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December 4, 2010

Things past, and things to come

Filed under: Fall,Flowers,Grasses,Our gardens,Winter — Judy @ 11:59 pm

On Tuesday, I finally got a chance to get the last of my own gardens cleaned up and ready for the winter. The lawn received its last mowing, the gardens were “drive-by” mulched, and the grasses and other things that I usually leave for winter interest looked great. That is, until Wednesday when it rained about 5 inches, turned cold, and the snow “cement” arrived. Overnight, the grasses went from beautiful to smushed.

Grasses in fall 09   Grasses in snow cover

And the ‘Autumn joy’ sedums which usually dry and hold up all winter turned into mush.

Sedum with snow hats

But winter weather brings its own beauty. The rose hips glow against the icy blue snow.

Roses hips

The frozen crabapples will provide some delicious food for the birds very soon.

Frozen crabapples

And the butterfly bush still seems to want to beckon those butterflies that have long gone.

Buddleia with snow

The growing season might have ended up here in upstate New York for now, but if you look around you can see signs of what will come in the spring. The big fat buds of the rhododendron,

Icy Rhododendron Bud

the teeny buds of the azaleas,

Azalea buds

the fattening lilac buds,

Lilac buds in fall

and the quince buds are readying themselves to burst forth with color when spring returns.

Quince buds in ice

Remember that new Polemonium ‘Stairway to Heaven’ I told you about in the spring? What beautiful gold yellow fall-into-winter foliage it has! I’m looking forward to seeing its next transformation in the spring.

Polemonium in fall

Polemonium 'Stairway to Heaven' in Fall

 
Polemonium in spring

Polemonium 'Stairway to Heaven' in Spring


One might think that nothing goes on in the garden in the winter, but already there are signs of things to come!

March 7, 2010

Technicolor Day

Filed under: Creatures,Miscellaneous,Spring,Winter — Judy @ 5:16 pm

Late winter sky

Brilliant sunshine, temps moving into the 40’s – maybe spring is moving northwards? The snowdrops are blooming . . .

Snowdrops

and this yin-yang picture of crazy daffodils poking up through the snow and their leaf mulch shows that the snow is receding. Slowly, slowly.

Early daffodils

The dark-eyed juncos have returned now that it has warmed up a tad and it looks like this one is scolding Mrs. Cardinal about how much seed she is consuming.

Cardinal and Junco

A good day to take another trip to Mendon Ponds! In the woods, the little beech glows in the sunlight . . .

Beech in snow

and the rushes are golden.

Through the rushes

The ice is starting to go out of the outlet . . .

Outlet ice

So tell me, is Spring arriving in your neck of the woods yet?

February 26, 2010

Snow – woo-hoo!

Filed under: Creatures,Miscellaneous,Winter — Judy @ 10:27 pm

Well, folks, we finally got some of the intense snow that the rest of the country has been experiencing this winter. About time, I say, because I was feeling sort of left out. Sure, we’ve had a reasonable amount, but there is nothing like a good snowstorm to make things right. We shoveled a couple of times, as we prefer to do, but this morning we had to break out the snowblower so you know this was serious stuff. When all was over, we ended up with about 20 inches for this storm. Not a real “snowpocalypse,” or a “snowicane,” since we are used to such stuff in this area.

The Carolina wren has been hanging out under our deck lately. He is so cute with his little upright tail! I haven’t been able to get a good picture of him at the feeder because he bobs around so much, but here are his footprints in the snow.

Bird tracks in the snow

Carolina wren snow tracks

What says winter better than snow on an Eastern white pine and a white birch?

White birch and pine with snow

The snow has just about obliterated the Van Houtte spirea (Spirea x vanhouttei) echoing the beautiful white blooms that will come late in the Spring.

Snowy spirea

The flakes were huge and fluffy. What a scene looking out over the yard!

Snowy yard

And, after it was all over, the moon came out!

Snowy moon

February 24, 2010

Mendon Ponds Park

Filed under: Miscellaneous,Parks,Winter — Judy @ 5:56 pm

Yesterday’s trip to Mendon Ponds Park to do a little cross country skiing was a good thing. Although the day was gray and foggy, the previous night’s fresh layer of snow made for great skiing. One can always find interesting things to look at out there and you really should take a camera, but a cell phone set to black and white mode sometimes is handy to have.

Foggy Mendon Ponds

Mendon Ponds Park is the largest Monroe County Park with 2,500 acres of woodlands, ponds, wetlands and glacially created landforms. In 1969, it was named to the National Registry of Natural Landmarks due to its geologic history and presence of kettles (including a well-studied kettle hole known as the “Devil’s Bathtub”), eskers, a floating sphagnum moss peat bog, and kames. This park is definitely one to visit any time of the year – 21 miles of trails for hiking, skiing, horseback riding, and birdwatching (feed the chickadees, nuthatches, and tufted titmice along the Birdsong Trail!).

My favorite trail for XC skiing is the Quaker Pond Trail, a 2.7 mile loop of fairly easy terrain through decidous and conifer woods, and over a wooden bridge through the rushes at the pond outlet where you might catch a glimpse of the beaver lodges. There are other trails like the East Esker Trail that are great for harder-core skiing, but this trail lets you shrug off those worrisome cares and observe your surroundings without sliding into a ravine!

Quaker Pond outlet

At the Quaker Pond outlet

Yesterday’s adventure saw deer crossing my path not 20 feet in front of me, numerous birds chipping and calling, and lots of prints in the snow. Some I recognized, some I didn’t.

The first is a member of the dog family (dog, wolf, fox, coyote) and it’s probably a domestic dog since this is a walking trail too, but the front print has elongated middle toes. One can always hope that it is something more exotic! The second one I have absolutely no clue on. Voles make tunnels under the snow, but the center trail is not that wide. Maybe it is just a fallen branch print and not a critter at all! The next one is definitely a deer print, of which there were many, crisscrossing the entire trail.

Next time, I will have to remember to bring my camera for the colors of Mendon are many – and the camera has a bigger battery and takes better pictures than the cell phone!

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