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?

RAKING SHATTERS

SHATTERS are a valued commodity here on the Shore. To inform you folks from other places, shatters is the local name for long pine needles. Further down the county, they are sometimes called Shatts. They are used as a mulch or ground cover, for weed control and also as a ground conditioner for acid loving plants like camellias and azaleas, daffodils and even strawberries. In the Old Days, one could buy a shatters rake at the local hardware or farm supply place. They were hand forged and set in a special way on a long handle. Today they are a rare find. When our old place was sold, I grabbed our old shatters rake and brought it home. I wish I had grabbed the hand plow, too and the old wooden wheelbarrow. They were real treasures!

 

The tines on the shatters rake are longer, further apart, and angled. When I needed a new handle (the old one was older than I and actually in worse shape) I had to find someone who had an understanding of the value of the old tools. The first guy that looked at it told me they didn’t have those things in New Jersey, where he came from, they used “normal” rakes. Well, that told me not to let him get his hands on my rake! Phew! He said, along with putting a new handle on it, he would straighten it, “See how crooked its got?” (Yeah, it was made that way!) See the difference in a “normal” rake and a shatters rake? My shatters rake is close to 100 years old dating back to around the time the old house was built, 1914.

My Uncle has been talking lately about carving new tines for his hay rake. I have another friend who makes (carves and assembles) his own hay rakes, too. I am so impressed. I would love my Uncle to get a picture of his rake. I wonder how big it is. Another friend made one to go behind his garden tractor to rake shatters as well as hay. It is about 5 feet across. Impressive. That must be on my project list, but when would I have time? I guess that is one advantage of having long cold snowy winters… nothing else to do. That doesn’t ever seem to happen here.

  

Anyway, I found someone who was as impressed as I at the age of the rake… it took him about a week to put a new handle on it. He was so careful to not damage any more than he had to since the old rake had a metal piece go right thru the old wooden handle and was welded in place. No wonder it never came off! So, the other day,  I happily got it out of the barn and raked up a few loads of shatters and bedded down the newly transplanted camellias and azaleas. I discovered the late December camellias were starting to open. Well, it was 70 degrees. The bees were happily buzzing along in the open camellias, it really looked and sounded like springtime. I also noticed the new miniature holly bush is in bloom! Go figure that! Someone suggested I decorate this camellia (with the first white bloom) for Christmas since it is shaped so perfectly.

Then, this morning… well, you know, every once in a while the light is just perfect, there is that special glow things get first thing in the morning… I am so glad I am not one of those folks that lay in bed half the day – mornings are so magical! Anyway, the little maple out front was just glowing… I guess it was showing me that we really could have red maple trees here! That is Yule Tide next to it on the left. Those green spiky things on the right are yucca.

As I walked back to the house, I noticed some bright yellow out at the edge of my woods… I am not sure what these trees are. They get pink flowers in the spring, but I never see any nuts or fruit. Any idea what they might be? Tomorrow it might be even prettier! Stay tuned!

MID-NOVEMBER COLORS, MORNING SUN

It was a chilly, frosty morning this morning… the sun finally peeked thru the trees and lit up bits and pieces of the maple trees, Yule Tide, and the Pyracantha. The contrast with the leftover night and early morning shadows made me grab the camera and head outside. The leaves crunched under my feet, a couple birds scolded me for disturbing their space. The sun struggled with a couple clouds and the shifting of the leaves still on the trees across the street quickly changing the early morning glow on the leaves, colors changing by the second, it seems.

 

How lucky I feel to be able to live where I can see these things out my window… to be able to walk out in my yard and touch their beauty. It is easy to get lost in the sounds of daybreak, a dog barking for its breakfast down the street, dry leaves tapping on empty branches on their way to the ground. A flock of geese fly over somewhere in the distance hidden by the woods behind me. The Carolina wren scolds as I trespass into his territory. A squirrel rattles his way thru the pile of leaves blown under the bushes now devoid of their flowers by the heavy frost of the previous morning. A little cat peeks out from under a faded hydrangea, his tummy full, he begins to wash his whiskers. I hear the Redtail hawk off to the east way above the newly cut cornfield hunting for his breakfast. I feel so blessed to be surrounded by nature even though I am actually in the Town limits and only a mile away from the highway. The hum of traffic has not started yet – or maybe the breeze is blowing the sound away from my ears, for it is quiet enough to be miles out in the country.

I shuffle thru the fallen leaves amazed by the colors as I am every year… always amazed by the beauty around me, and think how lucky I am to live in a place with flowers almost all year long. I wonder if this will be a hard winter since we had 37 snowflakes go past my window a couple days ago. Didn’t anyone tell them this is only November? Did they get lost? Are they warning me of things to come? Of days, maybe even a few weeks of NO flowers? Looking around I can see huge amounts of berries starting to redden. Is that to make it easier for the birds to find them in the winter drab colors or to give us humans something bright to break the monotony of the dull winter landscape? Well, whatever, I will enjoy the beauty that is here today and be grateful I can see it and walk well enough to get out and photograph it.

I wish the people who gave me these plants were still here to see how big they have grown, how beautiful they are after all these years… and I think how their loves goes on in the beauty that lives outside my windows.

CRÈCHE, FINAL WEEK

The CRÈCHE came down this week. These are the final scenes. As you may remember, the location of the people and animals changed every week for a month. The Wisemen never arrived in Bethlehem, as in truth, they did not head there, since Mary and Joseph were only in town for the census (tho ancient records debunk this story also). The purpose of this blog is not to argue the truth and fiction of the Christmas story, there have been books enough that do that far better than I can in this small space. But, suffice it to say, the Wisemen were shown, just not in Bethlehem. Stables back then were not barns but small caves or areas in the rocks that could be closed off to contain animals. Roofs were unnecessary for the animals but tradition makes us put some sort of shelter over the couple and child. Wood was scarce and too much of a luxury to put over an animal, plus it very seldom rains in this area. Most stables were on the outskirts of the city. You can see the gates to the town in the background.

In this last scene, the shepherds and their sheep have arrived. If you look carefully, you will see some chickens and little biddies, and the rooster. The trees are live (except the palm trees)… those are real rocks – most from my place in the Poconos, a couple from Maine, one from NH.

The Wisemen are still traveling, supposedly to meet up with the Holy Family a year later in Nazareth. 

There was a different ground underneath everything when I first set it up, but whoever put the tree up behind the display moved everything from its original table (where the poinsettias are) dumping sand, kitty litter, and straw on the floor – so we just put a table cloth under everything. If I do it again next year, I will bring in a piece of plywood and get rid of the tablecloths… but, sometimes ya just gotta make do given the circumstances. As I said, everything moved to a different place in the church every week. This last week Bethlehem was closer to the middle of the church, to the left of the tree, just in front of the poinsettias. (For those of you who know me real well, yes, the roof is still standing! Lightning did NOT strike!)

NAME THE FLOWER, BUILD A TREE

OK, before peeking at the rest of the pictures, do you have any idea what this precious tiny flower is? A BIG clue is the word tiny. So I will skip to building a tree... I am in the process of making trees for our train layout for the Train Station. This first tree is in the very beginning stages. See the green stuff? That is surrounding a "branch" that I hope will stay glued in place to balance the tree. A few real leaves are still attached and will be removed before attaching the foliage from the bag. I have never used ready made stuff before, always made my own back in my model making days. The second tree is more or less finished... I will make a base out of plaster - it is currently sitting in a block of plasticine. These trees will go with a O size train. I hate those bottle brush trees or the plastic snap together trees that all look alike. I like to make my own from real bushes.

So, back to the little flowers... did you guess what they were? These shots are of them in the little herb garden potting tray, next to the sage and thyme. I am sure my plants out in the garden have bloomed before and I just never noticed, but this one is on the patio. I was shocked to see the precious little flowers. Sniff, sniff, can you smell the sage, thyme and the ___________?

IT ALWAYS SNOWS ON THE DAFFODILS

I HAVE PROBABLY POSTED THIS TITLE BEFORE – because it always snows on the daffodils, and  that makes for some fun pictures. In PA where I went to college, this is called the Onion snow, because onions sets are usually in the ground by now. These are my onions, I put them in last week. 

But, here in VA, when it snows in the end of March, it snows on much more than the onions, or daffodils, but the good thing is, the snow does not hang around. Often it barely covers the ground. So, I have learned to grab the camera early because sometimes the snow is gone by the time I hit ‘publish.’ So, I will share a bit of last snow beauty.  

It is the time when many of the camellias are in bloom. Pink Perfection is probably my absolute favorite and I don’t remember seeing it in the snow before.

Red Emperor… Pink Precious… One of my own hybrids…     

White on white (this is a 12 footer)… Snow on the forsythia… See the peonies coming up? Pansies…

Know what this is? Snow on the PussyWillow, up about 15 feet. The Redbud is starting to bloom, these will be flowers next week. And I love the pattern of snow on these branches.

When we flew our first flights over Libya, I bought a new Peace Rose bush as my prayer for Peace. I hope it does not fall on deaf ears.

The snow filled Buddha’s lap as he sat out back and reminded me to think thoughts of love and compassion, and it fell on St Francis as he watched over Spook taking a drink from the slightly slushy birdbath.

May thoughts of Peace and Compassion fill your heart this spring day. (Guess what? It is all melted – just that fast.)