Happy December 2nd

We’re now into day 2, of the month of December. Tasks are swirling around in my head. Overwhelming me a bit. For me, December is a very busy month.

Just a couple days ago, for 2 days in a row, the temperature didn’t get up past 40° here. Yes, mighty cold, but to my mind it was certainly appropriate for this time of year, Thanksgiving over, and the anticipation of Christmas and New Year’s Day. Temporarily, for this weekend anyway, the temperature is expected for us in the mountains to reach clear up into the low 60s.

This picture, of course, was not taken here today. It’s much too warm for snow, but I think it’s a perfect picture for this time of year. It’s beautiful, native evergreen, Christmas Fern (Polystichum acrostichoides), covered with a bit of snow. It was taken on April 15, 2020.

Happy December 2nd!

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Echinacea Hybrid

A photo from long long ago, when I didn’t have the wisdom to stick to native plants in my garden. Despite that, this is a favorite image. An Echinacea hybrid. Those petals such a beautiful warm color, accented by the soft yellow Crab Spider (Thomisidae), who has just captured its dinner.

Those Echinacea plants have died out, but I sure enjoyed them while they were here.

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Raucousness

One of two Blue Jays (Cyanocitta cristata) that have decided there is food for them at the feeder. This one temporarily playing coy for the camera. Unlike the Blue Jay’s normal demeanor of pure raucousness.

Birds with beautiful feathers, many shades of blue, are here around my cabin all year long. They certainly are the bullies of the neighborhood, but I’ll put up with them and actually enjoy them since I don’t have much say in the matter.

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White-breasted Nuthatch Again

It’s been quite a while since I’ve seen one. One feeder, and only one, has been up for just a few weeks. Today though, I was treated to the arrival of one White-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis). They’re usually permanent residents here.

This is the look of a male White-breasted Nuthatch, black, gray, and white. The female has more gray, and less black in its coloring, wearing gray, and white.

They’re birds I love to see. They’ll come to the feeder, take a seed, disappear, and quickly return for another. This behavior indicates it’s caching the seeds. Saving them for later. Hiding the seeds in cracks in the bark of trees in the area.

Such a simple thing, to feed the birds. And it brings me such pleasure.

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Apple Pie With Green Chiles

It was an apple pie sort of morning. Mighty chilly outside. To say the least. Those apples had been wafting their aroma all around the room ever since they came into the cabin.

My favorite for pies, McIntosh apples. Quartered, seeded, peeled, chopped into pieces, filled the waiting pie pan lined with Mom’s pie crust recipe. Then a double check on the crumb topping ingredients. That’s when it hit me, a new family favorite that I hadn’t even given a thought.

Apple pie with green chiles now out of the oven. Dessert tonight.

I’m a happy baker.

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Not Berries

In the vegetable garden there’s not much going on right now, except the parsley which is going crazy, enjoying the cold weather. Aside from that, there are what appear to be berries on the asparagus plants. Beautiful, small, perfectly round, scarlet.

Though they resemble berries, they are actually seed pods, containing three or four seeds in each one. And watch out, the seed pods are toxic to humans.

Asparagus plants are dioecious, meaning each individual plant is either male or female. It is the female plant that produces the seed pods.

Fun things in a garden that is mostly ready for winter.

The Sapsuckers Are Back

Elation at the cabin this afternoon as I spotted two Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers (Sphyrapicus varius). One took off before I was able to get a photo of both of them together, working on a Flowering Dogwood tree. They’ve returned to their winter home!

The one that remained in this image is a female. Working to get sap from the tree. Their tongues are designed for lapping up the sap that emerges from the small holes they tap into the tree’s bark. That design of the tongue, edges a bit like brush bristles which aid in that sap lapping.

Welcome back Sapsuckers. Hoping to see you guys often this winter.

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The Garden Gate

Tonight has me looking through photographs. Mainly snow pictures. I’m thinking perhaps I’ll come across an image that will be the perfect Christmas card.

I’m not sure about this one, though I love it. It’s from February 6, 2010, part of my favorite winter, 72 inches total during the season. In this image, mighty deep snow building up at the garden gate, and that great shadow.

Maybe the card will be with this image. Undecided at this point.

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Robins Roaming Together For Winter Food

During the winter the American Robin (Turdus migratorius), here in Virginia changes its diet, eliminating invertebrates and switching to fruits and berries.

Roaming, flocking, together with many other Robins, sometimes Cedar Waxwings joining in, looking for winter fruits, such as Holly berries, Juniper berries, Crabapples, Hawthorn berries. Emptying one location after another of those fruits. Always roaming, hunting for another store of fruit.

As spring arrives, each member of the group goes their individual way, switching back to invertebrates as their main food choice, and defending their territory during the breeding season.

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