Drifting and Dallying

Lately, my nature adventures have taken me far afield, where I've focused on exploring new habitats and discovering new plants. I've combed the Ice Meadows upriver in Warren County, roamed a calcareous talus slope across the Hudson in Lake Luzerne, driven more than an hour up to Essex County to paddle on Pyramid Lake. But today I just stayed home. Today I just drifted and dallied along my favorite stretch of the Hudson, not looking to find any new plants to list, just slipping along familiar banks, greeting familiar friends among the plants that grace those banks.

I entered the river from Potter Road, and rejoiced to see so much beautiful color in the trees along the water.

The sunlight came gleaming through leaves the color of fire, illuminating the emerald carpets that cover the rocks on Bear's Bathtub.

I paddled around Rippled Rocks Point to visit my totem tree, the Black Tupelo, whose leaves are now both glossy green and brilliant ruby, with fruits a deep blue-black.

In the marsh behind Three Pine Island, the water lay still as glass, reflecting the brilliant color of one Red Maple.

The blossoms of Buttonbush are now long gone, but the seed heads possess their own beauty.

The dark burgundy leaves of this dogwood gleamed like a lamp as a beam of sunlight shone through.

Everywhere I looked, I found something beautiful to behold, like this bank just massed with blue gentians and tiny white asters.

Or this bank aglow with the glossy green leaves and bright red berries of Wintergreen.