Branching Out: The Beauty of Seasonal Cut Branches

With exposed trees shamelessly baring their branches, the natural skeletal structures of these woody wonders are able to be admired from below, their intricacies and nuances noticeable for the first time since the eruption of leaf buds in early spring.

Nestled amongst the sleeping remnants of trees, whimsical moments of unexpected beauty can be found awaiting discovery: bright, scarlet red fruits of native hollies; Yuletide-immersing scents of juniper branches and cones; fluffy magnolia buds preparing resources for a spectacular display of blooms the following year.

Steadily Enduring with Grace

We’ve been truly in the middle of hoa-hoa season this last week – a fresh blanket of fallen leaves contrast sharply against sullen, sunless skies, quilting frost-tipped fescue lawns much to the chagrin of their owners (this is a good time to tell you to LEAVE THE LEAVES!!!!). Slowly, leaves begin surrendering their cheerful autumnal tones for shades of mahogany, chestnut and espresso, decaying into fresh soil nutrients for the coming year. To the unknowing, November is seemingly the cusp of grey, colorless winter.

Low-Hanging Fruit: A Sweetgum Story

As this article is being written, fallen sweetgum leaves of all shades, tones, and hues of the seasonal color spectrum are harmonizing into a protective layer above Pleasant Run forest soils, weaving themselves into the fibers of their fellow forest comrades: Acer rubrum, Nyssa sylvatica, Sassafras albidum, and Acer negundo. Together, and along with their understory companions, the forest floor becomes a rainbow ensemble bespeckled by spiky sweetgum balls of the year before. Maybe you have memories of kicking the round sweetgum seed capsules down the block as an ennui-stricken youth coming home from a particularly grueling school day, watching as they skitter into storm drains and drainage covers, wondering where they would end up when the eventual underground waters did come to wash them yonder.

Welcome, Nove-mum-ber

For those of you who are aware of Halloween’s true origins, which are founded in the traditions of the Celtic holiday Samhain (pronounced sow-in), you know that it’s much more than plastic-wrapped candies and 31 days of the best and worst horror movies streaming services have to offer. Historically, Samhain marks the end of the harvest season, when everything begins to go dormant and turn inward for the coming winter. As the official pagan New Year, Samhain is understood to be the time when the veil between the living and the dead is thinnest, making communication with the otherworld easier – a prime opportunity to offer gratitude for the bounty of the warmer, greener months that shrink away behind us, and humbly pray for prosperity, health, and happiness for the year ahead.