I'm Still Alive! But Distracted.

Hello, dear readers, it's been quite a while since I've posted, but I hope to return to this blog very soon.  My blog has been invaded by robots, some canceling the indexing feature for dozens and dozens of past posts, and others flooding recent posts with robotic hits mounting up into the thousands that could not have been from genuine readers. (My usual readership rarely exceeds 200 for each post.) I've gone into the Google Blog settings, hoping to find a remedy, but I still haven't accomplished it. My next step will be to try to find a professional computer person to help me solve the problem. In the meantime, I have been hesitant to post a new blog that robots could invade.

But there's another issue that has got me profoundly distressed and has distracted me from tending this blog. It involves my backyard property line, defined for every year we have lived here since 1971 by the vine-covered fence pictured below.

A new home is being built on the vacant lot behind our property, and this new neighbor claims that my rear fence intrudes on his property and I will have to remove it, even though our fence has been in place since before we purchased our property in 1971, and no previous owners of the lot behind ours has ever contested its placement all these years. I am old (83) and with an ailment (emphysema) that could shorten my life. I don't want to spend even a minute of the life that remains for me, fighting with a new neighbor over some damned fence. I'm trying not to give a damn, but the issue is currently clouding my days and nights,  distracting me from thinking about posting a new blog.

I have been outdoors, anyway, and I've taken a few photos. So just to keep up the nature theme of this blog, I'm posting a few photos from where I have been and what pleasing things I have found.

Driving to Essex, NY, on Lake Champlain, the Adirondack high peaks rising along the way:

We took the ferry across Lake Champlain to visit our friends in Vermont. There were splendid mountain views both ways, Greens to the east, Adirondacks to the west.

A powerline follows the rolling hills at the base of the Palmertown Mountains that line the Hudson:

Acres of goldenrods thrive beneath this powerline, their puffy seedheads still beautiful: 

This lovely pond is in Moreau Lake State Park's newest addition, called Big Bend Preserve:

Along a Big Bend trail, my Thursday Naturalist friends and I were delighted to find this tiny orchid called Autumn Coralroot:

Small islands dot the Hudson River below the Spier Falls Dam:

In a quiet cove along the Hudson's shore, Witch Hazel's golden leaves are reflected in still water:

Witch Hazel's long ribbony petals unfurl when the weather is warm, curl up tight on colder days: 

Surprising autumn brilliance, down near the ground:

Baby Chestnut Oaks often bear leaves containing all the colors of autumn.

Some non-floral finds from two different sites:

At Woods Hollow Nature Preserve's sandplain habitat, the mushroom Sandy Laccaria sure looks sandy!

But see what vividly purple gills hide beneath those sand-colored caps! (Laccaria trullisata)

In the woods around Lake Bonita, this colorful slime mold called Wolf's Milk decorated a rotting log.