End of the Line

It’s time for the monthly Picture This photo contest at Gardens Gone Wild.  The theme for November is “End of the Line”.  You can imagine how this leads to lots of visual interpretations featuring change of season, last fruits, flowers, or leaves, or just pathways or roads going off to infinity.  I wrestled with various options including the following shot of Beth hiking down the entry road at Worthington Farm, a part of Monocacy National Battlefield.

Beth at Worthington Farm

Beth at Worthington Farm

And then there was the migration of tree swallows all perched on a telephone wire at Lilypons.

Tree swallows on a wire

Tree swallows on a wire

And then of course when we think of migrations and change of seasons the Canadian Geese surely come to mind.

Line of Honkers

Line of Honkers

Of course the other kind of line that we all get involved in is the traffic jams that are part of daily life.  I couldn’t help but imagine a traffic jam when I saw these two caterpillars both coming to the end of the branch they were chewing on.

Traffic jam

Traffic jam

But as I thought about the theme in terms of the change of season nothing brought home the dramatic end of another growing season than looking at this Cardinal caught in the aftermath of an ice storm.  This will be my entry for November.  End of the line Dear Reader …

Ice Cardinal

Ice Cardinal

12 comments on “End of the Line

  1. joco

    Dear John,

    Ab fab!
    All of them.
    Not only visually delectable, but emotionally stimulating.
    Did I mention wonderful?
    Just as well you didn’t post earlier as you might have prevented some of us from entering.

  2. Teresa

    Each one of your photos is more amazing than the last. The cardinal shot is beautiful. Good luck, I’d say you are a shoe in.

  3. Janet

    Wonderful shots! Each in its own right would be a winner. It makes me cold to think of all that ice on the branches! Wonderful contrast with the bright red Cardinal.

  4. Gail

    Absolutely wonderful photos…all of them, but Ice cardinal is fantastic. gail

  5. Heather's Garden

    I love your cardinal photo! I’ve looked at all the photos and I think it’s one of the very best. I’d be surprised if you didn’t get honored.

  6. Jan (ThanksFor2Day)

    All of your photos are lovely…but the last one is a standout! I do love it when the red cardinals stand out against the ice/snow in the winter…beautiful to the eye! I like how you interpreted it too, ‘woke up one morning and realized there’s no turning back!’

  7. ESP

    Hi.
    What an amazing photograph, it looks like a shot from a fantasy movie.Quite a lot of lines in here.
    Good luck.
    ESP

  8. Layanee

    Beautiful images of ‘The End of the Line’!

  9. Meems @Hoe & Shovel

    Really wonderful photos… every one.
    Meems

  10. Pingback: Picture This Photo Contest Winners – November 2009

  11. Randy

    John,
    All really nice images. The tree swallows brings my memory into play. Picture oneself on an island no one else on the island and you have 10s of thousands of tree swallows circling,dropping and landing in huge masses. So much in fact these birds showed up on sonar like moving donuts. Yes I saw this while doing Monarch butterfly surveys on Fishermans Island in Virginia.

  12. barbara

    The first picture makes me long for eastern winters, though I suspect if I felt the cold I’d be less enthusiastic. One does get soft out here!