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.

Ready for Christmas

Wreath. Assorted evergreens with Leyland cedar, winterberry, holly, magnolia, pine cones and Kentucky coffee tree pods.

Salal leaf wreath.

The tree. With Kentucky coffee tree pods instead of garland.

Up top, a dried bird-of-paradise leaf and a dried antherium leaf. Kind of look like angel wings, don't they?

And, of course, the Christmas kale.

 

O Christmas kale,

It's you we hail,

On snowy day,

You bloom away!

 

Merry Merry!

 

On the home front, most of December has looked like this:

Very beautiful, but we haven't had the chance to do much outdoor decorating. For one thing, there are still leaves to be cleaned up under there! But the Flower Lady has finished our front porch wreath. She taught a class at the local arboretum, and they got to use greens fresh cut from a variety of species to make their wreaths. The ladies were all natural, they didn't even use much ribbon! I'll get a picture up when we install it, but what you really need to appreciate it is Smell-o-vision-- it smells fantastic!

 

To close, an unusual piece. Dried roses spray painted, arranged with Key lime stem. The FL made it at Thanksgiving, but I told here it was good for Christmas, too.

Lo, how a rose e'er blooming...