Showing posts with label fields. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fields. Show all posts

Monday, December 11, 2006

Frozen






Last Wednesday I watched the sun rise and the moon set over the frozen fields. Our ground froze completely for the first time last Tuesday night after several nights of semi-frozen earth. The world was so frosted that it looked as though it had snowed (and I certainly hope that it will in coming days).

Most of the trees have finally released the last of their leaves, with a few exceptions, and the evergreens are taking center stage. Tomorrow I’ll show you how great those evergreens look in morning sunlight!

Friday, September 29, 2006

Friday Daisies


Those who know me know that daisies and dandelions and flowers of their ilk are among my favorites.

This purple beauty is new to me – I discovered it in the open flower fields at Longwood Gardens, and identified it this week via the blog Beyond the Fields We Know as the Michelmas daisy or Purple aster (Symphyotrichum novi-belgii or Aster novi-belgii).

Over at Pollen Nation, the Daily Flower for September 27th is the dandelion. Hop over to learn more about this beautiful, sunny wonder!

Thursday, September 28, 2006

Flowers in the Wind


Busy today... more tomorrow from Longwood Gardens, including flowers like those seen here from the fields.

In the mean time, if you're looking for something interesting about forests, hop over to Caroline's blog Earth Friendly Gardening for her latest post about a new report on the "value" of in-tact forests.

Saturday, May 20, 2006

Mystery pine and other trees at the Kirkwood Preserve



Pictured here are some more trees for you from the Kirkwood Preserve of the Willistown Conservation Trust.

The evergreen is some sort of pine, but I’ll have to get a closer look at the needles to be able to make a determination. Which, as you can see, may provide to be quite a task! The overall growth habit makes me think longleaf pine, but that's just a guess.

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Crimson King Norway Maple






Did you know that red maples are only red when the leaves turn in the autumn? Well, I didn’t! Red maples have green leaves, and the trees you see in these images are not red maples.


These beautiful, red-violet trees are another kind of Norway maple (which we have recently explored around the farm) called Crimson King Norway maples. What a great name!

I just figured this all out yesterday when trying to identify the row of trees along the road next to the entrance to the Kirkwood Preserve. More to come!

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Big, Honking Forest Birds





This morning I had two wonderful surprises from our feathered friends!

When I stepped out to greet the sunrise and take the dogs for their morning business, the first thing the puppies and I found was a long, beautiful, gold-and-black striped owl feather!


Owls are important forest creatures, and there is not a doubt in my mind that the ones living around here are growing healthy and plump on the bunnies! Based on other images I've found online, I believe that this feather belongs to the Great Horned Owl, but I cannot be certain.

While I was smiling like an idiot at what a wonderful gift I’d been given, I heard the loud honking of Canadian geese. Naturally I looked up to watch them fly over, only to see that the sky was empty.

The sound was incredibly loud, so I gazed around until my eyes landed on the source: two big, fat, honking (no pun intended) Canadian geese sitting at the apex of the roof on one of the old barns!

They were calling up the sun in a most goosely fashion, and I ran inside to grab my camera. Imagine my pleasure to find them still happily honking away when I returned, and slowly approached them snapping images all the way. When I (and my disobedient dog) got too close, the geese flew off to the trees.

Remember to scroll down and take a look at the gorgeous sycamore tree I posted for you this morning, and have a lovely day!

Sunday, February 12, 2006

En hiver...






We have over 14 inches this morning, and the snow is still falling! We have been trying to build snow people, but the snow is just too powdery!

Happy full moon everyone!

Sunday, January 22, 2006

Trees and stone


Around the property where I now live are numerous stone ruins from the remnants of barns, sheds, cottages, and in this image, a silo. Add the many over-growing trees sprouted around them and you have a painter’s paradise, a tribute to romantics everywhere.

This week I’ll be exploring the grounds a bit more, and bringing you images which show some of the beauty in the skeletons of the trees adorning these ruins as only winter shows them to us. They bear burrs and burls, cones and conks, with plenty of mystery and allure.

Thursday, January 19, 2006

Exploring



Howdy! Today I thought I’d share a couple more images that I took the other day of the area surrounding my cottage. I’m located on what’s left of a farm (the surrounding acres were sold for development). In the center of the development there are me and two other cottages along with remnants of old barns, homes, silos and whatnot, along with woods and thickets as you see in these two images.

Obviously, we have a lot of fun ahead of us just exploring the yard and connecting pastures! For the most part, I have no idea what kinds of trees I’m looking at, but I’m eager to learn! The tree in the foreground of the first image has dropped some kind of fruit during the last season. The thickets, which we will also explore, seem laced with what I can only guess to be wild roses (given their amazingly painful thorns and tiny red rosehips).

The other wonderful benefit is the wildlife, of which there is much! We have deer living in here, and a multitude of beautiful, brilliant birds, some of which are a bright red! We heard a screech owl announce our arrival the first few nights (at least, I sure hope it was a screech owl), and there are more than enough fat grey squirrels to go around! We also have coyotes, which like to howl when the reactor alarm test sounds, and I’m waiting to see the raccoons. Don’t they have raccoons out here?

Finally, is anyone out there adept in the art of scat-identification? I need to get myself a book I think… I know what deer poop looks like (and evidently, my husky loves the stuff), but there are these much larger poops that I just haven’t seen before! Might we have bears in our midst?

There were always bears rumored around Seabeck, but sadly I never saw any live ones passing through. I’d always hoped that they’d found a nice, lush hold-up somewhere, but now that we’ve moved out, I hope they’ll feel welcome at our place. :)