MORE VISITORS

The other evening while doing dishes (my dishwasher is attached to my arms) I noticed a little activity out by the compose pile. Sure enough, my resident raccoon was out there, and then I noticed a bit of movement behind the lilies. The fox was checking out what we had had for supper.

   

The fox was so intent on eating, i was able to get pretty close.

We call the raccoons Coonie-bears as a way of reminding the kids that raccoons are actually members of the bear family. And for those of you who have never seen a gray fox – here she is. The purple flower is sage. The pink one is a young azalea.

MY NEIGHBORS PAID ME A VISIT

The Gray fox family that lives in my woods must be expecting… she is visiting my compost area a little before dark every night. Isn’t she beautiful?

And then there were these 2 love birds…

Normally possums are solitary animals… Obviously they get together every once in a while… The romance is short, but I understand it is intense. I hope the mama brings her little ones around in a couple of months.

TWILIGHT

THAT MAGIC time of day – almost night… this first shot is ordinary day time – NO color enhancement.

The second shot was taken at twilight. I was sitting here at the computer and looked out the window and noticed the unusual coloring on the tree across the street. Again, this is with NO photo color enhancement. The tree was just glowing!

The 3rd shot of the same tree is the result of just clicking on color enhancement… if I hit it a few more times, the tree would be a bright red. There are a lot of bloggers who use color enhancement especially this time of year. I do not but just wanted to see what would happen. I guess I ended up wondering what is the point in faking the color… it really doesn’t look better. But then I prefer the beauty in nature as it is – just wait until the right time of day. Notice the lavender/ pinkish sky? Natural.

 

Which do you prefer?

FROST

While many of you are getting snow, usually we have been getting rain… but now it has turned cold – 28 degrees when I get up is considered COLD here… and the world is white in certain places – roof tops, some plants but not others.

  These are azaleas and Beautyberry.

And then it warms up again and the camellias pop open one more time. I was able to pick a nice large bouquet of “Aunt Alice” camellias for the holiday table. That is the name of the camellia and it is one of my favorites. Of course, it helps that I used to have an Aunt Alice years ago. I wish she could have seen these beauties.

THE RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH

I have been so blessed these past 2 years to have a number of Red-Breasted Nuthatches in my yard. These little, perhaps even tiny, birds are so much fun to watch. They visit my feeders daily, but the fun is to see them running up and down the redbud outside my computer window. Very distracting! They are often in shots of other birds, but being so small – and cardinals being twice their size and so bright, they usually remain unseen. But, yesterday, as I was taking a few shots of something else outside, I turned around and was literally face to face with a little nuthatch. Did I mention they are brave little souls? The White breasted Nuthatch will fly away if you are in their visibility range, or if one of the cats moseys by… the Carolina Wrens will go up higher or to a bush about 30 feet away and start ‘scolding’ at the top of its lungs. But the Nuthatch just sits quietly and watches. Perhaps it is curious, too. These shots were taken from a distance of 5 to 3 feet away. Punkie and Spook followed me out into the yard to see what was happening. I was thrilled to see Punk come out, but that is another story. He has been quite ill. Anyway, I digress, as usual. My guess is that this is a female as the breast is quite pale. I love that blue color. But, there she sat, and posed, don’t you think?

With Spook under the feeders, but not really interested… and Punkie right behind me. He is showing his age.

And an old shot for size comparison… find this feeder and compare with the size of the cardinals.

CAMELLIAS- Aunt Alice

A fellow blogger has a flower on her blog as her ID pic... to me the tiny thumbnail looked like one of my camellias. Bi-color camellias do not have a set pattern, so I knew that would vary. This is Aunt Alice which is in bloom now. Camellias, especially old stock, large bushes, add greatly to a property's value. I have known folks who bought houses and tore them down but kept the camellias on the land... reconfigured their plans for their new house to fit with the existing camellias. Camellias are among the easiest plants to care for. Many of mine are over 10 feet tall now. If you have followed my blog for any time, you will have seen loads of camellias.
There were no camellias - or any other flowers for that matter - on this property when I bought it. Mostly it was covered with huge pine trees that I lost about 10 years ago with an infestation of pine bark beetle. Many of my friends gave me camellias as house warming gifts. What treasures! I brought a few little ones from my previous house, and a couple azaleas. Then, for years, friends gave me bulbs or plants for Xmas or birthdays or just because. Today, many of those friends are no longer here, but their memory lives on as their love blooms in their season. As I walk by, I greet each one by its name and the name of the person who gave it to me and I am reminded of their love. How great is that? I bought Aunt Alice, first because of its beauty, but second because I had an Aunt Alice. I love her dearly. So, how could I resist?
I hope you have enjoyed Aunt Alice with me.
If you have a camellia, never, ever cut it down. Legend is, cutting down a camellia brings bad luck.

SPRING – for NOW

AND THE YARD WORK STARTS IN ERNEST. They tell me spring is here. Well the daffodils are blooming, that is a serious clue. The buds are popping on the trees, and the birds are getting scrappy as breeding/nesting time draws near.  The forsythia is in full glory, the camellias are a sight to behold. Onion sets are already sold out in one local store. I had to drive 40 miles to get some Vidalia onion sets. My peas are ready to go in the ground. It was a temptation to put them in as it was 78 degrees on Friday. However, the morning temp is supposed to be 28 by next Friday, so I guess I will hold out for another week or so.

But, the blueberry bushes have been moved. They got little sun in their old space as the pine trees grew.They were only about a foot tall when the bushes were first planted. But first, this azalea had to be moved – it went in a hole left by a blueberry bush.  The fence was taken down, rolled up, the net removed, and the posts pulled up. I did have help moving a couple plants and then putting the posts in the ground. Fortunately I had my own shatters (Eastern Shore for pine straw) to put around the bushes for weed control. This is the old Blueberry garden with the netting covered in snow. Honest! Isn’t that amazing? The center pole kept it from collapsing.  

Have you ever seen a Pussy Willow this tall? The tree stump on the left is 4 feet tall.

I love to see the daffodils turn into glowing spots of beauty in the early morning sunlight.

Because of the unusually cold winter, the camellias are blooming out of sync. Red Emperor is blooming early, this hybrid is blooming late. All around the edge of the woods, there are bushes filled with huge blooms.  

Aunt Alice is pretty much on schedule. It is one of my favorites.

A friend gave me a present – a reddish violet. No not a house plant or African violet, this is supposed to grow just like the others that grow like weeds in the yard. She has a huge patch of them.

And, Ginnie, this shot is for you.

I DECLARE, IT DO BE SPRING!

“LAWDY, LAWDY,” Miss Eva used to say, “I declare, it do be spring! I seed a crocus this mawning!” And sho’ nuff, I would go out in the yard to the “first crocus” spot, and there would be a spot of sunshine smilin’ up at me.

The daffodils are up and budding, if the weather holds, they will be showing color next week.

Normally we have camellias in bloom all winter, but this year it has been a bit slow. These camellias are usually finished by now.

The mice are out and about… and Spook caught himself some fast food. Or maybe it was not fast enough food. Obviously not fast enough…

The pansies have enjoyed a nice rain followed by some nice sunshine.