Sunday's Random Ramble

Today's hike had no real direction or purpose; I ended up all over the place. I headed down to Ballard Park and Gooseneck cove first, but there wasn't much activity or anything different from what was down there Thursday. Watch out for next week, though - the fall colors are getting more intense, so next week's hike down there might have some real color!

After that I had originally intended to head up to Brenton Rd. and Beacon Hill Rd. to see if there were any hawks but the wind was up, which is not ideal for trying to find them. So I headed east on Ocean Drive, had lunch on Reject Beach, and headed up Bellevue Ave. for home. These are some of the good shots that resulted.  

First, here are some more ancient, leafy rocks in Ballard Park for Deb G.

Much further on, on Ocean Drive across from Bailey's Beach, there was this cat staring intently into the underbrush:

When a tour bus passed by, the noise attracted the cat's attention. That's when it saw me aiming a camera at it and gave me a look that very plainly said: "And you are...?"

 Around the corner, I ate lunch on Reject Beach, which was active with Semi-Palmated Plovers...

and Sanderlings.

At the corner of Bellevue Ave. and Ledge Rd. I found this Squirrel gathering acorns for the winter.

Bellevue Ave. is Newport's famous "Mansion Road", with many of the "summer cottages" of the Robber Barons of the 1890s lining both sides. The rest of the photos in this essay are from this area.

Many of the mansions have brick or stucco wall surrounding them, and the ornaments on those walls can be very interesting. Like this sandstone arabesque on a corner ornament on one wall...

or this decorative urn on the corner post of another wall:

There is also much classical-style statuary with these mansions. This decorative flower urn on the grounds of Chateau sur Mer is a fine example:

 Bellevue Ave. is also lined with Beeches, from more recently planted ones to some real ancients that have to have been there from Colonial times or earlier. One of the younger Beeches in front of the De La Salle Condominiums (used to be a Catholic School but the diocese closed it up and sold it off decades ago) had this interesting invasion of Elephant Ears climbing all over it.

And this gnarled, knobby ancient a little farther up the road is covered in ivy.

And that was today's ramble about Newport. I hope you've enjoyed it!