In the garden today – the intrepid daffodil. Sending fingers up to test out conditions. Or perhaps their bulbs are sending up periscopes to see if it’s safe.
But for Daffodils things are just fine. They can take most anything. Even snow in late March.
Tough as nails they stand up to wintery conditions. Surprise ice and snow in mid April? No worry. The daffodils say, “Bring on spring! We’re READY!”
As I went to bed last night sleet and freezing rain were clicking at my skylight windows promising me a very good next day. There’s been hardly any snow so far this winter. Sleet and freezing rain with its resulting ice is NEARLY as wonderful to me as “take me back to my childhood” snow.
Morning brought the promised gift of diamonds in the trees. Off to roam I went with my buddy, my camera, before I even had breakfast. Pure delight. Ice on everything.
Ice on the many Flowering Dogwood Trees that have established themselves up and down the mountain. Ice on the buds that formed, long ago mid-summer. Buds that wait — autumn into winter into finally bloom time. Now encased in ice. Buds waiting for spring.
It took a while for me to figure out. Figure out the little trees, clinging dearly to their leaves well into winter. Hanging on as if the trees’ very life depended on it. I would see these trees from the window of my truck, as I would drive past. Such a common sight. Many woods contained the mystery trees.
Finally, I got myself established in my cabin in the woods, moving from, what some might call the city to, definitely not the city. Finally I had time to hike, to identify plants, both large and small, that had been intriguing me. My mystery tree, it turns out is American beech, Fagus grandifolia, a tree native to eastern North America. American beech is not necessarily a small tree, but can grow to be 80 feet tall, with a diameter of 3 feet or more, and can live 300 to 400 years. I was noticing the small trees, simply because they were so visible, their leaves still there, against the otherwise empty forest understory. American beech is a tree that tolerates shade, doesn’t get discouraged, keeps growing, even in the understory.
The leaves are reminiscent of a tree that is near and dear to my heart. It is reminiscent of the American chestnut, having sawtooth edged leaves, a coloring similar to the American chestnut in the fall, and being shade tolerant. It is no wonder. American beech and American chestnut are both in the beech family Fagaceae.
An easy way to tell that you’ve found an American beech, is by looking at the end of the branches, where you will see long, tapered tips that look much like cigars.
Another clue that you have come upon an American beech, is its bark, which is smooth and silver gray, even into old age. The tree is monoecious, which means it gets both male and female flowers on the same tree. The wind does the job of pollination. The pollinated flowers grow into beech nuts, which are eaten by many mammals (including humans) and birds. Every two or three years the tree will produce a bumper crop of these beech nuts. It may take 40 to 60 years for the tree to begin producing these flowers and nuts though.
The American beech reproduces both by seed, and by sprouting seedlings from its shallow roots. It can be found along streams and bottom lands, although it does well, in most any situation, given adequate moisture. Must be moist up here on my mountain. American beech is plentiful up here.
I’m in love with a bush that’s growing in my yard. Actually I have 14 of these bushes growing along the edge of my front porch, bordering the vegetable garden, and creating a shrub island by the wood shop. I can’t recommend them highly enough. Here in the mountains of central Virginia, they are a perfect shrub, lovely and trouble free.
After being planted, it was just a matter of sitting back and waiting. I do admit to being concerned when they were baby shrubs, and new to this mountain. I diligently watered them. I stopped doing that years ago, and they are not complaining in the least.
Native to Eastern North America, I can easily find blueberry bushes as I hike up the mountain. It always gives me a thrill to find this crop plant growing wild.
In the spring they show off with their creamy white, to blush pink blooms, enticing bees to come pollinate them. The blueberry bush, with its yummy berry, provides benefits to an incredible number of insects and animals, including at least 30 species of birds, along with many mammals. Browsers love to chomp on the leaves, but are not a problem. I’m thankful though, to have very few deer.
As the berries think of ripening, they create inspiration for me. Inspiration to take photographs of the still green fruit. I find them beautiful whether green or blue.
As they mature into frosty looking, deep blue orbs, there is more inspiration. Inspiration to bake. Bake pies, bake muffins, make pancakes. Although there are plenty of berries, I have to pace myself and not use them all up. Many, many quarts of berries are frozen, for treats throughout the year.
As summer turns to autumn, so do the leaves of the blueberry bush, creating another treat. The brilliance of the season is reflected in the foliage of the blueberry bush. Another season to inspire — more photographs!
And then comes, what is perhaps my favorite season, winter. The twigs of the blueberry bush in winter provide more spark for me, particularly when the ice storms hit — bright red branches, covered in ice. As others stress over the weather, I think, “Soon it will be spring again. Don’t stress over that ice. Just go get photos!”
Ice storm overnight. Beauty beyond words. Walk carefully with me and I will show you some of that beauty. Watch your step. It is very slick.
If this blog had a sound track, this is what it would look like. I don’t know what the music actually sounds like, but as I was working on capturing this glazed Sumac, I felt I was photographing music.
A common evergreen here on my mountain, this is Virginia Pine, Pinus virginiana, dressed in shimmering, silvery ice. A tree native to the Blue Ridge Mountains, that grows to a height of 60 feet.
Another evergreen, my first photo in this blog, is a Blue Spruce, Picea pungens. A tree of color well worth noting. This tree is a particularly nice example of that blue-gray-green. My living room was graced with the beauty of this tree at Christmas, and it has been planted just outside my studio windows to please me throughout the year.
The Blue Spruce is not native to the Blue Ridge Mountains where I am located, but is a tree native to the Rocky Mountains of the U.S. I expect my lovely Blue Spruce to reach a height of 50 feet. Growing the wild, it might reach a height of 75 feet.
The ice doesn’t quite know how to collect itself here on these cotton topped, seed heads of Anemone virginiana. I’ve enjoyed getting to know this native perennial through the years. It’s a tall (2 to 3 feet) plant in summer, with attractive pale green to white flowers that are 1.5 inches across. The pistils are grouped in a thimble shape, which is how the plant gets its name. The common name, Thimble Weed, is perhaps why I am fascinated with it, since I am a quilter and use a thimble quite often.
Seed eating birds really go for these seeds, when they are not covered in a layer of ice. This is Black-eyed Susan or Eastern Coneflower, Rudbeckia fulgida. This is an excellent example of how handy a scientific name is. There are many flowers with the common name, Black-eyed Susan. Knowing the scientific name eliminates all confusion.
More of the Black-eyed Susan, Rudbeckia fulgida, seed heads protected from the desires of Goldfinches, by ice.
A stunning flower during the summer, the Purple Coneflower, Echinachea purpurpea, is another native perennial that I depend on to draw the attention of Goldfinches when the seeds are present. This seed head has served its purpose, with all the seeds gone.
The last stop on our walk in the icy wonderland, this is a White Oak, Quercus alba, which keeps its leaves until the spring. It is a grand tree that can grow to be 100 feet tall and live for 200 to 300 years.
And now, I’m hoping for more ice or snow to create an art gallery of winter beauty on my mountain!
As I snuggled in my bed last night, I was prepared for nothing special in the weather this morning. Yesterday‘s forecast had been for snow, sleet and freezing rain.
Mother Nature skipped the snow part, and went straight to sleet, and it kept going, all day long. The temperature remained steady at 27 degrees during the whole day, but as bedtime drew nigh, it began to rise quickly and by the time I went to bed it was 32 degrees with no signs of leveling off. So my thoughts of a beautiful morning were of a beautiful rainy, wet morning.
The little girl within me was more than delighted this morning as daylight revealed a thick coating of ice over everything!
I very quickly put breakfast on the table for the family, gobbled mine down, and went out into the wonderland of diamonds and ice.
Thank goodness I have trekking poles! The ice was thick and not forgiving for a false move, and to further complicate things, I’m on the side of a mountain! Every surface is on a slant. With the poles though, I didn’t take a spill.
When I left the cabin, the temperature was 32 degrees and it was very cloudy.
There was no dripping. Everything in a frozen, fairlyland.
As I returned to my cabin, the sun was just beginning to break through the clouds, and like magic, it seemed to begin raining. Of course it wasn’t rain, but melting ice, dripping down on me.
Now this afternoon most of the diamonds and ice are gone from the trees and bushes.
But no worries! There is snow in tomorrow’s forecast!
How cool is that?
Stay tuned! I may be in my element tomorrow again, wandering with my hiking companions, my two cameras, taking snow pictures!
