{"id":12209,"date":"2011-11-22T23:15:20","date_gmt":"2011-11-23T07:15:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sparselysageandtimely.com\/blog\/?p=12209"},"modified":"2023-12-15T16:50:04","modified_gmt":"2023-12-16T00:50:04","slug":"the-changing-of-the-seasons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/?p=12209","title":{"rendered":"The changing of the seasons"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Lynn and I returned home<\/strong> from a visit to my optometrist in Terra Linda last week, we found a mirthful message on our answering machine from Linda Sturdivant of Inverness Park. “Hey Dave,” she said. “I want to tell you about something beautiful I saw yesterday.<\/p>\n

“As I was leaving here, I got to the end of the levee road. At the pumpkinhouse, there is one of the most beautiful red trees you could ever see. Get a picture.”<\/p>\n

The pumpkinhouse gets its nickname from the pumpkin displays that once were on its front porch and fence every year. If you check Janis Ceresi’s comment, she includes a link that shows what the pumpkin house used to look like on Halloween.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Wanting more information regarding the tree’s location, I called Linda back, and a friendly young woman answered. Not recognizing her voice, I asked, “Is this Linda?” She said she was. “Just where is this beautiful tree?” I asked, and she sounded confused. “Which tree?” she responded. “The one you called me about.” She then asked me, “Where are you?” and I replied, “In Point Reyes Station.”<\/p>\n

“Well, I’m in San Francisco,” she said. We both laughed and hung up, and I called the real Linda Sturdivant.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The tree Linda saw is not the only one around here with brilliant fall colors. This all\u00e9e of maple trees is across Highway 1 from Campolindo Road, where I live.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Last week I had just started down my front steps when I heard a commotion in a pyracantha bush on Doreen Miao’s property uphill from mine. Not sure what I was seeing, I grabbed my camera and started snapping photos.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> Before long the source of the disturbance became obvious when a flock of wild turkeys fluttered to the ground. What had they been doing up in the bush? I was surprised that the bush’s bitter berries are safe to eat, so I checked the Seasonal Cooking<\/strong><\/a> website. “Contrary to a common myth, they are not poisonous,” the site said. “Pyracantha, a relative of apples and roses, is entirely edible.”\u00c2\u00a0 In fact, you can use the berries to make preserves and jelly.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>As we head toward winter<\/strong>, a variety of wildlife has begun hanging around just outside the cabin. I photographed this blacktail buck just below our deck. In addition, a doe and her fawn are so comfortable here that I can walk within a few yards of them.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Last week I was looking out my kitchen window when I spotted this bobcat looking back at me.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> It’s been awhile since I’ve seen a bobcat so close to Mitchell cabin, but it didn’t seem to mind my presence and soon resumed hunting.<\/p>\n

Another predator<\/strong> that I haven’t seen for more than a year showed up this week. I didn’t see the coyote, but I found its scat in my driveway. Neighbor George Stamoulis found a fair amount of coyote scat in his driveway and saw the animal itself moseying up Campolindo Road.<\/p>\n

Last night, Lynn and I spotted still another creature that hasn’t been around for months. A young possum showed up on my deck to eat the remainder of peanuts Lynn had put out for raccoons. Raccoons and grey foxes have become so common during the evening at Mitchell cabin that they’ve become fairly comfortable with us. We can feed them slices of bread by hand with no problem.<\/p>\n

I’ll close on a linguistic fact<\/strong> I learned from the WildCare<\/em> magazine this week. There is a name for the burbling sounds mother raccoons and their young make among themselves. It’s called trilling, as in Lionel, and we’ve heard it many times.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Lynn and I returned home from a visit to my optometrist in Terra Linda last week, we found a mirthful message on our answering machine from Linda Sturdivant of Inverness Park. “Hey Dave,” she said. “I want to tell you about something beautiful I saw yesterday. “As I was leaving here, I got to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":623,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,10,11],"tags":[199,143,198,197,36,74,29,17],"class_list":["post-12209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-point-reyes-station","category-west-marin-nature","category-wildlife","tag-blacktail-buck","tag-bobcats","tag-coyotes","tag-fall-colors","tag-foxes","tag-possums","tag-raccoons","tag-wild-turkeys"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/623"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12209"}],"version-history":[{"count":50,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40235,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12209\/revisions\/40235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}