This weekend I noticed an overabundance of newly-dropped pine cones on my driveway and along the trail in the woods where I take my daily walk. My best guess as to why the trees shed the cones is that the days were sunny, dry, and the temperature went up to 80F. The first photo shows cones from the yellow pines along the driveway. I love the solid, woody feel of these. I've brought a few inside to display on a shelf. The photo below shows a handful of hemlock cones. These are plentiful in the woods behind the house, and crunch underfoot as I walk along the trail. In contrast to the larger cones, these are papery and somewhat fragile.
I found the book pictured in the above photos at our local library's annual used book sale this weekend. It is titled
"Talking Leaves: How to Identify American Trees" and was published in 1934. Another find for our collection of naturalist books was a 1959 first edition copy of John Kieran's
"Natural History of New York City." This is a great book, giving voice to the many living creatures that somehow survive within the mighty urban landscape of NYC. Although there are numerous environmental problems facing our urban centers, it is interesting to note that there have been some improvements over the years. For example, the Hudson River is now cleaner than in decades past thanks to organizations like
Clearwater and
Riverkeeper.
It was treat for me to find someone's leaf collection within the pages of the "Talking Leaves" book. I have no idea who owned the book, nor how long ago the leaves were pressed between the pages.
A red oak leaf.
A cottonwood leaf.
A white elm leaf. Most all of the elm trees here in New England died off from Dutch Elm Disease when I was very young. I imagine this leaf was collected before that time.