Spring blossoming
Thursday, 15 February 2018
Spring is arriving. I also have seen several cherries/plums in bloom around town. And camellias. Seems too early for the woody shrubs! Bulbs, yes….
Musings
No moguls here
Sunday, 11 February 2018
This story-of-the-day’s-walk is self explanatory and has no plot: Look! A Dekay’s brown snake! Right there!
The other story takes longer to write although I took it in in about three glances. I have no picture* for it—too scary-sad for my personal taste. We were walking down a side street—no traffic, and the road was smoother than the sidewalks. And I saw up ahead lots of small pieces of broken, rotten branches. I said, oooooh, I’m not walking right there; looks like that tree is shedding! Then I realized that the small black car parked along the curb had four star-breaks in the windshield—thankfully, not broken all the way. But.
* In the kale-substitute photo, I quite how the droplets are lensing the sky above….
Time lines
Tuesday, 6 February 2018
Part of the winter mode includes the dry husks of last year’s maturation processes…in this case a tulip poplar husk.
On the other end of the spectrum—these Daphne buds ready to spring into early…spring.
Yellow flower day
Sunday, 4 February 2018
We hosted a wee brunch today (for a cozy foursome), then I rested (foot up), and later, well after the (#rubbishweather) rain had stopped, I headed out for a modest walk.
I discovered that I could stride a bit faster than the other day, still with the “good gait.” Yay!
BTW, the first flower (bud) is yellow jasmine (Gelsemium sempervirens is a twining vine native to the tropical New World), and the second is some kind of Mahonia (cultivar/cousin or hybrid of the oregon grape).
Steep and step-step
Friday, 2 February 2018
The heart-shaped leaves of this wall-vine caught my eye. They are small, less than 1.5 inches across.
I also noticed how persistent this weed(?) must be to survive in this sidewalk fissure. Its fronds are petite and delicately serrated-lacy.
The last two days when I’ve been out, I’ve concentrated very hard nearly every walk-step on “motating” with the best gait possible. I can report huge progress on the quality angle…if I go slowly enough, and sometimes if I carefully and slightly overemphasize the heel strike, I think my gait must seem slow-but-normal to anyone watching*. Yay! 😎
* Nothing creepy implied or suggested.
Flower paradigm, two ways
Wednesday, 31 January 2018
This almost-bloom almost made it, then got frosted/frozen, then fell under the control of gravity…then….
Here’s the scenario in my imagination: some rodent (probably squirrel) raided the browned bloom, opening it rather like a pine cone.
This is an art-bloom. Not sure what kind of blossom…poppy?
Plant dyslexia?
Monday, 29 January 2018
These ATL croci have not figured out the timing with the snow. The snow was here…and has been gone a while.
Yet our croci still are a lovely lavender/lilac (perhaps orchid) (but not really violet)…FLOWER-y purple-y color.
BotGardenDaze Days
Friday, 26 January 2018
I’ve been feeling a bit more spry lately (yay!), and today we ventured to the BotGarden to check on the plants and have lunch out.
After eating, we checked out an area that’s been newly hardscaped. For years it had been very underused, to the point of seeming abandoned by the gardeners. As we approached the area, I could see that one of my favorite small beds of succulents and cacti was gone, replaced by a line of boring, identical shrubs.
Oh, no!
HOWEVER, when we got into the redesigned area, whew, the plants from That Very Bed had been planted in many new beds, with vastly expanded square footage.
Whew!
With great happiness, we headed to the orchid conservatory to see what might be in bloom, as OrchidDaze has just begun. [I do not subscribe to their spelling distortion.]
The orchid diversity is stunning. These are tiny and hang down from their vegetation, here perched on a branch.
Compare to this huge branch of many blossoms, all open at once.
And this one is a knock-out for its color…and that it’s the size of a saucer.
Time marches (in Jan)
Wednesday, 24 January 2018
I can tell the day-length is stretching (finally), and it seems these hyacinths can, too.