The other day as I walked the dogs, I noticed that the meadow was anew as it was rimed with frost.
Such delicate beauty; frozen until touched by the morning sun.
Category: ‘Plants’
Meadow rimed with frost
Athena brings Winter
Last night temperatures dropped to well below freezing and it snowed! But this morning it was already 35ºF [1.7ºC] and the sugar coating was off of the smaller branches. So, photographically, it was suboptimal. But I did what I could, and here is the result!
Laila, who is now camera shy, poses on the driveway. If you enlarge this photo, you can get a good view of her. She is now 13 years old and I brought both dogs to the vet this past Tuesday and they are both healthy!
I always get excited to see spoor of deer and fox on my property. Here they are crossing the driveway in a path they have used for years. The fox print is much tinier than my dogs’.
A blue bird box on our property is one of two that we have. I think that blue birds tried to nest, but without success. Maybe next year.
This is a tree that Sandy knocked down, now with Athena snow on it.
Athena snow is wet and heavy! Look how it drags down the trees!
As I walking around, I noticed that my witch hazel was blooming! It is almost past! Sheez! I could have missed this entirely! Good thing I noticed it! Below is a photo of the entire shrub; see how easy it is to not notice it is in bloom.
Jenny loves to pose for pictures!
Hope you are warm and dry if you were hit by Athena!
Ecuador Pink Brugmansia gives a show!
I am so excited! I have never had a plant with this many blooms in my house before!!!This was the Ecuador Pink a few days ago:
I was so stoked because of the color and number of blooms. Also, when it was outside, the branches never bloomed at the same time. But now that I had brought it inside, they had all synched up. Here are the photos from this morning:
Incredible pink color isn’t it? The scent at night is enough to knock you over too! It is kind of like having a fancy plant chandelier in your house!
But the plant is in the process of dying back for fall, dropping leaves all over the place. This is the beautiful last gasp of flowering. Then I will cut it back severely for winter, just like I did last year.
You can also see the Blue-eyed Susan passiflora and King of Orange clivia to Ecuador Pink’s right.
My Summer Report
What did I do all Summer? See my report below:
Earlier in the Summer I rode with a peloton of senior riders that were mostly in their 70′s and 80′s. I thought, well there should be no problem for me keeping up with these guys! Boy was I wrong! They were in such good shape and kept up a pace I could only dream of keeping. They were waiting for me every few miles! It was so embarrassing. But they were extremely nice about it and I loved riding with them. I had to do something.
So, my husband dug around and found some clip-in pedals from Jim, his brother, and put them on my pedals [photos 1 & 2]. They have improved my riding by at least 30%. I cannot use the typical clip-in pedals because they hurt my knees when I clip out.
The next three photos are of a female painted turtle that we found on our driveway that would have been run over had we left it where it was. We moved it safely to the woods.
The next two photos are of a Campsis Morning Calm shrub that was growing as a vine up a telephone pole on Long Island. Isn’t it beautiful? My Mother is going to try to grow one.
The next two photos are of a Triumph car that I took a liking to because of the color and make. I played with the photos with Instagram.
The next 3 photos are of my Brugmansia Ecuador Pink with 8 flowers!!!
The next 3 photos are of the Old Saybrook causeway that I rode over a bit this summer. The first looks right back the way I came and there is a cute mother and child. the next looks back towards Fenwick, where Kathrine Hepburn used to own a house. The other looks across the road at an osprey platform. The causeway is scenic enough to have been used for car commercials.
My neighbor releases his Rhode Island Red chickens from time-to-time.
We went to the Chester Fair again this year. They had fewer animals than in years’ past, but it was still fun. I really enjoyed the cows this year. The llamas were fun too and so soft!
The last three photos are from River Road in Essex, a ride I do very frequently, because it is so pretty.
Orchid Show!!!
This past weekend I drove up to meet my brother Verne at the Massachusetts Orchid Society Annual Show and Sale, “A New England Rainforest”, which was held at the lovely Tower Hill Botanic Garden in Boylston, MA.
Most of the more common orchids that we would readily recognize are of the genus Phalaenopsis. Here is a table of these orchids at the show that I took because it was pretty and colorful:
But mostly I wanted to get photos of unusual orchids that take forms I wouldn’t readily recognize as being orchids. Good thing I had Verne in tow to point them out to me!
I didn’t manage to get a photo of the label with this one, but look at how it seems to be fingers on a hand!
I could not believe that this Robiquetia cerina was an orchid! But if you look closely at the flowers, you can clearly see the 6 petal arrangements.
I just kind of liked these!
These Schomburgkia Wellesley are unusual for their lower liplessness. Whereas lady-slipper type flowers have a lower lip, these do not and that is highly unusual in orchids. There is even a fancy botanical name for it! [Of course Verne knows it!] Pretty lavender color too!
I got very excited when I saw these tiny orchids growing in moss because I had written about Teagueia orchids growing in moss for my Fair View Fantasy Ecuadorian Equinox series. However, this was another species entirely. But I was so happy to finally see orchids growing moss!
These very interesting orchids have separate moving parts. The little round things bobble up and down like an insect to attract small birds and insects. The effect is more noticeable when the bobble is dark, but this flower is prettier!
This Angraecum distichum hardly looks like an orchid at all; looking much more like a fern or a cactus!
These are sort of ordinary, but I liked the colors!
Verne was partial to these.
As well as these!
These hanging chains of orchid flowers were pretty and had a wonderful fragrance! This was a tiny plant compared to the giant below that filled an entire corner of the building:
The flowers are not yet open. Notice the pine tree next to it for scale.
And now, to reward your patience, a little orchid show booty. This cutie remained at the sale area the entire time we were at the show. He was finally getting around to making his purchase just as we were leaving.
He could have been scoping out the hottie who was across the room behind him selling orchids:
This young pair was seen entering early on and stuck together through the show.
Because the orchid show was held at a botanic garden, there were other plants! Here are a few that I couldn’t help but take photos of.
This is one I noticed in Singapore that I wasn’t able to identify, but here it was with a label!
Mystery solved! It was a Pigeon Berry.
There were many camellias in the green houses loaded with buds! But only one really was beginning to flower so far; it was called Yuletide!
A view of the orangery in the greenhouse. The green houses were extremely well kept, not a stray leaf could be found on the floor! Incredible!
Afterwards, I went to Vern’s house and posed with my nephew’s pet albino corn snake “Flare”.
I know it is hard to tell, but I am wearing my Slick It Up Madrid t-shirt! LOL!
Here is Flare as a hatchling:
Isn’t he to die for cute?
