Lovely Autumn

Monarch on New England Asters

With the exception of the random tropical storm that came up the coast yesterday and today, autumn has decided to make its entrance for the year. Apples, pumpkins, corn - all at least a week or two early. The deciduous trees are changed for the most part, but it will be a short lived fire of color this year. We only had about 6 days of rain in over 2 months.

Beaver Brook Maple Tree Because of the lack of rain, I was rather surprised to even see any decent foliage this year. I'm sure when I leave my home tomorrow, after the tropical downpours and winds, all these orange and red oaks and maples and yellow birches and beeches will be branch bare.Maple Leaves at Beaver Brook

With autumn comes lovely asters, mums, sunflowers and a forest load of busy chipmunks and squirrels.





White Mums at Maple Hill Gardens







Most of the time, chipmunks are hard to capture with my little digital camera. Between their size and speed, my basic 5 year old camera can't deal with it. However, lucky in one way and tragic in another, I came across a sick chipmunk. This poor chipmunk actually came out of its hole in the ground and ran into my foot as if almost about to attack. I examined her and found there was nothing I could do for her - she was in the last stages of distemper. I took a picture of her, and put her back in her hole, careful not to come in direct contact with anything but the end of her tail. I'm sure she's gone by now, and wanted to include her here.

Cow Birds... lots of em

Ruggles Mine in Autumn

Grafton New Hampshire

Ruggles Mine, in Grafton NH is located on the top and side of Isinglass Mountain. Over 150 minerals are found here including beryl, mica, amethyst, rose and smokey quartz, garnet, etc. It also has uranium minerals like as gummite. I was lucky enough to mine near one of the owners and his workers right after they found a fresh deposit of this rare mineral. Now I'm the proud owner of some glowing green specimens that sadly didn't photograph well. Needless to say, I'm expecting my super powers or extra fingers to grow in any day now from the radioactive material. :D

This is the entrance tunnel that leads to the actual mine itself. The walls are granite, feldspar, lots of glittery mica and probably a lot of other things I didn't notice. Ruggles Mine is not an "underground" mine in the traditional sense. It's actually a pit mine - open air without the claustrophobia to egg on anxiety. Aside the steep hill, it's an easy trip.




This is the first view of the mine you get from the tunnel. The camera doesn't give you the "wow" factor it deserves. This is the only place I can think of, aside the sea, that was mammoth in size when I was a child, and still is today years later. Just for perspective, I took this shot with my father next to the pillar and got a bonus when I realized I caught this huffing and puffing lady climbing up the hill.






The mine has many caves. This is the only one that contains water - maybe only a few inches deep at most. I got some cool orbs on this photo too, if you expand the image, you'll seem them.





This shot is the mine from the middle up. That's a long hill to climb!









And lastly here's a lovely Garter Snake that lives in a wall of quartz crystal and aquamarines.