Virginia Pine – Tendrils

Mercury Glass Ornament

Ten years ago, on December 9th, there was a remarkable ice storm here that entertained me for hours as I roamed with my camera. These images are just a very small look at the many pictures that I captured as I was wandering on Cloud Nine.

This first picture is a native shrub. Beautiful, particularly in winter, when it is without its leaves but, oh those wonderful scarlet berries! It is Winterberry (Ilex verticillata), a species of holly that is native to eastern North America in the US and southeastern Canada.

Ice, ice everywhere. Here it tries to drip from the yellow-green, twisted pairs of needles of a Virginia Pine tree (Pinus virginiana). Another native plant in the “neighborhood” here.

Ice dripping from the red branches of Blueberry (Vaccinium). Looking closely you can see the buds that will, in a number of months, turn into the flowers of the Blueberry bush.

My favorite find in all my strolling was what appears, to me to be a mercury glass ornament in the shape of a pinecone.

Why be normal. I adore ice storms and snow. Why be normal indeed!

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A Drop of Rain

A glimpse of the whole world in a drop of rain.

Rain on the needles of Virginia Pine (Pinus virginiana). Three days of rain. One would think I’d be ready for it to stop. For the sun to come out and wipe the moisture away with a gentle brush. No I won’t wish the rain and gray skies away. Those gray skies create magic if you’ll just think about it. There are wondrous autumnal colors now. The magic of the gray skies are the strength of those colors. The darker the sky, the richer the colors, until they vanish into the darkness. Gray skies and rain are beautiful in my fall world.

Hoarfrost

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.