The Trees at Dusk

 One evening recently, I took these pictures of trees in my yard. They look like black lace against the sky.

                                              The previous  two are in the back of the house. 
                                                                  Such nice silhouettes!

Note the mistletoe in this one. We affectionately refer to this, our oldest and largest tree as 'Johnny Reb'. I don't think it has been around that long, but it has been here a long time.

Winter Sunrise January 2018

This is a winter sunrise out my back door, with the sandbox that was long ago converted into a rooting bed/ holding area for plants that were awaiting a permanent home. The wooden bar across the top is the remnants of a failed rooting  project on camellia where I put them under a plastic cover to increase the humidity. Now I use the bar as a stand to spray paint occasional projects. The green in the back part of the holding area is a combination of two plants: an enterprising red cedar and a tangle of Jackson Smilax that I  can easily dig and sell. The trusty clothesline appears in the far back with it's surround of brick. You can see my trail through the leaves. The color that morning was gorgeous, but short lived. The pictures are nice, but do not exactly capture reality. I let the leaves lay where they fall as I love to look at them, love to walk through them and hear them crunch, and anyway, come spring, the wind will have put them exactly where they should be.

Looking in another direction to the east the same morning, more trees and beautiful pink/purple
sky with a little orange thrown in. Bare trees against the sky looking like lace is one of the more beautiful sights on this earth. The orange dot in the far back is a pumpkin on its way to the next stage. The closer orange dot is the roof of a fairy house made for me by a friend. In spite of my patience, no faeries have taken up residence (yet).

Winter at Gold Hill Plant Farm

 Winter is my least favorite season, even though we do not have enough really bad weather to complain about. Winter here is more like a low grade fever that makes you feel listless and blue, but not really sick enough to go to bed. And so, I live for the daffodils that will soon begin marching forth from the ground.
 In the meantime I do a few crafts that I hesitate to call "Art" but which are very satisfying to me.
My latest is a nature box.
Left to right
top row: overcup oak acorn, 2 different polished rock specimens from a long ago rock show

second row: jewel box bivalve, 3 acorns (unknown variety), broken top from fighting conch

third row: dried hydrangea blooms, broken top from a whelk shell, another polished rock

Fourth row: tiny pine cone brushed with paint to look like snow, 2 more rocks, one polished and one   natural, some dried candles from (probably) Norfolk Island Pine