Happy St. Patrick's Day!

 

"Shamrock" made from a salal leaf. A good idea from Florists' Review.

Storm's A-Comin'

Well, here we go again. Storm's coming and we're stocking up on 18th-century heating technology, just in case. And that's not half of what I hauled back to the homestead. Wood is heavy.

 

The Flower Lady's been busy, too. Classes have begun!

If you think this looks Monet-ish, you're right! The FL and her class were inspired by the Philadelphia Flower Show theme, "Articulture." As you know, Monet said he owed being an artist to his love of flowers.

 

A little something for a co-worker expecting a baby boy.

 

The Flower Lady's been cooking up a storm, too, practicing "Recipe Fusion," as she calls it. Normally I don't like pictures of food on the Internet, because you never get to eat it. But I got to eat this, so I'm putting it in. The Flower Lady calls it "Cosmic Pie," because of the nine cookie planets ("We still love you, Pluto!") circling the sun.

Okay, there's ten planets there in the picture, so I ate one to make it come out right. Yum!

 

 

 

A Flurry of Creativity

 

Something contemplative.

Cheery yellow for the dining room table.

Requiem for a friend's dead cat.

Perfect, the Flower Lady says, for an evening reception.

Happy Valentine's Day! And....

Happy Valentine's Night!!

The Winter Woods

The Flower Lady made this woodsy arrangement two years ago for an elegant wintertime soiree. Brings to mind wildlife scenes like this one:

A fox pup out in the midwinter sun.

The Flower Lady found a sunny window and started some wildlife of her own.

 

And she made this woodland bulb bowl to remind us all that spring will come!

Bird Blogging

Hey, how do you work this thing?

The Flower Lady added some cracked corn to our little bird feeder, and this is what we got-- a flicker decided to drop in and have at it.

Maybe it's the snowy backdrop, or maybe the lack of leafy cover, but the birds' plumage often seems more intense in winter. It's not bad doing bird-watching from the comfort of a cozy kitchen, either. I was inspired to look through the photo archives, and found our feathered friends figure quite prominently therein.

Our usual patrons at the feeder are the snowbirds. They start to appear here in the fall. Down by the creek:

Purple martins at Longwood.

And the Flower Lady snapped these in Cape May:

This is a relatively rare species in NJ. I've forgotten what it is, but an excited, knowledgeable-looking nature lover intimated we were privileged to see it, so we had to get a picture. 

I feel more confident in identifying this one as an Eastern Red-headed Woodpecker. Or is it a downy woodpecker? I forget.

Red wings and red buds.

Red in tooth and claw.

And another entry in the Large Winged Creature Category:

Enjoy the winged world around you!

Winter Wonderland

The creek hasn't frozen over completely in about ten years, but it's getting pretty close now. The weatherman snarkily remarked that we should get up to 32 degrees, "for an hour or so," on Saturday; otherwise, it's the deep freeze. So we'll get some extra Triple Soul Cows in before the Olympics start.

I wasted my snow day looking for a lost credit card. I'm pretty sure it's in the house, but I just cancelled it just to be sure. The Flower Lady said it will turn up as soon as I did that, so any minute now....I did find my Blockbuster card, though.

Perhaps you can tell I'm not in a great mood. Let's end on a cheery note: a different shade of white, from a springtime visit to Longwood some time ago.