Hello friends! Tonight’s feature image is titled “Transitioning Maple 101319” and is available for purchase by the instructions at the bottom of the article.
At the end of the workday I roll the big blue truck out to the edge of the parking lot. Nobody parks out this far and it’s like the city ends with the asphalt. This little pocket of wilderness has become my sanctuary for decompressing and leaving my “job self” at the office.
The leaves have begun to emulate the the sunsets that have trained them all Summer long. Beautiful hues of red, orange, yellow and even a few that are a dark purple. The light breeze gently shakes the maples causing the reds, yellows and oranges to flicker like a campfire.
Behind me a female Cardnial gives sharp chirps as she tracks her mate while he forages through the deep undergrowth for seeds and berries. I can also hear a woodpecker as it hammers an unseen snag in the distance.
The setting sun broadcasts golden light through the tree line that forms a border between the open field and the parking lot causing even more flickering on the little maple tree. As the light and shadows dance in the leaves my sense of peace is restored and it’s time to turn the big blue truck towards home.
Hello Friends and thank you for your support of my page. If you have enjoyed the photos or the writings please let me know by commenting and sharing my work on your social media. I also want to invite you to Follow Lloyds Lens Photography on Facebook
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I’m now using Zazzle to fulfil orders. What this means for you is a secure way to place an order, discount codes & a broader product selection! Simplymessage me on Facebookoruse the contact form on my websiteand tell me which image you want and I’ll reply with a direct link to where you can place the order.
Lastly, all of the photos and writings are my original work unless otherwise specified and are not to be copied or reproduced without expressed written permission from the photographer.
Hello friends! Tonight’s feature image is untitled and was taken specifically for this article. All of the photos are my original work and are available as prints by following the instructions at the bottom of the article.
When I started doing the Forage Friday posts I was concerned about finding enough plants that qualified as something one might forage. What shouldn’t have been a surprise was just how bountiful the wilderness of Appalachia is. The mountains are absolutely loaded with the American Beech. And a mature beech tree is capable of producing a huge amount of beech nuts. A few years ago when bio- diesel was a hot topic there was a lot of concern about converting crops into fuel and what that might mean for the food supply. At the time, I remembered reading in a survival book about people in the past substituting beechnut oil for lamp oil and the idea hit me that with the vast amount of beech nuts in the forest that perhaps a program to convert it into a fuel crop would be beneficial. I never really perused the idea but I never forget it either. The amount of eeffort it would take to do this even if it were only supplying energy for one household would make it impractical. But still, a little bit of beechnut oil has some interesting potential. The nuts themselves are edible but it’s not really a good idea to eat them raw in larger quantities due to a mild toxin called fagin. Fagin is found in the skin of nut itself and it’s said that roasting them makes it easier to remove the skin. ( similar to the skin found on chestnuts. ) The nuts are also a little astringent. As a kid I remember hoping that they would be like eating a raw chestnut and bit into one. I was pretty disappointed. Enough so that I gave up on them and spit it out almost immediately. But the oil is said to be quite different. The fagin is not present in the oil and neither is the tannins that make the nut astringent and slightly bitter. ( Tannins are water soluble and are removed by leeching in water. )
Last Friday I talked to you about how there’s actually a commercial market for Tiger Nuts and after posting the article I saw that the top Google results for Tiger Nuts was around $13.00 Per pound and the average yield was about 300 pounds per acre. But beech nut oil’ s top Google results was only one supplier at a whopping $75.00 for an 8 ounce bottle of cold pressed beech nut oil. I didn’t find enough hits to give me an idea of market demand for it but I did find srveral websites proclaiming health benefits of beech nut oil which makes it worthy of more research.
The unripe bur waiting for just the right moment to drop from the tree.
The nuts are born in burs and each bur contains 3 triangle shaped nuts. The shape of nut reminds me a bodkin style arrowhead. The nuts are also tiny. About the size of a large sunflower seed. The ground beneath the tree in my parent’s yard was so full of beech nuts that it was like walking in the pebbles near the edge of river. That’s even with a horde of squirrles carrying the nuts away as fast as they can. Beech nut trees don’t really bear fruit until they are about 40 years old but by the time they’re 60 years old they really make up for lost time.
From a foraging point of view beech trees also offer a few other things. The buds are also edible in early Spring although the papery shealth makes them a little awkward to consume. I have also tried the new leaves which aren’t too bad. The guide books say that the inner bark is also edible but if it’s like some of the other inner barks it requires a lot of work to process.
The wood of beech is sold as Maple and often has a beautiful grain that shows a lot of ray fleck.
As you look out of windows and see the bright yellow yellow leaves this fall some of them are going to be beech. It just might be worth a trek out to mark the spot of this very useful tree.
Hello Friends and thank you for your support of my page. If you have enjoyed the photos or the writings please let me know by commenting and sharing my work on your social media. I also want to invite you to Follow Lloyds Lens Photography on Facebook
If you would like to Follow me on Facebook the web address is
Did you know that I also do portraits by appointment? If you’re interested in a portrait session either message me on Facebook or Use the Contact form. The YouTube link below takes you one of my slideshows.
I’m now using Zazzle to fulfil orders. What this means for you is a secure way to place an order, discount codes & a broader product selection! Simplymessage me on Facebookoruse the contact form on my websiteand tell me which image you want and I’ll reply with a direct link to where you can place the order.
Lastly, all of the photos and writings are my original work unless otherwise specified and are not to be copied or reproduced without expressed written permission from the photographer.
Hello friends! Tonight’s feature image is titled “Dogwood In The Fall 10119” and is available for purchase by the instructions at the bottom of the article.
The dry September wind claimed a toll on the Fall colors. However the Dogwood tree in my parent’s yard still shows it’s glory in crimson. No special treatment was given to the tree. It’s change seems to come from sheer strength of will. The photo was taken on October 1st which was a few days before the rains finally returned. As I stood beneath the branches and thanked God for the beautiful colors I started to think about how hard the late Summer drought had been. The image shows that many of leaves have turned brown and are dry. And yet the tree gives as much beauty as it can. The few red leaves are more appreciated than in the past few years because they’re less abundant.
You see, it’s easy enough to have success in the good times when everything is going right. But it’s the harsh conditions of the bad times when you don’t give up and bring as much as you can muster to bear that makes the difference. The harder the struggle, the sweeter the reward.
We need to not judge ourselves according to what was done in a perfect environment when success was almost a guarantee. It’s what we can do when times are tough that truly shows our resolve even if the results are not as prolific.
Hello Friends and thank you for your support of my page. If you have enjoyed the photos or the writings please let me know by commenting and sharing my work on your social media. I also want to invite you to Follow Lloyds Lens Photography on Facebook
If you would like to Follow me on Facebook the web address is
Did you know that I also do portraits by appointment? If you’re interested in a portrait session either message me on Facebook or Use the Contact form. The YouTube link below takes you one of my slideshows.
I’m now using Zazzle to fulfil orders. What this means for you is a secure way to place an order, discount codes & a broader product selection! Simplymessage me on Facebookoruse the contact form on my websiteand tell me which image you want and I’ll reply with a direct link to where you can place the order.
Lastly, all of the photos and writings are my original work unless otherwise specified and are not to be copied or reproduced without expressed written permission from the photographer.
Hello friends! Tonight’s feature image is titled “The Color Of Tranquility” and is available for purchase by the instructions at the bottom of the article.
The big blue truck takes me down the Midland Trail just as it does nearly every day. The exception being that this time the sun is higher in the sky than usual. The cool Fall rains have fallen softly onto the mountains rescuing the chance for those Fall Colors. The changes are still in the early stages as lush green leaves begin to shift into the different tones. The Kanawha River peacefully echoes the forests as they reveal their glory to all of creation. I have no particular schedual today and it’s a perfect moment to stop by the water and refill my “tranquility reserves”.
As gaze at the wonderful creation thats been laid out before my eyes the thought that fills my heart is that “Light is the language of the forest and the trees sing in harmony”.
What must it be like to be able to actually hear their voices?
Believe it or not, there is an answer to that question. There’s a rare medical condition known as Synesthesia where some people see sounds and hear color. (Clicking the blue link takes you to a virtual reality video of what it’s like to experience Synesthesia). A good Appalachian Fall must be quite a concert for those people. I can only imagine what that would be but my imagination sees a sound graph in the reflections on the water.
As the season progresses the songs will come to crescendo and slowly fade away as a lullaby when the forest sleeps and only the silence will echo through the mountains.
Hello Friends and thank you for your support of my page. If you have enjoyed the photos or the writings please let me know by commenting and sharing my work on your social media. I also want to invite you to Follow Lloyds Lens Photography on Facebook
If you would like to Follow me on Facebook the web address is
Did you know that I also do portraits by appointment? If you’re interested in a portrait session either message me on Facebook or Use the Contact form. The YouTube link below takes you one of my slideshows.
I’m now using Zazzle to fulfil orders. What this means for you is a secure way to place an order, discount codes & a broader product selection! Simplymessage me on Facebookoruse the contact form on my websiteand tell me which image you want and I’ll reply with a direct link to where you can place the order.
Lastly, all of the photos and writings are my original work unless otherwise specified and are not to be copied or reproduced without expressed written permission from the photographer.
Hello friends! Tonight’s feature image is titled “Rust And Gold” and is available for purchase by the instructions at the bottom of the article.
A slight breeze sweeps across my yard showering me with dry leaves. Even with the dry conditions the wind stirs up the rich scent of forest humas. As I look skyward to watch the leaves flow down from the ridge I see the maple keys fluttering in the filtered sunlight. In my childhood I would pretend they were paratroopers dropping into battle. On a breezy Fall Saturday afternoon we’d gather all of green plastic army men and command titanic battles with the skies full of “paratroopers”.
As the rain of leaves and airborne maple seeds tumbled down through the twigs they made a sound like rain. The cool breeze slows to an eventual end and rustling leaves quiet down except for one spot.
I have allowed the brambles to claim a few spots on the banks of the creek that runs through my property and the canes are still shaking even though the wind has stopped. The berries have dropped from the thorny branches long ago and the leaves have cured to a golden hue in the amber Fall sun. The movement pattern is recognisable to me and so I cautiously stalk forward.
In spite of the fact that I have set food out and provided plenty of cover for the small songbirds they are still very shy. If I move too suddenly or push myself too close he will vanish behind the oaks on the other side of the road. This is as close as he’s ever allowed me to get. My guess is that he was so preoccupied with a catipiller in the bushes that he didn’t really notice me on the other side. The golden color of his feathers blend well with pale leaves and without my glasses it would have been hard to pick him out if not for movement of the canes.
His colors are that of the Magnolia Warbler but they’re not supposed to be in this area. They breed farther North and spend the Winter in Florida. I’d guess that he was just passing through on his way South but he’s been here every year all Spring and Summer.
I raise my lens and begin to snap photos when he finally decided that I was too close for comfort and dropped into the creek only to suddenly burst straight up the other bank. I lost sight of him as he climbed to tops of trees but the rest of afternoon I could still hear his song and catch movement in the canes out of corner of my eye.
Hello Friends and thank you for your support of my page. If you have enjoyed the photos or the writings please let me know by commenting and sharing my work on your social media. I also want to invite you to Follow Lloyds Lens Photography on Facebook
If you would like to Follow me on Facebook the web address is
Did you know that I also do portraits by appointment? If you’re interested in a portrait session either message me on Facebook or Use the Contact form. The YouTube link below takes you one of my slideshows.
I’m now using Zazzle to fulfil orders. What this means for you is a secure way to place an order, discount codes & a broader product selection! Simplymessage me on Facebookoruse the contact form on my websiteand tell me which image you want and I’ll reply with a direct link to where you can place the order.
Lastly, all of the photos and writings are my original work unless otherwise specified and are not to be copied or reproduced without expressed written permission from the photographer.
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