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Dewberry
A native plant that is quite insistent. It keeps showing up in my gardens. With stems that are more like vines than stems, creeping along the ground. Stems that have little stickers. Stems that form roots when they touch the soil. Making its presence known. Dewberry (Rubus invisus) is native to the eastern and east-central…
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Eyed Click Beetle
A goal of my hike this morning was to find a cover shot for my Facebook timeline. I was collecting images of tree bark, lichen, and beautiful mosses, all possible candidates. At a mature sassafras tree, as I worked around some poison ivy vines, I came upon a surprise: two BIG eyes looking back at…
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Poison Ivy
Poison Ivy, Toxicodendron radicans I’m feeling itchy already just anticipating writing this blog. It was not until I was well into my adult life that I first got a Poison Ivy rash, complete with huge blisters. OH! How very painful it was. Fast forward 30 years or so and I’ve grown to love, or at least…
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Poison Ivy Good?
I am highly allergic to Poison Ivy (Toxicodendron radicans). As a youngster, I never got a Poison Ivy rash, though I loved to romp in the unending woods directly behind my house. Vines to swing over the creek, forts my friends and I were out there constantly. In 1985 I had a wakeup call, with…
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Diamonds Of Ice!
As I snuggled in my bed last night, I was prepared for nothing special in the weather this morning. Yesterday‘s forecast had been for snow, sleet and freezing rain. Mother Nature skipped the snow part, and went straight to sleet, and it kept going, all day long. The temperature remained steady at 27…
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Waiting on Virginia Creeper
A Common Plant Here Virginia Creeper is a very common plant here in the Blue Ridge Mountains. I enjoy seeing it, with its five leaflets radiating out in its palmate fashion. Five Leaflets Those five leaflets create one leaf. They are so precise with their sawtoothed edges, like a seamstress has taken her pinking shears…
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Nothing But Blue Skies
Perfection! The days recently have been absolutely yummy. Blue skies, low humidity – perfect for hiking during the day and wonderful for sleeping at night. It’s been a dream, being able to hike up my mountain and watch as the leaves change from their summer blue-greens to their autumn tones of chartreuse, lemon, lime, golds,…