Outdoors at Brookside – early March 2016

After walking through the conservatories at Brookside Gardens, I walked on the boardwalk toward the Brookside Nature Center to see if the skunk cabbage had appeared. It had not but I did see a very weathered stump and the bald cypress knees were more obvious than they are in the summer when foliage hides some of them.

There were crocuses beginning to bloom. Do you see the bee in the upper left? The day was not too cold for the bees to be enjoying the few flowers that were blooming.

Back into the main part of Brookside Gardens – I noticed bulbs beginning to come up. Are these daffodils?

Snow drops were already blooming.

The seed pods from last summer at the very tops of the crepe myrtles in the rose garden were almost glowing in the bright sun against a very blue sky.

There were other bulbs blooming as I started back along the path between the visitor center and the conservatory.

And then the witch hazels in bloom. They are the earliest tree in our area to actually bloom. Some of them don’t jettison their leaves from last season before the spring blooms emerge!

A Walk in our Snowy Neighborhood

Earlier this week, we had a few inches of snow on the ground. We knew the temperature was warming enough that it would melt on its own the next day so didn’t bother to shoveling the driveway. We took a walk through the neighborhood instead.

I thought this tree with snow and cut branch took in the look of a pig face! When I looked at the picture on my monitor I noticed that the branch – that had only been cut last summer – had already dried out and darkened. The reddish layer already had cracks too.

The fire hydrant was clearly visible but I thought the uneven layering of the snow on the top made it look different than the actual shape of the metal underneath.

The water retention pond was not all snow covered. The ice from the earlier – very cold – days was beginning to melt.

My favorite picture of the day was the crape myrtle pod full of snowflakes…crystals still intact.

January Sunrise

January is an excellent month for photographing the sunrise from our front porch: the days are still short so sunrise happens well after my normal time to get up and there are no leaves on the tress to block the view. A little over a week ago – I was lucky enough to catch a sunrise with the moon and Venus visible!

A little later on the same morning I focused on using the sunrise color behind some of our trees. This is the oak. The buds look large for January. They may have started swelling with the warm weather we had in December and early January.

The crepe myrtle has a lot of dried pods that make it look ‘decorated’ all winter long. It makes a good morning silhouette.