Western Australia Sea Shells

 

These are shells Hannah collected on the beach in Western Australia (Perth). There are several different kinds with the large cone type and the small abalone ones being the most prominent. I do not know the name of any of these, but they are definitely different from the Gulf of Mexico shells. However, these shells were only on the beach one day and after that, other types were more abundant. Reminds me of one Christmas years ago when my mother-in-law and I went to Gulf Shores and the whole beach near the state pier was littered with dime sized sand dollars. I defy you to find a whole sand dollar at Gulf Shores on any given day. It was serendipity.

Pot Person Faces Winter

 

The pot person is ready for Christmas with her Poinsettias and hat and scarf.

Hebetude and Gallimaufry

I subscribe to dictionary.com Word of the Day. Recently there have been several words that really interested me. Sometimes you can learn a word and its definition but still not understand it. Hubris is such a word for me.
Hebetude is mental dullness or sluggishness. Is that the way you feel when you are rolled up in a soft warm blanket with your eyes closed in front of the idiot box? Or is it caused by sitting in the early spring sunshine, leaning against the barn door? It might be caused by being so tired you can't think. I think a lot of the email fwds I get are generated and passed on by people with this condition. Not that there aren't good ones.I recently got one of pictures of the Northern Lights that really piqued my interest. But they are like handsome princes, I guess. You have to kiss a lot of toads.
Gallimaufry is a hodgepodge or confused jumble. Maybe gallimaufry causes hebetude. Or are they related some other way?
This causes me to want to rusticate, to find solace in my place in the country. I just hope the internet can reach me there.

Fossil Collecting

 

In July I was lucky enough to be invited on a fossil hunt and I really had a great day. With the help of some other folks I came home with quite a load of beautiful stuff which I still need to preserve some way. But, this picture is the place we collected from. It is an abandoned coal mine near Birmingham, Alabama and it has amphibian trail fossils. This is apparently very rare. I found one or two, but nothing I would definitively say was an amphibian trail. I did get some seed fern fossils and some other plant fossils that I was well pleased with.
In the fall of 2008, we visited our daughter at Cornell and she took us on a whirlwind tour of the surrounding area. One of the places we went was a fossil mine that had marine fossils. I think I could really get into this fossil hunting.

Hunting Heron

 

This is another of my Sanibel Island pictures from the past year. it stood completely motionless staring at something I could not see in the grass. We watched it for at least half an hour as we were looking at some other birds in the area also. The intensity of it's concentration certainly should be rewarded, hopefully with a morsel of food, but I never saw it get anything.

Rabbit on Fossil Trail Sanibel Island

 

My definitive killing frost happened December 7. Wipe-Out!!
Cold and miserable days make me take refuge in looking at some of my Sanibel Island pictures taken over the last year. This is one of a rabbit happily munching beside the road. This was taken in Ding Darling Wildlife Preserve where a road had been constructed out to a power line tower. The tower was built on a pile of rubble that had been dredged up for the purpose from the surrounding water covered area. It must have been covered with water for a long time because the whole road and base for the tower were made from fossilized shells. This rabbit is in no way connected to the fossils except it just happened to be there.

Pine Cone Angels

 

Here are some more homemade decorations made with the ubiquitous pine cone. Hot glue a hickory nut or a buckeye to the top of a pine cone. The wings are made from a short piece of ribbon with wire edges. Twist the ribbon in the middle to give more of a wing shape and hot glue to the back. The arms can be make out of any number of things. Twigs would work. I used chenille stems, pipe cleaners, and even the beads on a string that come on rolls like ribbon. Hot glue under the wings or attach arms to the wings and glue on as a unit. A halo can be fashioned from the bead strings. I put stars in the hands of my angels but anything small will do, or you could put hands together as if they were praying. A piece of Christmas card could be fashioned into a hymn book. These make a cute table decoration, a tree ornament, a package decoration, or a gift to a friend who loves nature.

Three Reindeer

 

I got these homemade reindeer several years ago at a flea market. I keep them in the barn when they are not in use so that the weather does not take as bad a toll on them. That does not stop the bugs, though. There is always a pile of sawdust under them when I bring them out each year. If I had to store them in the house they would have needed treatment for bugs at the beginning. Perhaps a dose of wood preservative would have worked. Neglecting the wisdom of storing these reindeer at all, I put a bow on them and set them out each year, and they make me happy. As they approach the end of their useful lives, their legs are unsteady and have to be propped just so, but they can still stand unless there is a very high wind or a real deer bumps into them. The arrogance of a large rack is gone with only one small broken branch to tell of former glory. Even the fawn is not so frisky anymore. But, they are still with me to celebrate Christmas. Sometimes when I pull into the driveway, I still momentarily think they are real. They may be like the Velveteen Rabbit and after they have been loved for a very long time, they become real. Maybe that is what they smell on the North wind.

Sloe Plum Ready for the Holidays

 

Several years ago I decorated my sloe plum with Christmas balls. I had seen this done on a similar small tree at the Botanical Garden in Chapel hill, NC. It was stunning with snow all around. Because the tree has thornlike fruit spurs, I leave the decorations on all year. Also because to me it seems an unnecessary task and I like to see the balls. They are especially nice when the tree is in bloom. At any rate I usually add a few every year, as the older ones fall or become grimy looking. I am working on an idea to put some in the top of the tree without getting my eyes stabbed out.
I originally got this tree from seed collected at Allen's Mill in Chambers county, Alabama. I have to trim it every year to keep it from becoming a hazard with low growing limbs, but in the last couple years, it is becoming more erect and my trimming job has decreased.

Reusing Last Year's Wreaths

 

 

With all the talk about the economy and saving money, I wanted to show what ole' skin flint did this year. Last year I received two stunning evergreen wreaths. After the holidays I hung one on the garden fence post, and covered and kept the other one in the attic till this year. After a year in the elements, the one on the garden post was beginning to show its age when viewed up close. But at a distance it still looked good to me. I spiffed it up with a little green spray paint and added a red bow. The one that spent the year in the attic was in better shape and white spray pant over it lightly made it quite attractive with a red bow and some Jackson smilax.I don't know how many more years these will last, but for this year, it looks pretty. I am thinking about digging out a can of spray snow and touching the greenery with it. Then again, maybe not.

Kousa Dogwood in the Fall

 

My Kousa Dogwood grows taller and nicer every year. It keeps it's leaves to the bitter end and is now in full color. I searched everywhere for one of these and have now had it about 5 years and not nary a bloom on it in all that time. Those who have grown them say to be patient, that the spring show will come and it will be worth the wait. In the meantime, there is this beautiful fall color. It really shows up like Christmas decoration behind that Rododendron.
I think I will give it a little lime. I read that it grows best in a soil pH of 6-6.5. Hummm. I guess this old red clay is a bit more acidic than that.

Best Christmas Lights

Someone sent me an email fwd with this in it. Now this is worth seeing. I think I may have seen it last year, but that did not decrease my enjoyment of it this time. Thanks for sending it along.

Bear/Cougar Film

I am very interested in animals and I suppose I anthropomorphize them, but I enjoyed this. It may be all staged (I especially wondered about the whimpers from that bear) but I still enjoyed it.

Aristolochia frimbriata

 

 

This is an unusual Aristolochia or Dutchman's pipe. Some of the members of this group are very unruly and try to take over the earth, but this one , fimbriata, is much smaller and less aggressive. I can vouch for the hardiness of this little beauty, too. I have grown them for years in pots that were too small, starved them for fertilizer, planted them in the ground and forgot to water in drought, you name it, but they have never failed me and they cling to life with a tenacity that is almost frightening. They grow easily from seed, but of the two I have in the ground, neither has reseeded in the 3 or 4 years I have had them there, so I am not expecting them to become a menace. I think they show off most effectively in a hanging basket because of their small size. Mine generally get no longer than 18-24 inches and may have several stems sprouting from the woody looking underground part.
They become dormant in winter in both pots and the ground, but spring back out as soon as it warms up. Of course the ones in the greenhouse sprout out first. I think I may have gotten my original seed from the American Horticultural Society's seed exchange.

Tropical Pitcher plants

 

 

 

These are the 3 kinds of tropical pitcher plants that I grow. I can name them no further than to say that they are all Nepenthes. Sometimes you can find something exciting in the Mean Place (Wally World) and that is where all 3 of mine came from. There are 3 things that you should know about growing tropical pitcher plants. They are:
1)water
2)water
3)water
Do not let them get dry or the cute little pitchers will be the first to turn brown, followed quickly by the whole plant. Do NOT fertilize. When watering, water not only the root mass (which is quite small and fragile), but also water the pitchers. They should always have a fair amount of water in them. Do not let any of this water get on you however, because it stinks to high heaven. I guess a watery mess of rotting insects could not smell sweet. These plants can trap plenty of insects in the greenhouse, and need no assistance in getting prey. This is the reason they do not require fertilizer. They digest insects and get what they need from the insect bodies. They are not fail proof on catching insects though. I have seen holes chewed through the pitcher walls where something escaped, probably a bumblebee from the size of the hole. These Nepenthes are not for the casual gardener, and certainly are not house plants. However they are beautiful in a sort of erotic way. If you like them, you should visit the Atlanta Botanical Gardens. They have a huge collection in the conservatory. And of course you won't want to miss the orchids there either.

Arum Italicum for Beautiful Winter Foliage

 

 

This is Arum italicum and it is a wonderful foliage plant. It retains these gorgeous leaves all winter. In spring there will be white flower spathes followed by gorgeous red berries. I started with 3 bulbs and over the years they have multiplied into fairly large clumps. I moved them once and apparently left behind a bulb or two and those have developed into a nice clump also.

November Greenhouse Flowers

 

I have some nice blooms on a Phalenoposis (moth) orchid right now and several Thanksgiving/Christmas cactus blooming. there are a couple of Streptocarpus in there, too.

Azaleas in the Fall?

 

 

My azaleas are blooming and I notice that lots of other people have them blooming also. This probably means that these plants will not bloom or at least have only scattered blooms next spring.