Archives for category: nature
We got creamed this year. They said it was one out of three worst snow storms New Hampshire has ever had. Nearly 170,000 without electricity. Happy Thanksgiving!
You know what all this snow means? That’s right! Sledding!
A really good year for fall colors, they seemed to last for a long time too. The skies were mostly clear, bringing out the vivid reds and oranges in the leaves. The cosmos that I planted in the spring had thick, bright green foliage for what seemed forever and then when September rolled around, it started to bloom. The plant is still blooming now and we’re having some very cold nights. I did take a lot of pictures of the hydrangea Little Lamb because it kept getting more and more saturated in pink hues. There was one evening, as the sun was setting, the sky lit up the same color as the hydrangea flowers. It was pink, pink and more pink.
In this spring and summer garden there were more frogs than in the past and more bumble bees than I’d seen in ten years. However, there were hardly any honey bees (just a few when the milkweed bloomed) and so far, one monarch butterfly. They usually come around at the end of summer.
Placing pots flush with the ground, filled with water helped bring more frogs and leaving a foot of long grass around the borders where clover could grow met some of their needs as well as the bumble bees. They also seemed to enjoy the addition of water lettuce in their pools. This time around I added more plants to the front, North side of the house, as well as a small water garden in a tall blue pot, where tiny frogs came to hide. There in the shade, the Coleus took off along with the Creeping Jenny.
One of the new flowers in this mix was the Mexican Red Torch, lighting up the place with it’s truly vibrant petals. The stems and leaves are so velvety soft. An intriguing plant it is, as it is slow to bloom, growing lots of large leaves. It is still creating more buds and continues to bloom.
As far as the vegetables that were grown, the most successful was the Swiss Chard, onions and the strange looking carrots (such intense flavor). Unfortunately, the tomatoes took for ever to get going, the potatoes looked like food for the Lilliputs and the eggplants were devoured by pests. The corn grew small as well, but, it has yet to be picked, since it’s popping corn.
All in all, it was an amazing summer; warm, hot, cool in all the right places and not too rainy. Taking great advantage of it by being outside as much as I could, made for some nice shots.
The few evenings ago, Michael said you have to see this, so I got the camera and he suggested a panoramic shot.
After he pasted it together, we get the full effect.
I think my mother took this photograph (above) several years ago when she and my father came to visit.
This the only one I’ve doctored with saturation, to bring out that rainbow. It turned the sky into neon lavender.
The Spirit of Charlie lives on, looking over things.
Last year I let the little garden go completely wild. Different types of grasses grew, all kinds of weeds, the place was buzzing like a city. The usual characters came back and a few new ones I hadn’t seen before. The honey bees came earlier in the spring and hardly any in the summer. There was an noticeable absence of the Monarch butterfly and the Japanese beetle. Also, surprisingly, there weren’t as many mosquitoes. No vegetables were grown, just a few left over sunflower seeds from the year before and a couple pots of basil. All in all, it was a lush little garden which will grant me fresh, rich soil for this year’s planting.
We had so much rain last Spring. We were soaked.
I placed a pot, flush with the soil, for a make shift frog pond.
When I was getting it ready guess who came to wait, our good friend Basil. Can you see him?
When I finished placing the rocks just so, Basil jumped in and looked like he approved.
Once the rhododendrons bloom, the bumble bees come out and the place starts buzzing.
And of course, the Ruby throat.
The beach rose bloomed for the first time!
The grass grew and so did the infamous Milkweed.
With it comes true delight; honey bees, bumblebees, butterflies and all kinds of insects.
I put a pot in another spot where I had seen Basil sitting once, but the frogs did not take to it.
Still letting it grow wild and free.
Then the Hibiscus comes along, giving everyone so much.
Its a favorite of the Green Leaf Grasshopper
Waiting patiently for my sunflowers to grow…
… and grow they did.
When summer is in full swing, the lawn gets mowed, but the ‘small corner’ keeps growing.
And more visitors arrive.
This time a smaller frog.
Here is the teeniest, tiniest frog on a mint leaf.
Even a toad came to our door step.
Underneath the walnut trees near the road grew some amazing fungi specimens.
The beauty of summer
The hydrangea is always a good indicator of the seasons changing.
And when the Milkweed start to open their pods of seeds.
The End
sketch in oil pastels
wave XVII
wave XVIII sketch in pen and ink
Wave XVIII may not be done yet, looking at this I think the sky will get a little lighter, here it’s a gloomy day.
channeling the abstract 
