Musings

Not surprisingly, I imprinted on my childhood and teen-hood seasons with respect to the calendar (in the Midwest), and based on that, we are now in winter, early winter, but still winter. Fully winter.

However.

Yes, um. Now I live in the piedmont Deep South. And here…well, December does not have ice storms and snowbanks…maybe a bit of white, but not sustained white. And white only perhaps umpf years out of every decade.

So, here we are: December on the calendar, with recently fallen (piedmont GA) oak leaves and lichen-decorated stone steps. So aesthetic.

So not winter in the Midwest.

Posted at 8:56 PM | Comments Off on Adjusting to the local

I thought this was a thistle when I snapped it, but now I don’t. Perhaps a Crepis (hawksbeard) spp. Count me confused.

Posted at 6:16 PM | Comments Off on Not that it matters

Sorry, watching Richard Burton do his actor-magic for the camera for “The Spy Who Came In from the Cold” (released 1966), and I’m stealing/borrrowing the line…. And it has nothing to do with a yellow rose in a garden, truth told.

Posted at 10:05 PM | Comments Off on Whisky or…?

I usually see RED Acer palmatum leaves; here, they’re orange…and decoratively distributed over the ivy and low granite wall, with a decorative fern.

Posted at 8:14 PM | Comments Off on Gravity art

Foliose lichen, if I have it right (the big ones). I do rather like lichens; they are so variable! However, it seems right that the mutualistic relationship situation of multiple species (which create lichens) should manifest diverse forms.

Posted at 8:33 PM | Comments Off on Natural history tidbit

I got this Wild Idea that I could selfie with the mistletoe in the top of this oak, and also show my wind-resistant head/neckwear. I see me and my garmentage, but somehow the mistletoe camouflaged itself. Squint: they’re there, just less dense than I expected.

Posted at 10:07 PM | Comments Off on Cover-ups

I wonder if I can get a pardon from Prez l’Orange, perhaps for discussing the weather too often?

Posted at 9:22 PM | Comments Off on In a different world

Full confession: I took this photo yesterday…when it was sunny. The leaf layer was about the same today under solid overcast*, with perhaps ⅓ of the leaves remaining on the tree. Still no ginkgo leaf drop here….

* Rain overnight, I hear, which may be ice to the immediate north. Farther north: snow, snow, and more snow.

Posted at 8:50 PM | Comments Off on Ginkgo persistence

Sometimes sunlight and foliage are a truly magical combo. Those leaves are pointy gems.

* …without the painting part….

Posted at 8:54 PM | Comments Off on En plein air*

I am so surprised to see this daisy hanging on in the face of seasonal-autumnal-transitioning-into-winter-ish (ish).

And pleased.

Posted at 9:22 PM | Comments Off on Tough every-day fleur