A large blue piece of art, a stained glass star created by my son as a gift to me. Snow in the background.
Wishing you the best of the season, and a 2024 filled with many good things.
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Something to cool you off on a hot summer day.
Snow and ice on a seedhead of Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis).
This past December fooled me. It was so warm. Not at all the way December is supposed to be in the Blue Ridge Mountains or in the Mid-Atlantic states. The whole month was that way. The warmth had me worried about how the rest of the winter would be.
But January came through for me. It’s been a nice frigid cold. Perfect. So far my cabin has been decorated by 17″ of beautiful snow. The first came on January 3rd. Those 9″ were the best, wet, clinging, heavy snow that stayed on the trees for several days. A perfect fairyland. These pictures are not of those snows but what winter also brings, the frosty cold, and with it, ICE.
The first image at the top of this post is of ice on the vernal pool at my yoga studio. The second is also at the yoga studio, and is of frost. And the photo just above this text is ice covered Blueberry buds. And no need to worry, the Blueberry flowers and the berries themselves were just fine, not damaged at all by the ice.
These buds are of Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida). And again Mother Nature is a gentle artist, creating beautiful landscapes covered in ice and still those buds were not harmed. Going on to bloom, creating another gorgeous landscape of flowers a couple months later.
More ice and another Dogwood. This one Gray Dogwood (Cornus racemosa) with its fruit stalks, or pedicels encrusted in ice.
And here, one of my favorite Pine trees. Pitch Pine (Pinus rigida). Plastered in ice. All this icy elegance, just one part of why winter is my favorite season.
Here in the woods I’ve still got patches of snow from last week, and today’s temperatures were mighty cold. Birds gathered ’round the feeders, the birdbath, and the bushes that still have countless berries on them. Consuming calories which will go a long way toward keeping them warm. Keeping warm, something they’re constantly working on during the winter. The body temperatures of birds range from 100°F to 110°F and are generally about 104°F. Like a human putting on a warm coat during the winter, birds have 35 to 70% more feathers than during the summer. An increase in outer contour feathers as well as down feathers.
Yes, a busy place today. With Song Sparrows, White-throated Sparrows, Cardinals, Juncos, White-breasted Nuthatches, Robins, Robins, Robins, Cedar Waxwings, Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers, Tufted Titmice, Downy Woodpeckers, the ever-present Chickadees. And a few Hermit Thrushes (Catharus guttatus), including one that was kind enough to pose for me for the photo above.
An annual tradition for many many years. Today I’ve chosen a photograph to use but its look will change as I add borders, surrounding the picture with images of fabric, or wrapping paper, or other visual textures that have tickled my fancy through the years. Choosing the photo is just the first of many steps along the way. This image was captured in Hobbs, New Mexico, at the beginning of November, 2004.
A tough fern often spotted on the trails up here in the mountains. Christmas Fern (Polystichum acrostichoides), one of the most common ferns in eastern North America which is its native range.
These are called crosiers, or more commonly, fiddleheads. In them I see movement, dance, music. Certainly grace and beauty. I love it in the spring when they are unfurling. It’s happening right now as spring reaches into warmth.
A perennial and evergreen fern that says elegance and charm. Fronds swaying together to the melody in their hearts. But don’t all ferns express that same feeling?
Perennial and evergreen. Takes on the snow and ice of winter like a champ. Like the best of us.
And come spring again is all set for music and dance. Swaying to their own melody. The refrain in their hearts.
The Flowering Dogwood trees (Cornus florida) here in my neck of the woods are just beginning to open as the Eastern Redbud blooms (Cercis canadensis) are on their way into decline. That’s the pattern every year. A slight overlapping of their big show. Like homemade vanilla ice cream with home grown strawberries on top.
In case you didn’t know, what are thought of as petals on a Flowering Dogwood bloom are not petals at all, but are modified leaves called bracts. The actual flowers of the Flowering Dogwood are those tiny yellow-green things in the very center.
No matter what the parts of a Dogwood flower are called they are a shout for glee in the mountains.
As the season continues and they’re no longer paired with their buddies, the Redbuds, they are still something that makes my heart light.
Something that calls to me to bring my camera for an outing.
As the light changes, another chance for an altered glimpse of those four white bracts with their yellow-green flowers.
Flowers on trees that intrigue me. Flowers that are just an added benefit.
And here a Blue Jay, an additional added benefit.
A Cardinal? What more could I want!
And once those flowers and bracts are gone, still pure delight as the seasons roll on. Be sure to watch those leaves. I kid you not, they begin ever so slowly to turn to red in late June. Slowly slowly slowly.
Autumn offers up berries for the critters of the forest. Berries that last what seems but a brief moment.
Hints of winter as the leaves fall. But look my beloved Flowering Dogwood trees are planning ahead. Those buds. That is spring on its way.
Spring indeed is planned for. Buds in the waiting. But the trees must go through winter. More delight!
That plan for spring the trees have made? They survive. They survive through snow, ice and cold. They survive through the wondrous winter and come into spring with blooms as their buddies, the Redbuds are blooming. Like homemade vanilla ice cream with home grown strawberries on top.
Many of you know that I love winter, my totally, over the top, favorite season. But I also delight in the seasons changing. If the seasons stayed the same, day after day after day after day I wouldn’t be content. I think the world of CHANGE.
Sometimes even Mother Nature just doesn’t want to let go. To let the seasons do their things. And she brings us surprises. These images are from April 15, 2020. I think this was one of those times when she felt, if nothing else, mischievous.
For the winter lover in me, I’m certainly at an advantage being at a slightly higher elevation than those in the lowlands of Virginia. Mountains have their benefits. That elevation helps create snow, when otherwise there might not be any. For sure it was the case on this day.
Blooms of Redbud (Cercis canadensis), and Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida), and new unfurling fronds of Christmas Fern (Polystichum acrostichoides) all got dumped on with a fair amount of wet snow. But they are native plants and can take what is dished out.
A few hours of sunshine and things were back to normal. And we all were quite content.
One week later, another native plant, Dwarf Crested Iris (Iris cristata), was up and blooming as if it was a perfectly normal spring.
It’s the middle of March and the first of my daffodils are up and blooming. Looking so lovely as they trumpet the arrival of spring. Don’t get too confident though you golden beauties. Mother Nature has a way of bringing surprises. Surprises like SNOW, even in the middle of APRIL!
The cold temperatures of winter can create such works of wonder. Often so delicate they can’t be touched for fear of destruction.
Occasionally the beauty makes me forget that what I am looking at, such as these rose hips of Multiflora Rose (Rosa multiflora), is something that I work diligently to rid my woods of. A very aggressive invasive that has the nerve to mimic our native blackberries during their times of blooming. But frosted during the cold of winter it has its charm. AND take a look at that image again. There is an undulating line of frost that starts on the left, about 1/4 of the way down that goes to the right, from that first rose hip, on to the second and then the third as it drops and then ends. THAT is a spider web also decorated with frostiness.
The berries of Smooth Sumac (Rhus glabra) with its frost rivals ANY image of a Cardinal in the snow. Glorious red with stark white. Perfection.
With the hoarfrost the needles of Virginia Pine (Pinus virginiana) each get their own personal set of needles.
The leaves of young White Oak (Quercus alba) don’t drop as most deciduous leaves do in the fall, but hang onto them until late spring. That gives them the chance to be dressed up. To be decorated by the spines of ice. The artwork of Mother Nature.
