Saturday, December 12, 2015

wherein I don't talk about work


With my nose to the grindstone the last several weeks my posts have mostly been about the progress of my work but other things have been happening in my world at the same time.

The cold weather that dipped down into the low 30s for a couple of nights after Thanksgiving finally triggered the ginkgo trees and they have been yellow torches for the past week. This morning though, the ground was solid with yellow leaves and the rest are steadily falling.


The tallows, those that aren't already leafless like the ones in my yard, have also come out in colors.


My three grandgirls spent the weekend after Thanksgiving here and we went around to our usual favorite shops and I scored 5 glass drawer knobs ( I had previously found three glass bar drawer pulls). I also finally bought these three small hand painted nut or candy dishes (3 1/2") that I have been mooning over for months. I figure each grandgirl will get one when the time comes to divvy up my stuff.


Last year, 2014, I saw almost no butterflies and bees were scarce as well. This past summer, and currently, I am seeing many more, bees seem abundant and butterflies are, if not abundant, present and best of all, I have been seeing monarchs this fall. Not a lot, but a few. I do have more food plants for them now which I have been working on in several spots and the other day I saw four big caterpillars, then just three, then the others were gone also. I've found one chrysalis so the rest are around here as well.


We had three or four days of overcast and drizzle, what I gather people in the NW call 'rain', and a few days later these weird black mushrooms were coming up over at the shop.


Sunday, after the open house, I put Minnie on a long rope and putzed around in the yard all day. We're having some very mild weather, a sort of Indian summer, and so the weather was perfect for it. I repotted a few cuttings into larger pots and dug up the daffodil bulbs from where they were being crowded out, a chore I had been meaning to do for months, to replant them in a better spot. I didn't think they would have sprouted yet but as you can see, they have. They aren't the only early spring bloomers that are getting started; the bluebonnets, the baby-blue-eyes, the early iris, the little red lilies, the evening primrose are all sprouting and gearing up for early spring.



And Thursday night's sunset was one of those rare nights when not just the western sky is pink and orange but the north and the south as well and the very air is pink.






8 comments:

  1. Our weather continues silly, too. A year ago we'd had 18" of snow in November; this year temps seldom dip below 40. We had a very open winter one year in the nineties; I hope this year's even stonger El Nino produces another one. I'll put up with the mosquitos next year.
    Beautiful sunset.

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  2. Everything here is so confused. The ashe magnolia is already putting out bud as is the Buckeye. Plants that should be leafless and dead-looking are putting out new green. My friend Lon's winter greens bolted and he had to pull them.
    Just so weird.

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  3. beautiful skies. those inkspot mushrooms are so weird. :) love your candy dishes.

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  4. Those candy dishes are warm and inviting. They remind me of painted shades on vintage lamps from the thirties.

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  5. Lovely dishes. Sounds like you found some great finds.those girls sound like they enjoy a lot of things you do.

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  6. Ah, there's part of the answer. Those thirty degree temperatures certainly helped with those glorious ginkgos -- and the tallows, too. As I recall, we haven't made it below 40 yet. It makes a difference.

    I've never seen anything like those mushrooms. They're truly strange. I had some pretty ones a few years ago that were the color of lemon chiffon pie. They looked good enough to eat -- but of course I didn't.

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  7. I've just now found your blog, Ellen. I am gobsmacked at your talent and the commitment you put into your art. It really shows in the final results. Just beautiful!

    We have those funny little black mushrooms in our yard here in Portland, too. They look a little strange out there in all that green but it's kind of nice to see something that upsets the norm. (I think those picture things are fun, mine was sandwiches!)

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  8. Ooh lovely sunset!! We're finally HOME after all of our travels...

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