I was on the road again today. Drove about sixty kilometers north of my southern, seaside home, to the inland woods where the autumn is colorful and pretty spectacular.
Especially on a sunny day like this.
I parked the car by the road, near the beginning of the narrow path that leads into the woods. From there, I had a good view of the small village across the street ...
... so I photographed the church that looked great in that place, surrounded by lush vegetation.
I photographed also this solitary tree ...
... before entering the forest ...
... where plants formed an intricate and colorful community.
The ground under the trees was carpeted with fallen leaves, and I continued my joyful walk across that soft, rustling surface ...
... made golden by the intense light of the late afternoon.
In the shade, the colors looked slightly different, but always beautiful.
This forest is a mix of evergreen conifers and deciduous trees, so the fallen cones are mixed with colorful broad leaves.
I encountered many spiders while rambling around with my eyes glued to the rich, intricate patterns on the ground.
Most of them were shy and fast. Very difficult to šhotograph. Here I caught a couple of legs only, while the spider was running to hide under the foliage.
Here I sneaked behind the spider very slowly and took a better shot. This is some small species from the Lycosidae family. Don't know which one exactly. Spiders from this family are commonly known as Wolf spiders. These fast opportunistic predators often wait in ambush, camouflaged among the fallen leaves, but can also chase their prey over a longer distance.
The Pisaura mirabilis spiders weren't so numerous, but they were calm and quiet. So taking this photograph was considerably less frustrating. Pisauridae are commonly known as Nursery web spiders.
Not far from there ...
... when I crouched again, trying to catch another spider ...
... this little creature appeared from the mysterious space under the fallen leaves.
Here you can see a jumping bristletail. Don't know the exact species but the family is certainly Machilidae. These weird and primitive insects look a bit like minuscule forest shrimps.
At one point, after some more walking ...
... I sat down to take a rest and drink a bit of water.
While sitting there ...
... under the tall trees, and enjoying the liquid refreshment ...
... my focus shifted to the leaves that were still covering the branches.
They were mostly brown and yellow ...
... but some were intensely red.
Others were displaying a springtime - green palette.
On some branches, you could see all those colors spread across the foliage.
After the short rest, I continued my walk uphill through the woods ...
... and when I arrived at the top of that small hill ...
... I saw another small village, seemingly identical to the one from the beginning of this post. The village was picturesque and beautiful, but the atmosphere had a pretty strong Twilight Zone feel. Only when I noticed the clock on the church tower, a detail that definitively proved that this is another village, I was completely reassured that the rules and logic of our usual world are still intact, and my mind is working properly.
And here, at the top of the walk, with one last look at the autumn landscape - is time to end this post. I didn't take any photographs on the way back to the car, so that's it ... as always in these walks on HIVE, the photographs are my work - THE END.