White Christmas

We traveled to visit family the week before Christmas.  Our mid-Atlantic loop began last Saturday with a  drive up to Virginia, across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, up the Eastern Shore to Mom's cottage near Rehoboth Beach, DE.  We spent a couple of days there with her, including one day at Rehoboth and one day at Chincoteague NWR in Virginia.  Next, we drove north the entire length of Delaware, to visit my in-laws just north of Philadelphia. Finally, back down to Virginia, to my mom's house in the DC suburbs.  After a lovely visit, we bolted home Christmas morning, ahead of the oncoming blizzard.  We had great traveling weather until the last hour.  We drove that last hour through driving snow, which continued into the night.  After a relaxing Christmas evening watching old movies on TV, we woke up this morning to over four inches of snow.  It's quite the winter wonderland out there! 

This holly tree is in our front yard.  Every spring and summer it's home to at least one robin's nest.  In the winter, it's full of beautiful berries.  Usually in the middle of the winter, we're visited by a flock of cedar waxwings for a few days.  They devour the holly berries and the berries on the Bradford pear, then they're gone, as suddenly as they appeared.  I just hope they come on a weekend, so we'll be able to enjoy the show!

That's all, folks.

You're looking at the entirety of my holiday decorating.

The Circle of Life, Again

We found this poor soul on top of the mailbox recently.  It's highly unlikely that its demise was due to natural causes.  I'm thinking somebody's dinner was interrupted.  There's a red-shouldered hawk that lives nearby, and dozens of blue jays, and several barred owls.   Now that the leaves are off the trees, birdwatching becomes a lot easier.  Maybe next time we'll catch the whole act, not just the remains.

Frost

We had our first hard frost last night.  As soon as the sun came up, I went out to try to get some photos.  The knockout roses in the front yard seem to be my go-to subjects.  Today they were salted with ice crystals. 

Even though the leaves have been changing (and falling) for weeks, the first good frost really brings home to me the changing of the season.  Today it came with the time change from daylight savings to standard time.  Very appropriate.  Winter is on the way.

My orchid is blooming!

I brought my houseplants in last weekend.  They spend the summer on the front porch each year, and I try to remember to bring them in before the first fall frost.  Most of them live on the baker's rack in the kitchen by the window.  The rest are in the living room.  When I brought them in last weekend, I noticed a lovely new shoot on the orchid.  Yesterday there was a flower scape with three buds.  Today--beautiful flowers!

I used to know what kind of orchid this is, but the label faded and so did my memory... I've had it for at least ten years.  It blooms most years, always in the fall after it comes inside.

For the record, no frost yet, though we've had a few nights in the low forties.  Our usual frost date is around October 20, so any day now I'm expecting to wake up to a sparkly white lawn.

Food Web

This is an indoor story.  About critters and not plants.  Crickets, in fact.  I hate them.  They invade the garage in the late summer, and occasionally find their way into the basement.  But not for long.  The day AFTER we dusted and vacuumed, I noticed a small spider web in the corner, between the last step and the basement floor, right in front of the door to the garage.  So I told myself I needed to get the broom and take care of it.  As soon as I got upstairs, of course, I completely forgot about it.  Next day, repeat.  The next day, however, there were cricket parts on the floor below the web.  Ha!  So Charlotte has a home in my basement as long as she wants.

Magic Lily

Once again, my garden has surprised me.  Every year I forget about the magic lilies, which, I suppose, is the whole point.  All of a sudden, one day in late August or early September, there are lilies blooming in the front bed and out near the mailbox.  The flowers are not preceded by leaves, which is why they're such a surprise.  If I remember correctly, the leaves will come up after the flowers are gone, which is completely backwards, compared to every other bulb out there.

The lilies were planted by the former owners of our house, in amongst the daffodils.  I've seen them planted with daffodils elsewhere, too, naturalized in a large wooded area in a public park nearby.  This seems like a smart strategy--they bloom at different times, and having them together makes it less likely to dig them up by mistake.  They sometimes end up traveling together--I think I managed to plant some in the front bed when I separated and moved the daffodils from around the mailbox.

They're a nice development, since the garden is looking somewhat exhausted at this time of year.  It's been mercilessly hot and humid all summer, with very little rain.  These lilies are a welcome sign of life and energy right now.