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Buds To Berries
Until I moved here to the cabin, Poison Ivy (Toxicodendron radicans) was just a plant that I needed to avoid. Those three leaves – beware. But now I have learned there is so much more to know about the plant. There are buds in May (in the photo above, left). And believe it or not,…
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Flowering Dogwood
The Flowering Dogwood trees (Cornus florida) here in my neck of the woods are just beginning to open as the Eastern Redbud blooms (Cercis canadensis) are on their way into decline. That’s the pattern every year. A slight overlapping of their big show. Like homemade vanilla ice cream with home grown strawberries on top. In…
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Blueberries
I’m watching both the progress the blueberry blooms are making as well as the calendar. Watching the blossoms grow and mature. Watching the weeks go by on the calendar. Right now in early April there are only tight buds on the many bushes. And it’s hard to say since this is weather related and as…
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Jeffersonia or Twinleaf
Jeffersonia (Jeffersonia diphylla). In 1792 the botanist Benjamin Smith Barton named this plant after Thomas Jefferson. In 1807 Jefferson had Jeffersonia growing in one of the oval flower beds of Monticello. I’m proud to have something in common with my neighbor Thomas. Within a matter of four weeks I’ll be searching for these little signs…
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American Beech
Hawaiian shave ice. Snow collects in the cone shapes that American Beech (Fagus grandifolia) leaves make during the winter. It reminds me of a trip long ago. A trip to Hawaii to see a total solar eclipse. A trip to be introduced to Hawaiian shave ice, which brings me back to the subject of my…
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Dogwood Buds In Ice
As I went to bed last night sleet and freezing rain were clicking at my skylight windows promising me a very good next day. There’s been hardly any snow so far this winter. Sleet and freezing rain with its resulting ice is NEARLY as wonderful to me as “take me back to my childhood” snow.…
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Chicory
It has a color that pulls me in, bright medium blue, with a smidgeon of purple thrown in. It tugs at my heartstrings. Chicory, Cichorium intybus, is native to Europe but has become naturalized in many parts of North America, and is part of the roadside landscape here in central Virginia. Chicory is a tough plant, sending…
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Trilliums
Late April and early May is Trillium time in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. Seeing Trillium along the trails in the mountains close to my cabin has inspired me to include them in my gardens. Little by little, as the saying goes. Yes, little by little, I am getting Trillium incorporated into my cabin…
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Fruit at the Cabin
In front of my cabin right now, there is a constant buzz . There are loads of trees and bushes involved in the sound, three good sized trees, planted soon after our cabin was built, many years ago – pear, MacIntosh apple, and Monmorency cherry, and a good number of blueberry bushes planted at about the same…
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Pi or Blueberries
This pan will do the job of representing two words: pi and pie. Pi is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, and this pan is a circle. A Pie is usually a sweet, baked good which often is cooked up in a pan such as this. Many people look to me as a pie…