Around our (Maryland) Yard in May 2013

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Spring is a few weeks behind the norm but it is quite lush at this point. The iris bulbs that I moved to a sunnier bed last fall have very fat buds. They are quite happy with the change in location and will provide fill for the area until the new azalea bushes we planted this spring can reach their full size.

 

Our tulips were mostly browsed by deer very early. We only had two that managed to bloom.

 

I forgot all about the chives that have come up for years where we now have a young sycamore. There is some weeding that will need to be done there.

 

The usual bird’s nest under the covered deck had multiplied this year; there are two at opposite ends of the support beam. The cats will glare through the boards of the deck at the robin chicks - unable to do more than catch a glimpse of the drama under their feet.

 

There was a slow moving bee on the dandelion. The air temperature was just warming enough for insects to become active.

 

The tulip poplar blossoms are still tight buds. I was surprised at how intact the shell of a bloom from last year still seemed to be after the buffeting of winter and spring winds.

 

Most of the violets that grow in the deep shade under the deck were done but one lingered.

 

The sweetest scent of the walk around the house was from a bush in bloom. I was surprised that insects were not buzzing around it. Usually they are. Perhaps I timed the walk perfectly - when it was still cool enough for the insects to be sedentary.

Brookgreen Gardens

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Brookgreen Gardens, located south of Myrtle Beach, SC, is more than plants. It has many sculptures spread throughout the garden areas and in museum type displays. There is a Butterfly House (photos in an upcoming post) and opportunities to learn about the history of the area which was colonized as indigo and rice plantations.

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We were too late for most of the azaleas and camellias but the iris were beginning along the edges of the water. There was lush greenery and the black masked squirrels abounded.  There was sculpture everywhere - sometimes as the center piece of the garden and sometimes almost hidden in foliage. My favorite was of a dancer with swirling skirts.

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I found myself interested in the faces of the pieces and picked some of the best for the slide show below.

The tickets for Brookgreen last for a week and I found it was well worth taking more than one day to see the place.

Maryland Sunrise - May 2013

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It is good to be home again. I was up in time to catch the sunrise yesterday. The picture above was taken a few minutes before sunrise at 6:03 (sunrise was at 6:09). This time of year the view of the eastern horizon from our house is obstructed by trees. The oak tree in the foreground is full of blooms and rapidly growing leaves. But the clouds captured the color of the day’s beginning. What a difference from the sunrise over the Atlantic from a South Carolina beach I posted about a few days ago!

Observing sunrise is one of my favorite ways to start the day. The more beautiful it is - the more positive I feel about the rest of the day.

Ten Months of Shelf-Fungus

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Last July (2012), a shelf-fungus started to grow on the stump of an oak tree that had died and been cut down in our neighbor's yard. I first noticed it while our power was out after the derecho. It developed rapidly during the first month and then changed slowly through the remaining nine months in the slide show. I am posting the series now as a memorial to the shelf-fungus. They were ripped off their stump by the yard crew spreading new mulch in April 2013.

Gleanings of the Week Ending April 27, 2013

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The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles I read this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

The Cancer Tradeoff - Robert Austin argues that cancer is a natural consequence of our rapid evolution

Dinosaur Embryo Graveyard - From southern China

Like People, Bees Learn From Watching One Another

Breathtaking Photos of Colorful Rock Formations in China - Vibrantly colored exposed rock layers

Plant DNA Largely Unchanged - We have a tulip tree at the edge of the forest in our backyard….and it is pretty much the same as trees that grew in the time of dinosaurs!

Nanoparticle Disguised as a Blood Cell Fights Bacterial Infection - An idea about what comes after antibiotics for bacterial infections….something completely different

Breathtaking Photos of China's "River of Poems and Paintings" - Seems like China is a theme for this week….this is the second gleaning about that country

Research Aims to Settle Debate Over Origin of Yellowstone Volcano - Mantle plumes near subduction zones are more complex that the previous models depicted

Light Paintings Created with LED Wakeboards - Even the photographs show the motion of the athletes…but watch the video too to understand how much work went into the production.

Snowcano - Volcano on Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula…and I see that ‘volcanoes’ is another theme for this week although Yellowstone and Kamchatka are quite different.

Desert Collages - March 2013

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Today is a savoring of the vacation I had back in March in Arizona. I’ve made some collages of desert images.

Barrel cactus, lizards, cholla fruit, the edges of aloe, lichen. The eye searches for anything that is not the color of sand. The very sparseness of the desert highlights the shapes and colors.

The sky seems bluer in the desert. The tall spires of the desert spoon are not colorful but their shapes are classics of the desert.

And what about the saguaros and aloes. All the shades of green are there. One even has leaves outlined in white.

So - hear I am more than a month after the vacation - still enjoying the time in this place very different from the lushness of Maryland.

Yellow Botanicals

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This is another in the series of posts using color as a theme. The yellow flowers include tulips, forsythia, witch hazel, Arizona poppy, daffodils, orchids, alstroemeria, and dandelions….so many beautiful blooms. Enjoy the yellow slide show!

Botanical Curves

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Plants are full of curves - gentle curving petals of a deciduous magnolia,

 

The cups and spirals of young leaves that will flatten out as they expand to their mature form,

 

The graceful white markings that follow the veins on a tropic leaf,

 

The round nuts on a palm,

 

An old smooth edged leaf caught by deep green leaves,

And the folds of an amaryllis bud.

Are there any straight lines in nature? Or is ‘straight’ simply a matter of perspective - where we don’t have a large enough view to discern the curvature?

Angel Trumpet

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The Angel Trumpet flowers draw my attention every time I see them. What is it about Angel Trumpets that are so riveting?

 

Perhaps it is that the flowers hang downward instead of reaching for the sky and that their white or off-white color stands out from the abundant green foliage of the plant.

 

Or it could be the long tubes that are buds of the flower. They are so neatly rolled.

 

And then there are the spirals as they begin to unfurl….the spiral from the center and the spiral at the tips of the petals.

And then the petals are unfurled completely and the 5 rays from the center are visible

 

As they turn upward to make the trumpet.

 

There is a lot to notice about these flowers.

Ten Days of Little Celebrations - April 2013

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Back in August 2012, I posted about finding something to celebrate each day. It’s an easy thing for me to do and the habit of writing it down reminds me to be grateful for these and a myriad of other things in my life. Here are some ‘little celebrations’ I’ve noted this month:

A friend from 40 years ago. What a joy it is to be in contact with a friend after so many years in different parts of the country!

Tile art. The nature center where I volunteer has started a fundraising effort that involves children making squares of art that will be transferred to tiles. The children and parents have such fun making the images. I can hardly wait to see the walls of these unique tiles.

First spring day. It was a little late this year. Everything was delayed and then suddenly - spring sprung!

New azaleas. We finally filled the bed in front of our house where some bushes had died. The azalea bushes evidently love their new home; they started blooming almost immediately.

Flicker. There was a flicker investigating the forest at the back of our yard. Maybe there will be a nest!

Steak. We don’t have steak all that often and this time we thought it had burned on the grill - but it was very tender - and tasty. Celebrate!

Butterfly. It was pretty cold but there was a brave butterfly on the plum tree. It was the first of the season.

Deciduous magnolias and cherry trees. These are the two early bloomers in our area. This year they peaked together.

Travel plans. I enjoy planning for travel. It’s the preparation of the mind to maximize the experience of where I go. The anticipation is worth savoring.

Dark chocolate. This should be on my list every month. 

3 Free eBooks - April 2013

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The Internet has a growing number of online books…and many of them are free. This is my monthly post highlighting 3 that I have enjoyed most this past month.

Gray, Asa. The Forest Trees of North America. Washington D.C., Smithsonian Institution. 1891. This is really the plates prepared for a book. The work was done between 1849 and 1859. It is available in PDF form here. The first three images hooked me for the rest of the volume: magnolias and tulip polar. The tulip poplar in our back yard is just getting ready to bloom…and the image captures the look of the tree quite well.

Redoute, Pierre Joseph. Les Roses. Paris, De L’Imprimerie de Firmin Didot. 1824. There are actually three volumes available on the Internet Archive: 1817, 1821, and 1824. All three contain pages and pages of botanical prints of roses. I was prompted to look for these books when I saw a reference to them in May Theilgaard Watts’ Reading the Landscape of Europe.

Sale, Edith Dabney Tunis (editor for James River Garden Club, Richmand). Historic Gardens of Virginia. Richmond, William Byrd Press. 1923. Available from the Internet Archive here. The book includes the birds-eye view of many gardens as well as a few vistas from ground level. It is tempting to see how many of these gardens still exist!

Brookside Gardens - April 2013

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In mid-April - the deciduous magnolias were the highlight of Brookside Gardens. They come in many varieties although they are generally pink or white. The petals are generally large although there is one that had petals that curled like ribbons. Many times the petals are pink on the outside and white on the inward facing surface. Healthy trees are dense with blooms on otherwise bare branches.

The grounds were covered with new growth. Fiddleheads and native plants are coming up through the mulch everywhere in the gardens.

The tulips were just beginning to open and many of them looked like they had been damaged by the extremely cold weather in late March. I am always drawn to the blending of the yellow and orange tulip petals in the sunlight.

Cherry Blossoms 2013

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The weather caused the cherry blossoms to open late - and explode into bloom when some warm days finally came in April. The buds were already in evidence in early March; the picture on the left from our yard near Columbia, MD was taken on March 3. Then we had some very cold weather and the buds were only beginning to open on April 9th (picture on right).

By the 10th it was obvious that the blooms were imminent.

And then the 11th was the very best day for our cherry tree in 2013! The slide show below are my picks of the many pictures I took.

I was thrilled to have observed our tree during these days because I did not manage to get down to the see the trees around the Tidal Basin in Washington DC before the rains and wind took the blossoms to the ground.

Dandelions

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The dandelions beat the application of pre-emergent on our lawn this year. We have quite a crop. The flowers are low to the ground so that the mower would completely miss them. One year I had my (young) daughter take a little basket and fill it with the flowers. She enjoyed plucking them as they nestled in the grass almost like an Easter egg hunt; but there were so many buds waiting to open and produce seeds that the exercise did not diminish the dandelion population in our yard.

I’ve read that the colonists actually brought dandelions as a garden plant - used for salads. The greens taste bitter to me although supposedly if they are harvested early enough they are less so. The flower petals add an interesting color to salad; they don’t have much flavor (which may be a good thing).

This year my husband has already started his battle with the dandelions by spraying them. We both know that it is likely a losing battle.

Gleanings of the Week Ending April 13, 2013

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The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles I read this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Be Out There - The Forecast Calls for Play - A guide from the National Wildlife Federation about being outdoors on the not-sunny days. The guide was produced in response to the statistic that 61% of parents said the weather was the biggest barrier to playing outdoors.

Sundew - external digestions - Image of a sundew plant curled around an insect

Take a Virtual Hike Along String Lake In Grand Teton National Park - An eHike…17 pictures

Best science and technology pictures of the week - From BBC Future dated 3/29

Versailles Gets Spiffed-Up On Its Day Off - What happens on Monday when Versailles is closed? It is a lot of work.

Psychedelic Bacteria - Sometimes photomicrography looks like art

New Mathematical Model Shows How Society Becomes Polarized - Applying ‘biased assimilation’ model

Spectacular Aerial Shots of International Airports - Newark Liberty and JFK Airports from above

Women computer science grads: The bump before the decline - Observations but not explanations

Utah’s Breathtaking Blue Hills and Painterly Desert - Hmmm --- this could be a great ‘next vacation’

Plum Blossoms and a Butterfly

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Our plum tree is in bloom this week, ahead of the cherry tree. Its frothy pink is the early tree color every spring. 

It is one of the best features of our yard in spring. It is a little late this year because of some recent cold days.   

The insects find it as attractive as we do. There were several kinds of bees and a single butterfly - one of the first this season - enjoying the blossoms. The butterfly’s wings were ragged….he had survived long enough to enjoy the nectar of the plum blossoms.

US Botanic Garden - March 2013

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The US Botanic Garden is one of my favorite places in Washington DC. I make it part of just about every visit. It is located on the Smithsonian Mall side of the US Capitol building. There were a lot of people around for the Kite Festival the day I was there in March; it was beginning to feel crowded by the time we finished our walk around the conservatory an hour after it opened. The warmth and lush vegetation of the conservatory were a welcome contrast to a blustery spring day!

 

Outdoors the birds were fluffy in the cold.

 

The pitcher plants still had some color but were showing the ravages of winter as were some of the other plants in the garden.

 

 

 

The tables and chairs were out in the gardens but it was too cold to be comfortable sitting in them. The sounds of the water in the First Ladies Water Garden were soothing --- no warmth though! At least the miniature iris and daffodils were blooming.

The Azalea Project

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Every spring there are some major projects for the yard around our house that are unique to the year. This year one of those projects was planting azaleas to replace to bushes that broke under the strain of ice and snow a few years ago. We finally gave up on their recovery and dug them out last summer. When we went to the nursery to buy bushes last fall, we decided to wait until spring and plant azaleas. I had put it on the calendar as a March task but the spring weather has been so cold this year that we waited until last weekend.

Waiting the extra weeks meant that some weeds had started to come up where the bushes had been extracted. After getting the weeds pulled, loosening the soil and digging the holes was easy. The bushes we bought are projected to grow to be 4 feet high and 4 feet wide so we planted the two bushes 4 feet apart. The foliage on the azaleas is still somewhat bronze from winter. Will they bloom this year? Maybe not since I don’t see buds on them right now. I’m taking a strategic view; let them establish themselves this year and then bloom in the spring for many years to come.

There are irises planted to the front and sides of them now. That will give some color during late spring and early summer. Eventually some of the bulbs may have to be moved if they are too close or overshadowed by the bushes.

The day was so nice that I also positioned the stand for a new birdbath - pushing it down into loosened soil to make sure it was steady enough to hold the glass bowl.

What a satisfying way to spend a few hours!

Purple Botanicals

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This is another in the series of posts using color as a theme. The purple flowers include cascades of orchids, crocus, pansies, iris, violets and wisteria. Enjoy the slide show of purple!

Around our (Maryland) Yard in April 2013

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We’ve had a cold spring in Maryland. The plum and cherry trees are not yet in full bloom so I’ll wait to post photographs of them later. The hyacinths and daffodils have been blooming for over a month. Perhaps the cold has kept them vibrant for longer than usual.

 

The iris, tulips and lilies are up. The deer have eaten the tulips to the ground and the lilies are only looking a little better because their foliage grows rapidly after the deer have eaten the above ground parts. The iris either have not been found by the deer or are not tasty enough for them. 

 

 

The chives and lemon balm are up in the garden. It’s been too cold to do the usual garden clean out so I tell myself that the old leaves make good mulch for the tender plants.

 

The edge of the woods has waning daffodils and spindly forsythia.

 

The maple branches have been trimmed so high that the only up close view of the blooms is finding a recently downed twig in the grass. The tree itself seems to be blooming unevenly this year. There are lots of red tuffs at the crown of the tree and only sparse ones in the middle and lower part of the tree.

 

Spring is here…getting more established every day. A few warm days will get us all out working on cleaning out our garden beds!