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Long Gone
Signs. Old signs. Signs that are about to disappear forever. They intrigue me. This is a pair of such, old signs. Long gone. They sat, for who knows how long at the intersection of Seminole Trail, Airport Road and Proffit Road in Hollymead/Charlottesville, on the land where Walgreens now sits. Long gone. __________________________________________________________________________ If you…
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Wild Ginger Is Slowly Emerging
An herbaceous perennial, Wild Ginger (Asarum canadense), is slowly emerging from its snug winter slumber. The gardens here at my cabin are at an elevation of 1800 feet. This is where these plants are just peeking up through the soil. I often hike up to elevations of 2600 feet and higher, where, during the summer…
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Chipping Sparrow
A little sparrow that I don’t often see. Small and quite tame, I’m pleased when one shows up at my feeders. The Chipping Sparrow (Spizella passerina) is a bird that will come to feeders, or eat scattered seeds on the ground. During the summer though, insects and spiders are a big part of their diet.…
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Various Shades Of Red
The woods are getting soft hints, just whispers of various shades of red. The Red Maple trees (Acer rubrum) are in bloom. This happens quietly. It doesn’t get much attention. There is a subtlety as it happens. The flowers, quite small, just enough to only create a hint of the color. As the flowers fade,…
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First Evening Of Spring
Along a trail, a ways up the mountain above my cabin, Common Blue Violets (Viola sororia) rise up to greet the evening. The first evening of the new season, spring 2023. There are 87 species of violets native to North America, or perhaps even more. Scientists are unsure of that number. Of those species, there…
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Ruby Slippers
A storefront in Roanoke and what do I see? A pair of RUBY SLIPPERS just waiting for me. (I can do it too, my dear amigo Gar-ee!) ________________________________________________________________ If you would like to receive my daily blog posts by email, sign up here!
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The Season Ahead
Flip the pages of the calendar ahead to June and this is what you’ll find in some of my gardens. Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) is a wonderful flower to attract pollinators, and what better example to find than a Monarch Butterfly (Danaus plexippus). _________________________________________________________ If you would like to receive my daily blog posts by…
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A Tiger Beetle
This one, the Six-spotted Tiger Beetle (Cicindela sexguttata), which I love to find along the trails up here. A lovely color. Metallic, emerald green, though some lean toward a blue-green. A beneficial insect, consuming insects and other arthropods that are pests in our gardens and woods. _____________________________________________________________ If you would like to receive my daily…
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Blueberry Buds
Since autumn they’ve been waiting there at the ends of the branches. Waiting through the chill of winter. Biding time till spring. Now that spring is nearly here the buds are swelling. Oodles of buds. Blueberry bushes in front of the cabin, in front of the woodshop, in front of the vegetable garden. With just…
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An INCH!
Snow this morning. First a nice slow gentle falling. Then lots of graupel that made the ground look like it was covered by exploded bits of styrofoam coolers. Then snow, snow, snow. Lots of snow falling from the sky. It covered the ground with a serious, measurable, inch of snow. The most snow we’ve had…