Deptford Pinks

It’s not native, which often means, “Do I really want this plant?” But this one brings with it such a charming color. A color that just twinkles with delight.

This is a Deptford Pink (Dianthus armeria). And that is an itty bitty Crab Spider perched on one of its five white speckled petals. This flower is just one half inch across. Really an minuscule spider!

Deptford Pink is not an invasive. The word invasive would be inappropriate for this dainty flower. It just shows up from time to time, not in an offensive sort of way, but in a timid, cautious way.

Right now on April 23, small plants of Deptford Pink are just beginning to come up. Opposite leaves that are long and quite narrow. When I see one coming up I cheer it on. Welcome it wherever it is found. It’s a tall slender plant growing up to two feet tall though I rarely see any that tall. Often I’ll only see one bloom at a time. An annual, biennial or short-lived perennial.

Both the Cabbage White Butterfly and the Deptford Pink are native to Europe. The flowers bloom from June to September. Opening in the morning and closing in the late afternoon. Dots rich in pink sprinkled across the landscape. Something to look forward to.

2021 First Female Hummingbird

It is said, by those that seem to know, that after the first male Ruby-throated Hummingbird arrives in the spring, the first female with arrive in seven to ten days. Well it did indeed happen. My first male arrived on April 14 and today, April 22, the first female has arrived.

It got down to 31° last night and flurries were flying. And now, this afternoon more flurries are coming down. What a welcome for the hummingbirds.

But in the blink of an eye the Obedient Plants will be blooming and soon after, the Scarlet Bee Balm with be summoning the Ruby-throated Hummingbirds. Calling to them with one word they won’t be able to resist. Nectar.

Apple Blossoms

Apple blossoms. What a fragrant delight. And they bring in a host of visitors that provide great entertainment just to sit and watch. It’s been really breezy today. Petals have been flying like snow. Apple blossom season won’t last much longer.

Tiger Swallowtails (Papilio glaucus) are one of the many species of butterflies that make the apple tree seem alive with action. Both nectar and pollen lure the insects in.

Another of the insects that answer the apple blossoms call are moths. This one, a Nessus Sphinx Moth (Amphion floridensis).

Birds get the call too. This is a female or juvenile Ruby-throated Hummingbird (Archilochus colubris) that uses the branches of the apple tree as a resting spot. In this image it’s sitting on a grapevine with the apple blossoms in the background. I’m wondering, if I’ll find a hummingbird nest in the apple tree if I search carefully.

This a Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum). What a surprise I had to see these birds eating the blossom petals. Amazing to find that they enjoy eating the petals.

A Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus varius) is making sap wells in the apple tree’s bark. This enables them to consume both the sap that collects and insects that are also attracted. The sap wells are the very small round holes in the bark. If you look closely you can see claw marks from bears climbing the tree.

After the blooms come the apples and the bears. I guess this critter thinks that the apples are his to be taken. This is a yearly tradition. I sure appreciate the bear coming by for a photo op.

Wild Geranium

Popping up with their bright pink petals on trail edges. Wild Geranium (Geranium maculatum), an herbaceous perennial native to eastern North America.

Before they send up their buds Wild Geranium looks like this. The leaves are palmate with five sizable lobes. The leaves also have smaller lobes and jagged edges. This is what you need to watch for if you want to find Wild Geranium before the blossoms.

Pollinators of Wild Geraniums are many types of bees, including honey bees, bumblebees, and mason bees, flies such as syrphid flies, and butterflies and skippers.

Normally I see small groups of these flowers blooming their hearts out sending good vibes. This must be a particularly content bunch of Wild Geranium bundled together at the edge of a trail.

So many blooms. So many different species of flowers and trees celebrating spring. All calling to me to join in the revelry.

Blackhaw Viburnum

A large bush that I’ve been delighted to find is Blackhaw Viburnum (Viburnum prunifolium). It’s growing by my backdoor, and there’s lots of it growing in the woods all around my cabin.

The leaves of Blackhaw emerge from the buds involute, or curled as a spiral. The mature, glossy, opposite leaves are three to four inches long and one inch wide with fine serrations and pointed at the end. The petioles, or stems, of the leaves are a reddish color. In the autumn the leaves turn a purply-red.

Soon my bush will have buds. Buds that will become clusters of fragrant flowers four to five inches across. Flowers that will attract bees and flies to do their pollination magic.

Blackhaw Viburnum is the host plant of Spring and Summer Azure butterflies. The later caterpillar instars of the Baltimore Checkerspot butterfly occasionally feed on its leaves. Oh I wish I’d see a Baltimore Checkerspot butterfly! I’ve seen their caterpillars while pulling invasives in Shenandoah National Park. Never the adult though.

Its fruits, called drupes, are about one half inch long. They’re eaten by songbirds, gamebirds, squirrels and chipmunks.

As a tree Blackhaw Viburnum can grow to be thirty feet tall. Its bark blocky in a Persimmon tree sort of way. Large bush, small tree, all in all a mighty cool plant.

Green and Gold

A super ground cover that is holding up my back hill, keeping it from washing away. And such a splendid glowing yellow. Bright colors tend to win my heart. Green and Gold (Chrysogonum virginianum) is a perennial herb with opposite, oval, hairy leaves, blooming from early spring into late autumn though its peak bloom is in May. I can count on finding blooms most any time with the exception of winter.

Native to woodland areas from Pennsylvania to the Florida Panhandle and Louisiana.

Bees and butterflies, such as this Clouded/Orange Sulphur, get the pollinating done. Songbirds are attracted to the seeds that develop.

Wild Geraniums with their blushing pink decided to plunk themselves down in front of the Green and Gold plants on the back hill. I’m so glad it volunteered. A charming color combination.

Blueberry Pie

Special occasions call for special things to happen in the kitchen. That’s why there’s blueberry pie just out of the oven. For dessert after dinner tonight.

I make my crust from scratch. I think I could make the crust in my sleep. It’s very simple, very easy. For me anyway. Here’s the recipe.

Pie Crust             for a 9” two crust pie or two 9” crusts

  • 2 cups all purpose flour
  • 2/3 cup shortening
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 4 or 5 tablespoon COLD water

Blend together flour, salt and shortening with a pastry blender or two knives.

Add 4 tablespoons COLD water and continue blending with knives or pastry blender. Add additional tablespoon water only if needed.

Divide dough into two balls and let sit for an hour. Then line your pie pan. Freeze the other ball of dough for another pie in the future.

Like the crust, I have the recipe for Blueberry Pie memorized. As a matter of fact you may have seen my blog post about Apple Pie. It’s nearly the same. Only difference is the fruit. And I occasionally put in a bit of lemon juice on top of the apples before the crumb topping goes on. Here’s the blueberry pie recipe.

Blueberry Pie

Oven temp. 425° for first 20 minutes. Lower temp. to 375° and continue baking for an additional 40 to 45 minutes.

  • 1 – 9″ crust, unbaked
  • Blueberries, about 5 cups, or enough to fill your 9″ crust
  • 1 stick (1/2 cup) softened butter
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 cup all purpose flour
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Fill pie crust with blueberries.

Cream softened together butter, salt, cinnamon and sugar. Add flour and continue blending until crumbs are a uniform size and are well blended.

Top blueberries with your crumb topping.

Bake at 425° for 20 minutes. Lower oven temperature to 375° and continue baking for 40 to 45 minutes until blueberries are bubbling. Cool and serve. Vanilla ice cream makes a perfect topping for the pie.

All my blueberry bushes are in bloom as I’m typing this, bringing many bees that will pollinate the flowers.

Soon the bushes will be loaded with green orbs that look like they’ve got little crowns.

Perhaps by the end of May I’ll be able to harvest a few of the berries. By the middle of June there will be plenty of berries to make me, and birds like this female Scarlet Tanager, very happy.

Indigo Bunting

Knock your socks off COLOR. That’s what I think of when an image of a male Indigo Bunting (Passerina cyanea) comes to mind. With the female, if you look carefully you might be able to catch a hint of the vivid azure that the male wears so magnificently. But I wouldn’t know a male Indigo Bunting during the winter. He wears feathers of brown.

Soon to arrive to spend the summer. You’ll get a hint as to how soon in looking at this photograph. She’s using a spear of asparagus as a landing spot. Asparagus is coming up right now. In looking through my photos and seeing when the Indigo Buntings have arrived in the past, I think they’ll be arriving just any day now. And through their journey they often migrate at night using the stars to navigate. Birds after my own heart.

Amazing to think, the feathers of the Indigo Bunting contain no blue pigment. The blue we see is a result of the way the feathers are bouncing and reflecting light.

What an amazing trick of Nature.

Gray Dogwood

Just like the Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida) that we see most often, Gray Dogwood (Cornus racemosa) has opposite leaves and those leaves look quite similar to Flowering Dogwood.

The flowers of Gray Dogwood arrive on dome shaped panicles, or branched clusters, in late May and June here in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.

The individual flowers in the panicles are one quarter inch across. Those flowers contain a short calyx with four small teeth, four creamy white petals, four stamens with soft yellow anthers, and a central pistil.

The branches of each panicle are creamy white like the petals, when the flowers are produced. In a short time they become bright red as the drupes, or fruit, matures. Anyone else see these as little teeny trees?

Nearly one hundred species of birds are attracted to these drupes from late summer into early autumn.

And as autumn descends upon these small trees the leaves turn a soft yellow with highlights of purply-red.

My favorite part of the year as Gray Dogwoods go through each of the seasons is of course, winter. Those teeny trees, which are actually the panicles that were in turn, for flowers and then, for drupes become the perfect receptacles for ice and iced spider webs as well.

2021 Hummingbird Arrival

Today it happened! A favorite day of the year when the first hummingbird arrives. As is the custom of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds (Archilochus colubris) the male leaves first, from his winter home, to arrive here at my cabin in the wood, mid-April. Females will arrive a week to ten days later. I’m looking forward to their arrivals when mating can begin and nest building will get underway. It is the female that selects the site, gathers all her building materials and creates her nest. And she may have two broods during the season, sometimes reusing her first nest. I’ll be searching in all the trees in the area. Looking for the tiny nests. Try as I might I’ve not spotted one yet.

Generally two eggs are laid in the nest. Incubation and feeding of the nestlings is left entirely to the female. It takes between fifteen and eighteen days for the eggs to hatch. Mom feeds her nestlings small insects and nectar. Nestlings fledge in eighteen to twenty-eight days. Then – will the feeders ever be busy!

I’m looking forward to seeing the hijinks of all the hummingbirds. The best action takes place when there are oodles of them. I’m never able to get a count of the hummingbirds that are here but have counted easily fifteen at any one time at the feeders. Surely there are others off in the gardens enjoying the plants that I have specifically put in for them. So it’s hard to know exactly what the population is during their summer with me. I’ll just leave that number at oodles.

The hummingbirds are so entertaining, racing round and round the cabin, chasing each other. It makes me feel as though I’m riding on a carousel. In addition I can’t wait to see the antics of my family as they enjoy the hummingbirds!

A summer with Ruby-throated Hummingbirds. Pure glee.