Leaf peepers unite!

Blog your favorite fall foliage images and add the link here, at the Home Garden blog’s fall color project. Or just look at other people’s, which are linked on the sidebar.

Here’s my take on fall foliage. Sure, I could drive to Letchworth State Park and take eye-popping images of pure, massed foliage images, unadulterated by human interference. But that’s not how I roll. My favorite leaf peeping takes place on the rural roads of Western New York, where the oranges, reds, and yellows are interspersed with old barns, rickety shacks, pumpkin stands, rusting trucks, ramshackle cemeteries, and all manner of detritus one finds on the less traveled byways around here.

On a recent trip down one of my very favorite local roads, route 104, which runs between Niagara Falls and Rochester, I didn’t see a huge abundance of foliage, but there was a decent amount, along with some very picturesque old structures, including several cobblestone houses, for which the road is famous. These date back to 1825; the stones were rounded into cobble by glacial activity. The only Cobblestone Museum in the world is here and it houses a parsonage owned by Horace Greeley.

Otherwise, there are old farmhouses and barns, their peeling paint blending perfectly into the rather bleak landscape. I was going too fast to investigate a front lawn that had, instead of pumpkins, dozens of largish yellow rubber ducks. I’ll return.

The only problem with photographing a domestic landscape like this is that you run the same risks as the mailman. A huge black dog leapt out at me, barking furiously, and was almost at my throat before his owner called him back. I guess he was guarding the woodpile I was photographing.

This is why I live in the city.

Comments

[greg draiss]

There is a certain nostalgia to old farm houses with their peeling paint and fall foliage.

The juxtoposition I find here is that the foliage has given up along with the paint on the house.

Watching the trees grow larger every year while the paint peels even more as the house degrades into a shack shows the awesome power of nauture over man.

Nature needs little to survive on its own while we must maintain our fortresses to stop nature from claiming what might have been origainally hers to begin with.

It is a shame to see such once productive farms and homes fade into oblivion.

A reminder to me of the need to stay local and support what is around us. Sure there are fascinating products made in interesting cities many miles away from where we live.

If those products and far off locales fascinate you enough then move there. Otherwise take advantage in the fascination of your own town and do all some good at the same time.

The (philosopher) TROLL

[greg draiss]

There is a certain nostalgia to old farm houses with their peeling paint and fall foliage.

The juxtoposition I find here is that the foliage has given up along with the paint on the house.

Watching the trees grow larger every year while the paint peels even more as the house degrades into a shack shows the awesome power of nauture over man.

Nature needs little to survive on its own while we must maintain our fortresses to stop nature from claiming what might have been origainally hers to begin with.

It is a shame to see such once productive farms and homes fade into oblivion.

A reminder to me of the need to stay local and support what is around us. Sure there are fascinating products made in interesting cities many miles away from where we live.

If those products and far off locales fascinate you enough then move there. Otherwise take advantage in the fascination of your own town and do all some good at the same time.

The (philosopher) TROLL

[Dave]

Elizabeth,

The rustic farmhouses and cobblestone buildings blend so well with the fall foliage. I have to say thank you for risking life and limb to bring us these picturesque images! The images of the maples gracefully standing near the farm house and old farming implements really does exemplify the season.

[Dave]

Elizabeth,

The rustic farmhouses and cobblestone buildings blend so well with the fall foliage. I have to say thank you for risking life and limb to bring us these picturesque images! The images of the maples gracefully standing near the farm house and old farming implements really does exemplify the season.

[Theresa/GardenFreshLiving]

Elizabeth!
Gorgeous photos! Thank you so much for posting these. This is what I do not get in Southern California - The seasons! It was in the 80s and 90s here yesterday and I was so disappointed because it felt like summer, NOT fall. Your photos cheered me up.

[EACH LITTLE WORLD]

As someone who grew up in Buffalo and taught school in Webster and lived in Rochester, thanks for the memories. I now live in Wisconsin and my own yard is ablaze (as you can see on my blog). I had a friend who bought a cobblestone house and I still think they are among the most wonderful examples of vernacular, as well as domestic, architecture I've ever seen. National treasures in my estimation.

[Michelle Derviss]

This is the time of year when I miss living in New England.
The landscape is breathtakingly beautiful and the air is cool and crisp.
Thank you for the beautiful photographs and a visit down memory lane.

[susan harris]

Wonderful photos. I love it when plants are shown in context, esp when the context is so lovely and interesting.

[chuck b.]

The Hitchcock movie, The Trouble with Harry, has great fall color.

[Cindy]

The first photo reminds me of some my sister took at my parents farm. Hers though, were black and white and very bleak indeed. The color is much less depressing. Very interesting about the cobblestone museum. Glaciers are amazing.

[Nancy Bond]

Absolutely lovely. Those beautiful trees against that stone and those rustic buildings make spectacular shots. Thanks for sharing a bit of your fall color with us.

[TC]

Gorgeous fall shots E.

The first pic reminds me of an old Kentucky home, down in Tucker Holler. There was a "2-tractor" shed that looked almost exactly like the right side of the barn in your first picture. There was an old plow with seat too, it kinda looked like what's pictured in your third photo, only without the wagon. Are you sure you weren't drivin through the hills of Kentucky?