cardinals

This morning, amid light snow flurries, 25-30 cardinals (both male and female) seem to be stocking up at the birdfeeder. Blackoil sunflowers seed is the only thing we put out. It is hard to tell from this picture ( taken just minutes ago ! ) that there are 10 cardinals in it ( and a squirrel )...the females are well hidden in the greenybrowny grass. There is also a heated bird bath near the feeders to offer water during the freezes. We've had a troop of around 15-20 most of the Winter, but they really seem to be concentrating now. Saw a few Robins walking about...first ones I've seen this season, here at our house. Earlier in the season S, L and I would see a good-sized flock of Robins down our road, in the woods...about 20-30 I'm thinking. The Juncos are still here, but not in the numbders we've had in the past...maybe 15-20 at most. A few White-Throats.

a creature of summer warmth

Came across this picture, and in the interest of practicing uploading picture files and wanting to bring some juicy green life to the blog, I felt the urge to post it ! I have to say that I'm looking forward to seeing and hearing insects about again...the winter months seem so sterile without them. Is it that they represent some unsaid diversity ? I think we need to have an Insect Day....a day to celebrate their myriad forms, incredible solutions to ancient issues of climate, predators...hmmm...perhaps some day in mid June ? Or wait until the Cicadas are out and about..finished with their underground existence and have literally shucked it off, leaving their papery husks to be consumed by birds, dogs, and collected by children ? It would be a day for all insects...not just "beneficials" or the pretty.

lettuce and mustard seedlings

Here's the little guys in their natal seedling tray. they really need to be separated and given some space. So far the mixture is hard to tell which types are which. The little brown specks on a few of them are, I hate to say....sunburn !!!! I had watered them from above and then set the tray back in the sunny window... the sun magnifying through the water droplets on the tender young leaves...burning little holes ! :< But they will survive. Today they got a drink of chamomile tea and some leftover coffee. ..this time I watered more carfully !

the power of seed

Fresh, silky milkweed floss in late summer ( or is it early fall ? )...about to carry the next generation into the wind and colonize new territory in the Spring. Paper-thin wrinkled discs hardly look capable of growing into great stalks of sturdy milkweed plants. Each individual plant seems like a world unto itself : aphids, leaf hoppers and spitbugs sip their juices, milkweed beetles thrive on them ( not exactly sure what they do...? ), Monarch butterfly caterpillars eat the leaves. All sorts of insects visit the sweetly scented flowers to sip on nectar or collect pollen ( or dine on smaller insects that are collecting nectar or pollen ) I've witnessed at least one groundhog chow down on the young plants ( less than two feet tall ) in our own yard, leaving bare stems weeping white latex. Who know what goes on under the ground...what sorts of relationships they have worked out with fungi, bacteria and other microorganisms. Where there is now seemingly barren ground, milkweed seeds await their cues to continue their version of life on Earth.

Spring is possible !

OK...now it seems possible for the ground to thaw, for mud to transform back into soil and for green shoots to emerge from dormant roots, rhizomes and seeds. The past few weeks have seemed a little bleak, what with lingering snow and ice... but really when compared to the 11 foot snows they've had to endure in upstate New York, I shouldn't complain. Yesterday was nice...50-ish with the sun out...streams and creeks alive with snow melt and the rain that fell during the night.
I am reading "The Snow Geese" by William Fiennes. A Brit, recovering from a long illness decides to follow the snow goose's route from winter grounds in southern Texas up through the Mid-West and on to Baffin Island, where they nest in the summer. Wonderful, evocative writing. Here he is describing a pet of a new friend:

Saila was three-quarters wolf and a quarter husky, with the colouring of a wolf, and the figure of a Shetland pony: fourteen years old, lame, deaf, almost blind, her dark eyes swirled through with milkiness.....her legs no longer hinged at the knees:they were as stiff as crutches. Each step forward beat the odds, bucking a trend. She tottered.She moved one foot and waited before following its lead, as if to verify that the limb could support her weight....we'd walk down the corridor together, one step at a time, blind Siala listing from side to side, slewing into stacks of boxes. One morning she knocked over a box mark "christmas decorations" and stood confused in a spill of rosettes, pompoms, and paper-twist angels.

tiny greens and big bananas

The first lettuce seeds did not sprout. I think they were too old. What did sprout were a variety of chrysanthemum that is grown for its edible leaves. I re-sowed the lettuce area with some "Hotshot" mustard greens mix ( from High Mowing Seeds ) they started sprouting within 2 days ! I'm going to have to do some thinning and potting up within the week.
I whacked back the biggest banana tree in the pot...an invasive ( and almost impossible to get rid of ! ) White Impatiens has been making life tough for the 3' plant. its edges were browning and it was looking a bit chlorotic. But the 3 little ones will live on and grow into a fantastic little grove outside this summer...this year I am going to put them in the ground, just for the summer...first they must be pried out from the pot, and I hope to tease out the Impatiens then...without killing the banana ! today's picture is of a banana tree I saw at the Ala Moana Center in Hawaii back in December of 06.

Winter Impatiens

This guy blooms merrily all winter long. I've brought them in for the winter before, and wonder why they arent as popular as Amaryllis and Paperwhites for indoor winter gardening. You can even multiply them as they grow...just start more from the cuttings that you've got to thin out now and then !