-
Tomorrow is SPRING!
Many of you know that I love winter, my totally, over the top, favorite season. But I also delight in the seasons changing. If the seasons stayed the same, day after day after day after day I wouldn’t be content. I think the world of CHANGE. Sometimes even Mother Nature just doesn’t want to let…
-
Cedar Waxwings, Part 2
At my cabin there are so many blueberry bushes. So many, if I had to guess, that guess would be maybe twelve mature bushes. Maybe. By the Fourth of July every year my freezer is filled with quart sized bags of berries to provide muffins, pies, pancakes, toppings for ice cream, scones and more pies.…
-
Cedar Waxwings
Perhaps you’ve seen this photo in the past. It’s one of my favorite images of the many many that I’ve taken. Surely I’ve used it before. These Cedar Waxwings (Bombycilla cedrorum) are performing a mating ritual in which the pair pass a treasure (in this case a sumac berry) back and forth. No telling which…
-
Cutleaf Toothwort
A spring ephemeral, a perennial native to eastern North America. Cutleaf Toothwort (Cardamine concatenata). The “toothwort” of its name is thanks to the appearance of its rhizome. The Cutleaf Toothwort likes woods with mesic soils covered with lots of leaf litter. This certainly must be the description of the woods where I live. Many of…
-
The Middle of March
It’s the middle of March and the first of my daffodils are up and blooming. Looking so lovely as they trumpet the arrival of spring. Don’t get too confident though you golden beauties. Mother Nature has a way of bringing surprises. Surprises like SNOW, even in the middle of APRIL!
-
Bear Corn
There are so many awesome treasures to be found in the woods. One of those treasures that is right up there near the top of my list is Bear Corn (Conopholis americana). It’s a native to eastern North America. This is a plant that doesn’t have a speck of the color green because Bear Corn…
-
Wild Ginger
Along the trails here in the Blue Ridge, come April there will be green leaves peeking up through the earth. Take your time as you hike. There’s so much out there to see. Like patches of Wild Ginger (Asarum canadense). Each plant sends up two heart shaped leaves that split at the soil’s surface. At…
-
Wood Poppy Revisited
I’ve written about Wood Poppy (Stylophorum diphyllum) before but I enjoy the native flower with its happy yellow so much I’d like to tell you more about it. The deeply lobed green-blue leaves of Wood Poppy are poking up from the surface of the soil here in the Blue Ridge now, as the month of…
-
Eastern Bluebirds
Two Eastern Bluebirds (Sialia sialis) in search of rental property. One room nesting box would be perfect. Buffet complete with mealworms also desired.
-
Wood Betony
This native perennial is found in southeastern Canada, eastern North America (as well as New Mexico and Colorado) and eastern Mexico. Wood Betony (Pedicularis canadensis). The first time I ever saw this plant was along a trail here in the Blue Ridge. As is often the case, I took a picture of the flower, went…