This past week has given us a great deal of ugliness – and beauty, too, in the responses of support for those who have been attacked but not necessarily bowed.  Here is a little bit of beauty from New England sent out to all the world in hopes of giving some comfort, distraction, happiness.  Please enjoy.

First, I have images from our bicycle ride in Cheshire, Connecticut.  I saw plenty of remarkable birds.  Here is a neat shot of a Great Blue Heron.  He blends in with the leaves, doesn’t he? We were so fortunate  to get this close a shot.

We also saw this neat flock of mallards enjoying a swim together in the canal next to the trail. 

This was one of the several pairs.  Clearly honeys.  The foregrounded leaves of salmon to yellow emerging from green captures fall elegance.

The same couple swim toward some delicate red berries.  The lady duck seems to have an itchy tootsie.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t get a shot of the most exciting bird of the day.  A Piliated Woodpecker!  Those guys are gigantic!  Like pteranodons!  I don’t have a picture of my own, so I am borrowing a photo (with proper accreditation).  This guy was bigger than the large crows with whom he/she was tussling.  I would that I could have gotten close enough with my camera.  So, thank you Andrew Brown at Wikipedia.

Our October holiday weekend took us on plenty of day trips.  On our drive home from a rail trail ride, Yang brought us through Stafford, Ct. where we stopped at sunset for these gorgeous colors.

The reflections of the fiery maples and oaks on the pond at sunset were magnificent!

Here are Yang and I in some pictures, so you know we were really here to take the photos.

What a lovely bouquet of all the lushest fall colors.

I have some more pix, but I don’t want anyone to pass out from foliage overdose – so I’ll save them for a Part 2.