Come visit at my new address.
Mother Nature's Garden
a daily appreciation of all things beautiful
Monday, September 22, 2008
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Lycoris and Dogwoods
A nice rain in September will stimulate Lycoris radiata/red spider lilies to bloom. There are lots of buds but I usually cannot wait and eagerly photograph the first one that opens.
Fruited, Budded Dogwood
My area is filled with mature dogwoods/Cornus florida.
Buds and Drupes
They are now laden with next year's white flower buds and this year's red drupes. The drupes are a favorite food of wildlife.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Autumn Dish
Autumn is in the air. It is a little cooler at night...down into the 50s. I can bring out the fall theme dishes I bought earlier this year and bring autumn to the table as well. It is time for those comfort foods like chili and chicken and dumplins and beef stew. Now I'm hungry. Cornbread...and...
Monday, September 15, 2008
Strange Things
Square purple stems are strange but I am becoming accustomed to the unusual. Some deem it a weed but it looks pretty good to me.
African Mask Plant/Alocasia x amazonica 'Polly'
makes a very attractive indoor plant. It likes humidity. I water with rainwater or bottled water.
Northern Walking Stick
Look again. His head is in the middle and to the right are his front pair of legs and antennae flexed forward to contribute to the stick disguise. Distinctive backside on the left tells us it is male. This insect feeds on apple, oak, rose leaves. We put him on this available hosta leaf for a photo. He was hanging on the best he could for this photo was made in very windy conditions. One can imagine how he would blend into the surroundings on a twig or stem. Diapheromera femorata can reproduce parthenogenectically.
Labels:
African Mask Plant,
Northern Walking Stick,
Perilla
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Autumn Joy
Gloomy days lately have me moving plants away from my door. It seems I cannot get enough light. It's clean up time today. I must reduce some of the planters. It is too big a job to wait.
fledgling disciples
hunting in the misty rain
outside my window
One bright note.. I saw the Carolina wren fledglings hunting as a family yesterday. This is probably their last day together. In one week parents teach them where to go and what to eat and what to avoid. I'd say that is a crash course in survival.
I'm not noticing any male hummingbirds. I think the males have already gone south. Next will be the females and lastly the young. They fly solo. Read more here.
Campbell's Labels for Education tallied on your Kroger Plus Card.
Happy Birthday, Philip Bewley.
Sunday, September 7, 2008
John Muir Trail Hike
2658 mile Pacific Crest Trail by Rainmaker
So extraordinary is Nature with her choicest treasures, spending plant beauty as she spends sunshine, pouring it forth into land and sea, garden and desert. And so the beauty of lilies falls on angels and men, bears and squirrels, wolves and sheep, birds and bees....
By forces seemingly antagonistic and destructive Nature accomplishes her beneficent designs - now a flood of fire, now a flood of ice, now a flood of water; and again in the fullness of time an outburst of organic life....
One is constantly reminded of the infinite lavishness and fertility of Nature -- inexhaustible abundance amid what seems enormous waste. And yet when we look into any of her operations that lie within reach of our minds, we learn that no particle of her material is wasted or worn out. It is eternally flowing from use to use, beauty to yet higher beauty; and we soon cease to lament waste and death, and rather rejoice and exult in the imperishable, unspendable wealth of the universe, and faithfully watch and wait the reappearance of everything that melts and fades and dies about us, feeling sure that its next appearance will be better and more beautiful than the last.
Nature is always lovely, invincible, glad, whatever is done and suffered by her creatures. All scars she heals, whether in rocks or water or sky or hearts.
No synonym for God is so perfect as Beauty. Whether as seen carving the lines of the mountains with glaciers, or gathering matter into stars, or planning the movements of water, or gardening - still all is Beauty!
This grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never all dried at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal sunset, eternal dawn and gloaming, on seas and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls.
John Muir Quotes
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Carolina Wrens Fledged Yesterday
Although there isn't any room to ever have flapped their wings and they still have downy fluff on their heads, four Carolina wren nestlings are ready to fly on day 13.
A brick wall will do for the first landing. See his little short tail.
Although it was later in the day, the least developed one also took off. He hardly has any feathers on his head but it is warm weather.
It was a big day with little birds landing hither and yon and parents locating, feeding, and calling them together. See you around, birdies.
Now I can replant my flower pot.
Photos are courtesy of Father Time.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Yellow Floating Heart/Nymphoides peltata
I grew weary of waiting for it to bloom and forgot about it. Hubby alerted me to seeing a new bud yesterday. I almost missed it. They only stay open in the morning. More Nymphoides species info can be seen here. Shops that sell tropical fish are a good source for small floating plants you may desire for container water gardens.
Aquariumscape Contest
We can always garden inside when it is no longer possible to do it outside. How about a tiny terrarium?
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Summer's End
The earth is rich for summer is full and ripe awaiting harvest.
New life is encapsulated in seeds of perpituity as signs of autumn begin.
A minute entity of itself is encoded, compacted, and archived
for a journey through time.
Caterpillar J's attached and spun into chrysalis and cocoon
dangle in the wind.
Hurricanes come and hurricanes blow
as sunlight creeps on the floor farther inside the window.
Shall we bemoan its passing or glory in its wonder.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Baby, Baby, Baby
Mama!
Lots of fluttering around the nest feeding the cheeping birdies makes them so vulnerable to the ever alert squirrels. I am amazed any survive. Good luck little birdies.
or Pieris
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