus deodara) being a gymnosperm is a non-flowering plant (the angiosperms are the flowering plants). These are the cones of a deodar cedar growing near one of the buildings on our company campus. It’s getting to be a fair size tree, with branches large enough to sit on comfortably. My grandparent’s had a deodar in their front yard in North Carolina and I’ve always been fond of them, especially when they get a little larger and start to develop their characteristic cedar shape rather than the more conical shape of the younger trees. They are native to the Himalayas and we’re near the northern edge of their hardiness range but there are enough around that it seems safe to plant one, if you have the space (which most suburban yards definitely do not have).

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Beech Woods and Stream

Beech Woods and Stream

Beech Woods and Stream

It was cool but nice out today but we were indoors for most of the day. In the late afternoon I really wanted to get outdoors, at least for a little,and take a picture or two. We often walk around the block but I didn’t really want to do that. There generally isn’t much to photograph, especially this time of year, unless I’m willing to walk up into peoples’ yards and possibly lie on the ground. That’s not really my style. I suggested we drive to the other end of the neighborhood, park at the park, and walk a little ways in the woods. We went down stream to where there are two bridges crossing the streams and then back up the other side. The woods are mostly American beech (Fagus grandifolia), various species of oak (Quercus species), tulip tree (Liriodendron tulipifera), and a few maple species (Acer species). This time of year, the beeches are the most obvious because they still have leaves on them, although they are dry and pale, golden brown.

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Eastern Redbud (Cercis canadensis)

Eastern Redbud (Cercis canadensis)

Eastern Redbud (Cercis canadensis)

I took a break and went out into the woods today to take a few pictures. The eastern redbuds (Cercis canadensis) are blooming and they really are something. This is the native eastern redbud, which is similar to but distinct from the Judas tree or Mediterranean redbud (C. siliquastrum), native to the Eastern Mediterranean. They are both admired for their rose-purple flowers which are borne on bare branches in early spring (i.e. now) and before the foliage emerges.

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Flowering Oaks

Flowering Oaks

Flowering Oaks

There are trees we generally think of as flowering trees, such as dogwoods, cherries, and crab apples. But of course, most non-coniferous trees bloom, even if that’s not why we grow them. Out neighborhood has street trees planted pretty much throughout with different streets and different sections having different tree species but mostly planted with the neighborhood was developed in the late 1960s. Our area has mostly red oaks and at nearly 50 years old, they are generally pretty good size. Oaks are among those not usually grown for their showy flowers. Nevertheless, when they are in full bloom, particularly on a clear day in contrast with the blue sky, they are quite dramatic. Of course, the pollen is everywhere and if you have allergies, you aren’t enjoying this. But it can be beautiful.

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Quercus robur ‘Fastigiata’

Quercus robur ‘Fastigiata’

Quercus robur ‘Fastigiata’

In 2013 I bought some fastigiate oaks from Musser Forests (http://www.musserforests.com/). Fastigiate is from Latin and means narrowing toward the top and when applied to trees, having upright usually clustered branches. Trees that have a more narrow form are often called fastigiate and these oaks are actually named Quercus robur ‘Fastigiata’. The English oak is a pretty tree, especially when it gets large, but it can be a bit much for a suburban garden, needing a huge space to be grown to full advantage. These narrow trees, however, should do reasonably well here. They are not quite as hardy as the species but I’ve seen them growing in the district and there is a huge one only a few blocks away, so I’m hopeful. I have them growing in two parts of the yard, one on the north end of the yard and one along the back (west side). Planted in 2013, they are already more than 10 feet tall, and growing quite quickly.

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Crataegus viridis ‘Winter King’

Crataegus viridis ‘Winter King’

Crataegus viridis ‘Winter King’

When I got rid of the nearly dead Colorado blue spruce (Picea pungens) in our front yard, we wanted to replace it with something small but with a little more interest. We decided on a hawthorn and last week I ordered this Crataegus viridis ‘Winter King’ and it was planted yesterday. The leaves are a little dry but it seems pretty healthy and I’m looking forward to the white blossoms in the spring as well as the fruit that you can see is on it now. The green hawthorn is more disease resistant than most hawthorns and ‘Winter King’ was selected, among other reasons, for that reason. This variety is also “noted for its profuse bloom of flowers, larger fruits, silvery-barked stems and more attractive fall color (purple and scarlet).”

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Walnut Bark

Walnut Bark

Walnut Bark

It was a pretty day today. The weather has finally turned cool and it’s clearly autumn now. The leaves on the trees are still mostly green but there are occasional splashes of color from early maples or some of the smaller plants that tend to react more quickly to the changing seasons. Outside my office window, the Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) is a deep red, climbing up into two large elms and the other trees on the edge of the woods. Cathy and I met at a picnic table briefly early in the afternoon and then I walked in the woods and took a few pictures, including this one of the bark of a black walnut tree (Juglans nigra).

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Tulip Poplars

Tulip Poplars

Tulip Poplars

Cathy, Dorothy, and I went to Seneca Creek State Park this afternoon and walked just short of 3 miles in the woods. It was a cool but pretty day with deep blue skies. The woods are predominated by tulip poplars (Liriodendron tulipifera) with a significant number of other deciduous trees including oaks, maples, beeches, and various smaller trees. I think the fact that they grow so quickly accounts for their numbers, as they outgrow the slower growing but longer lived hardwoods. Eventually, the oaks, maples, and beeches will outlive this first growth of poplars and it will all even out or even lean towards the others. But for now, the wood is filled with the straight trunks of the tulip poplar.

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Zelkova Alley

Zelkova serrata

Zelkova serrata

We worked in the garage this morning, getting quite a bit done (although if you saw it, you might not believe that). We took a trip to the transfer station (a.k.a. the dump) to get rid of a few things and as we got back, the Zelkova serrata were being lit by the late afternoon sun. I dropped Cathy and her mom off at home and then went back out to take a few pictures. This seems to be an annual photo for me, with versions taken from 2011 through 2019, except 2012, apparently. It’s worth it, though. This is really a nice tunnel of trees all year, but especially now and as the sun is setting.

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Sycamore Tree

Sycamore Tree

Sycamore Tree (Platanus occidentalis)

This American sycamore (Platanus occidentalis) is in our neighbor’s yard. It’s a bit, healthy tree and in the summer it is often lovely at dusk with the evening sun turning the bright green leaves a wonderful orange-green that’s very hard to describe. In the winter, without its leaves, the beauty of the sycamore is in their bark, which is a lovely white, especially against the blue of a winter sky. They are large trees and generally better suited to parks and open areas but they also make a fine city tree, being quite tolerant in their habits.

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Juniper Trunk

Juniper Trunk

Juniper Trunk

Cathy, Dorothy, and I went for a walk at Red Gate Park today. This used to be Red Gate Golf Course but it’s been closed for a while and is now a very nice park with plenty of paved paths (the old cart paths) so you can walk easily even when it’s wet. There is less to photograph in the winter but I took my camera, in any case. I took pictures of a few trees that I think looked interesting. I also ‘processed’ a few of them into black and white images.

I say processed but they are digital, of course, so there’s no processing involved, except for desaturating them. I do my post processing in Corel AfterShot Pro. There are a few annoyances with it but it has the advantage of having versions for both Windows and Linux (and macOS, but that’s not an issue for me). I have both Windows and Linux machines and it’s nice to be able to run this on either one.

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Stump

Stump

Stump

Cathy, Dorothy, and I walked to Blockhouse Point today. I took my long lens with me but didn’t really see any birds today. I took some long distance shots of the river but only a few. I like this picture of a dried stump, though, mostly for its texture. We stopped again at Rocklands Farm and I took a few pictures there, but nothing to speak of. In the evening we celebrated Chinese New Year at Tsai-Hong’s house with the rest of the local family. That was a nice time. We brought Margaret with us, although getting her up the front steps was a bit of a chore. Next time we’ll go in through the garage (fewer steps and better light).
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Winter Tree

Winter Tree

Winter Tree

We went for a late afternoon walk at Sandy Spring today, starting from the Friends Meeting House. It was at this Friends Meeting that my great, great grandparents meet, sometime around 1850 (they were married in 1952). One of them traveled up from Washington, D.C. and the other from Northern Virginia, which was more of an effort then than it is now (even with our traffic problems).

A road runs south from the meeting house across a field to the spring. We turned right just before the spring and looped around, basically circling a large field and going into the woods a little before coming back up to the spring. It was foggy day and getting foggier through the afternoon. We didn’t see many birds and I wasn’t able to photograph any. I like the way this tree looks, though, with the green lichen on it against the foggy background.

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