Autumn's advanced notices begin arriving amid late summer's greenery

So why don't I update here daily -- since I notice wilderness often, moment by moment, every day?!

During not-so-early morning, August greenery glows and shines...

But during dusk, autumn red stands out on a maple tree -- already!

A bunny almost blends into drying grass patches near a thicket...

This longstanding thistle I noticed weeks ago was mowed down...

But stealthily now, fleets of thistle-down seeds prepare for launch!

Has noticing without comment become a trait in my human nature?

'Garbage ghosts' run wild in these wintery woods...

Again, on my way to the neighborhood grocery store, I wondered, shocked and amazed, why so many "garbage ghosts" appear to run wild -- seemingly freely and boldly in late autumn's (or early winter's?) filtered daylight -- through the wild wooded edges around these lots. Here's my favorite, so far:

Does this garbage ghost appear stealthy?

The scene: Buds blooming amid a thicket of bare branches during a late autumn heat wave!

"Undeveloped land" amid apartments and businesses opens a shortcut to a busy strip mall.

From a different angle this ghost appears to stride our suburban mini-wilderness boldly!

Soon after...

My companion Tortoise Cat and I explore more autumn leafy fringes...

Sun rays brighten the filtered wintry light as we stroll the edge of the parking lot at our place. 

The air was chilling as the scene brightened and we decided not to picnic that afternoon.

Under a raptor's gaze we explored our new yards

Our new apartment community is suburban, several miles south of Milwaukee's General Mitchell International Airport. Like all mundane, civilized neighborhoods I've inhabited, the place is invaded and surrounded by wild patches! Here are several of the first hastily snapped pictures, showing only a few of the wild sides that beckon here.

We're in a bird's-eye view while we stroll the grounds of our new neighborhood.

Fields of "undeveloped land" shelter bunny warrens to our northeast and more wild life! 

Around the edges of the complex grow wooded and grassy patches, harboring wonders.

I find autumn's "messes" most picturesque!

Fallen autumn leaves glow crimson and gold, like bright treasures tossed on drab dirt.

Red leaves gleam on green grass, a merry contrast!

These golden sprinkles sparkling in midair -- are these merely dead leaves?

Sniffing around, this tortoiseshell cat might be musing, "New messages beckon next steps, yet urge caution!"

Trees growing at the edges of civilization -- my imagination stirs enchantment.

This tortoiseshell cat might be musing, "Squirrels climb faster here, too!"

Looking skyward, I imagine we are far from the city...

Bare branches reveal how trees hang on, balancing catastrophe, calm and shifts between extremes, day by day.  

New wild sights, sounds and smells around the edges of the ordinary stir curiosity for cats and humans alike.

Failing to get a grasshopper-eye view

Grasshoppers keep hopping through October. I realize I've been wanting to join them. Does life grow wilder on a smaller scales? So far, I'm still too high up to begin to tell -- WAY too high -- hovering and towering over my world!

Microscopic looks would reveal worlds within worlds of wilderness inside fallen golden leaves soaked in evaporating parking lot puddles, I remember.  Grasshoppers hop away as I bend and crouch, failing to lean into their everyday scenes. But it's fun to keep trying.

Update, later on 10/21: I added more pictures -- snapped this morning while my Tortoise Cat colleague and I strolled the lawn and parking lot.

Here are several more pictures of this scene, snapped between 8 and 9 a.m. on 10/21:

 

My challenge: Notice nature everyday at any crossing of here and now

I've been wondering why I should blog about nature and science. It seems to me there are more than enough high-quality articles and blogs about every possible topic -- too many to begin to keep up with are published every hour.

Curating fills in many necessary blanks for me, so through Twitter, Facebook and G+ I micro-blog links to press releases, articles and blogs about research, discoveries and theories that link back to original sources. This provides more than enough grist for my mental mill. Here I list scitech and nature links (and links to links) on the sidebar for open-ended perusal, as curiosity tugs and full schedules permit, but I don't sense a calling to blog further.

Mainly for my own fun, entertainment and self-education, here (I wish I could write daily, but more likely it'll be weekly) I will share passing ordinary natural wonders I notice in yards around where I live during my travels, illustrated by photos I snap with my smartphone or tablet. The wildernesses I wander for brief whiles may be urban, rural, beyond or within. All existence hides and reveals wild sides.

When this grasshopper -- perhaps the American Bird Grasshopper of subfamily Cyrtacanthacridinae (Bird Grasshoppers or Bird Locusts) -- hopped onto my path near the front steps I could only wonder why. Hop, hop again and back the mini-jungles in our lawn and garden it was, after that sudden, momentous photo opp.

Primarily, this is a record of wilderness moments that pop open just like that.

Update 10/22: OK, I notice nature and wilderness patches every day, but sharing through blogging gets shoved down my to-do list as I explore and notice more and as I keep freelance-working for a living. Still, keeping this journal for myself will enhance experiencing in the moment, in the long-run, I'm convinced, even if I post mostly pictures.

Also linked on this sidebar and updated occasionally, sporadically: My Freelance Wondering blog will cover science and technology research I have written up, and Freelance Wondering On will list links to projects that stirred questions (with blurts about some).