52 years

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Another wedding anniversary…

January is the month I got married…52 years ago. There were patches of ice on the ground in much of Dallas on the day, but the roads were clear enough that our small ceremony and larger reception at my parents’ house went as planned.

Looking back at the years, I am a little surprised at how many of them there are! We were among the first of our friends to marry and we survived those early years even better than we expected…being in school for most of the first 10 years.

There are so many positive trends that made our marriage easier than most:

Our careers were enjoyable and well-paying --- more than keeping up with inflation (which was a challenge in the 1970s and 1980s).

Every move to a new home was a better house than the last.

Our daughter was born after 16 years of marriage and still brings joy to our lives.

Our medical expenses were never great (always well covered by insurance through our employers and, now, Medicare).

Travel was always within our budget (we now tend to stay in hotels rather than camp as we did in the early years) and has resulted in many new experiences.

The post-career years have been good (so far).

Of course, there were some choices that might not have been the best, but they didn’t have a long-term negative impact. My philosophy all along has been to live in a way that I will have few regrets….and it has served me well.

Shoveling our Driveway and Sidewalk

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After a snow day….

I decided our driveway and sidewalk was not to going clear via melting…shoveling would be required and the sunny afternoon the day after the snow came down was the prime time to do it. Perhaps my physical therapy would help me do more at one time than I would have been able to 6 weeks ago. The temperature was in the low 40s when I bundled up and headed outside.

I could hear the melt water trickling in the downspouts and see it on the driveway closest to the house; having the driveway on the south side of the house means that it gets sun almost all day long which usually means the snow melts fast enough that we don’t need to shovel. The snow on the front yard this time still measured 4 inches even with the melting. The walkway to the front door was snow covered but looking slushy.

I spent about 30 minutes shoveling the path to the front door and most of my side of the driveway…deciding not to push past my comfort level (i.e. put the gains from physical therapy at risk). The pile at the street created by the snowplow was left for the next day!

Snow Day!

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The local school district and university went virtual (rather than closing); it is the ‘new’ response when there is too much snow or ice to travel safely. I opted to cancel my early morning physical therapy appointment since getting out of our neighborhood with 5-6 inches of snow everywhere was not feasible; the snow was still falling too. It was an unexpected day at home to savor.

At first there were things I’d put off doing the previous day…but then I enjoyed a cup of hot chocolate…and opted to make a walk outside to photograph our yard before the wind knocked more of the snow off the trees and horizontal surfaces.

The area we view for our FeederWatch sessions was transformed by the snow. The chiminea had snow inside as well as out! The table and nearby chair was piled with 4-6 inches of snow (I didn’t measure).

I walked toward our back gate and notices a small eastern redcedar that was holding a lot of snow; I plan to transplant it to a better place in our yard next spring.

I opened the gate to walk out onto our neighborhood path and realized that it was too hard to walk without getting snow in my boots (the snow was over the tops of my hiking boots in some places). As I came back to our yard – I took a picture of the fence line with piled snow and took a picture of the back of our house with the snow outlining the deck.

I sat down in one of the chairs that was far enough under the deck to not be snow covered and took a few pictures of the cedars and pines in the snow before the birds returned the feeders. The patio was too snow covered for the birds to move easily so they were coming to the feeders more readily and under plants or furniture/deck where there was not as much snow.

After I went back inside, I took pictures of the snow in our garden stakes: iris, butterfly, spider mum, and peacock.

And then I enjoyed the rest of the day indoor….delaying any shoveling of the driveway of sidewalk until another day.

Making Hot Chocolate

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It’s a cold morning as I write this, and I have just made myself a cup of hot chocolate…a great way to start the day.

I start out with water (about 25% of my cup)…microwave it for 30 seconds…then add a rounded teaspoon of cocoa powder. I enjoy watching the powder melt! The clumps are like little melting icebergs that eventually disappear under the surface.

Then I add milk (about 50% of my cup) and then more water (another 25% of my cup). Most of the time I also add a very light sprinkle of cayenne pepper too – a nod to the way Aztecs made their chocolate drink although they didn’t use milk, and they made their drink at room temperature.

The cup goes back in the microwave for 2.5 minutes.

I’ve gotten used to not adding any sugar at all! I like the flavor with just the milk and cocoa and cayenne. On cold mornings, it is the first calories of the day…but not as many as the traditional hot chocolate or hot chocolate mix packets.

White Oak Seedling

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I planted a white oak acorn last fall and posted about it sprouting last November.  The seedling is doing well on the windowsill of my office – and still had its 4 green leaves. I’ve put some snowmen decorations on each side of it.  The seedling leans a bit toward the light, so I turn it occasionally…and keep it damp. I’m wondering if the leaves will turn and fall at some point. I can’t tell that they’ve grown very much recently; perhaps the roots are more active but it’s difficult to see with the soil.

In February, I have an outreach event about trees and the seedling will be a good prop!

And then in the late spring – when I’m confident there will not be another frost – it will get planted outside somewhere. It will grow up to be a very large tree so I am not sure I should plant it in my yard.

Gleanings of the Week Ending December 28, 2024

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The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

5 New Year’s Resolutions for Your Garden – All 5 are good ideas! I am on my second year of ‘turn an area of turf grass into a native garden.’ If the native trees/shrugs I planted last fall survive…it won’t be hard at all to reduce some turf in 2025. I haven’t used pesticides since we moved to Missouri and we already use electric or hand-powered tools. We have a bird bath. I am not at 70% native plants – yet. That one could be hard although I am going making some progress; I will eliminate a Japanese barberry and forsythia in the spring to make way for more native plantings.

Best of 2024 – Square Meter Prairie Photos – Macro photographs from The Prairie Ecologist.

Scientists Unlock the Secrets of Crocodile Skin and Its Irregular, Mystifying Patterns – Research that discovered that the uniqueness of crocodiles’ head scales is driven from mechanical processes, such as growth rate and skin stiffness, rather than gene expression.

The Case of The Missing Cinders from Yellowstone's Cinder Pool - What happened to the cinders that used to float atop Cinder Pool in the One Hundred Spring Plain area of Norris Geyser Basin? Cinder Pool was one of the few known cinder-producing pools in the world. Using historical water chemistry data, the pH (4.1 ± 0.2) of Cinder Pool was fairly constant from 1947 to 2015, and the sulfate concentration was relatively low (80 ± 20 mg/L). Cinders were last observed in 2018. By April 2019, the pool was lacking cinders and had become significantly more acidic, with the pH dropping to 2.6 and the sulfate concentration increasing to 350 mg/L. Cinders were no longer being generated, and the appearance of the pool changed drastically. Dynamic Yellowstone!

Animals That Turn White in Winter Face a Climate Challenge – There are some snowshoe hares that stay brown during winter…and they may be surviving better in areas that are now getting less snow in the winter. Animals that are adapted to winter by turning white…might find the adaptation a hazard if there is no snow!

Natural disasters killed thousands around the world, caused billions in damage in 2024 - In the United States alone, there have been at least 24 weather-related disasters that caused more than $1 billion in damages each according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Since 1980, the annual average number of events is 8.5. When counting the most recent five years alone -- 2019 through 2023 -- that average increases to 20.4 events per year. The cost of climate change is increasing around the world…impacting everyone.

The global divide between longer life and good health - Life expectancy, or lifespan, increased from 79.2 to 80.7 years in women and from 74.1 to 76.3 years in men between 2000 and 2019, according to WHO estimates. However, the number of years those people were living in good health did not correspondingly increase. The average global gap in lifespan versus healthspan was 9.6 years in 2019, the last year of available statistics. That represents a 13% increase since 2000.

Scientists Just Dissected the World’s Rarest Whale in New Zealand - Only seven spade-toothed whales have ever been identified, and the species has never been seen alive. When a 16-foot, 3,000-pound carcass washed ashore on the South Island of New Zealand in July; it was in remarkably good condition and appeared in a region of New Zealand that allowed researchers to perform the first-ever dissection of the species. The research and dissection process was under the guidance of both scientists and members of local Māori tribes on the South Island. Some discoveries: vestigial teeth, 9 stomach chambers, and head trauma was cause of death.

Interior Department Signed 69 Tribal Co-Stewardship Agreements In 2024 - The agreements cover a range of ways designed to bring tribes into management of public lands. That includes efforts by Interior to expand bison habitat and entering into bison co-management agreements with tribal leaders, shifting historic preservation responsibilities from federal agencies to tribal agencies, carefully weighing the impact of federal agency action on sacred sites, and expanding and reforming self-governance as part of the Practical Reforms and Other Goals to Reinforce the Effectiveness of Self-Governance and Self Determination for Indian Tribes (PROGRESS) Act.

Study likely to change standard of care for deadly strokes - Endovascular therapy, or EVT, -- a minimally invasive surgery performed inside the blood vessels -- is 2 ½ times more likely than standard medical management to achieve a positive outcome after vertebrobasilar stroke that affects the back of the brain, including the brain stem.

2024 in Review – Home

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This is the second post reviewing what happened to me in 2024; this one is focused on my home.

My favorite place is being at home – and I think that is true for my husband as well. The house that we bought a little over 2 years ago suits our needs very well. We have enough room for hobbies we enjoy individually and together.

My husband has enjoyed experimenting with his new telescope from our back yard…pleasantly surprised at what he can photograph even with the amount of extra light from our neighborhood and surrounding suburbs.

My office has windows on 3 sides…all with pleasant views of our back yard. It’s my favorite room of the house and where I create most of my Zentangle tiles, read most of my books, write my blog, and study. Most of my time is at the corner table that contains my Macbook Air and two monitors. I like the mini-kitchen nearby for making popcorn and hot chocolate.

I am beginning to mount some of my Zentangle tiles on old vertical blinds (separated from their frame)…making displays around my office. My mother’s painting of a dogwood flower is in the place I usually put a Christmas wreath; I am leaving the painting there for this year – remembering Thanksgiving – wedding anniversary – Christmas 2024 – which was her last.

We’ve arranged two old rocker recliners that we hadn’t used much since moving from Maryland in front of window for our FeederWatch sessions. The thirty minutes twice a day for 2 consecutive days each week for a ‘count’ has become a new shared endeavor that we both enjoy.

My husband’s office has been tweaked over the past year – a table to support a standing workstation has come and gone. The keyboards/synthesizer have been moved to add the table and then returned to their original spot when his experiment of standing while working at his computer ended (not a success). He has a new monitor – big enough that one is sufficient, and I have his two ‘old’ monitors in my office.

Our three cats enjoy the entirety of the first floor, and we are considering opening up part of the basement to them. They are adept at opening doors with lever knobs; my husband plans to replace 3 lever knobs to keep them out of some parts of the basement….a project for later this month or maybe early 2025.

Previous 2024 in Review posts

Gleanings of the Week Ending December 14, 2024

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The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Unusual Foods People Used to Eat All the Time – Poke (as in pokeweed) salad, turtle soup, cream chipped beef on toast, limburger sandwich, and vinegar pie. I remember my mother serving cream chipped beef on toast in the 1960s. She also served canned chicken or hard-boiled eggs in cream sauce over toast! It was a quick meal in the days before microwaves.

Incredible Winners of the 2024 International Landscape Photographer of the Year – Take a look and pick a favorite. I like the ‘sunrise on the Atacama Desert’….its crisp lines. The lightning and double rainbow over the Grand Canyons is awesome too.

The ancient significance of the date palm - Phonecia translates to the “Land of Palms” in ancient lands, where palm growth and harvesting dates to approximately 5,000 years ago in ancient Mesopotamia, growing along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Date palm trunks and fronds were used as the roof for homes of Akkadians, Sumerians, and Babylonians. Mature palm leaves were made into mats, baskets, screens, and fans.

'One of the greatest conservation success stories': The 1969 mission to save Vermont's wild turkey - Vermont's wild turkeys are a successful restoration story, and one that stood the test of time, unlike elsewhere in the United States where wild turkey numbers are now declining.

Here's how much home prices have risen since 1950 – I bought my first home in 1978…bought subsequent homes in 1983, 1986, 1994, and 2022. I remember the interest rates on mortgages in the 1980s being high (the article says 13.7%) and 1990s (the article says 10.1%). In 2020 the interest rate was low, but we didn’t need a mortgage to purchase our last house! Every house we’ve purchased over the years has been above the median home price (unadjusted).

VA offering 'green burial sections' at national cemeteries – Hopefully ‘green burial’ will become the norm everywhere soon. We don’t need chemicals/embalming fluids leaching into the environment.

When Did People Start Eating Three Meals a Day? - In ancient Roman times, dinner was the one large meal everyone ate, although it was consumed earlier in the day than it is today — sometime around noon. This extended into the Middle Ages in Europe. Laborers often ate a small meal of bread and ale early in the morning before starting a day’s work on the farm. Their main meal of the day, called dinner, was served around noon, and a light snack, known as supper. By the end of the 18th century, many people were eating dinner in the evening after returning home from work. It wasn’t until around 1850 that lunch officially began filling the gap between breakfast and dinner. By the turn of the 20th century, lunch had become a defined meal, typically eaten between 12 p.m. and 2 p.m., and consisting of standard lunch fare even by today’s standards: sandwiches, soups, and salads.

Can we avert the looming food crisis of climate change? - The study integrates key concepts of the dynamics of atmospheric CO2, rising temperatures, human population, and crop yield…and highlights the urgent need to address CO2 emissions to maintain agricultural productivity. It also uncovers a promising strategy to mitigate crop loss caused by climate change: developing crop varieties with a higher temperature tolerance. Next steps for the team involve refining their model to include more variables like insect population, water availability, soil quality, and nutrient levels, which also impact crop yield under climate change.

US Grid Operators Kept the Lights on This Summer with More Solar, Storage, & Wind - In summer 2024, grid operators in all regions maintained enough capacity to keep the lights on during periods of peak demand, even as they retired older generators, and an increasing number of regions used more solar and storage to meet peak demand. Because it is one of the nation’s fastest-growing regions and had near-record peak demand in 2024, the new report concentrates on ERCOT (Electric Reliability Council of Texas) to analyze summer grid operations.

Square Meter Photography Project – Autumn – Macro photography on the prairie.

Our Missouri Yard Before the Killing Frost

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I walked around our yard before the killing frost last week…to capture the colors of late fall. There is not much to do in the yard right now. I am following the ‘leave the leaves’ strategy. The winds swept away most of the leaves in the front yard but there are two drift areas in the back which may thin the grass. I don’t mind at all if that happens. I’ll plant black-eyed susans, cone flowers, golden rod, asters, bee balm, golden alexander, etc. I am inclined to let the pokeweed grow at will since I have seen mockingbirds eat the berries this fall.

There were still a few dandelions in bloom….and insects. The morning I walked around was in the 40s so the insects were not moving very fast.

Of course there was lots of color…including aromatic sumac, a young maple, our Kousa dogwood…as well as other plants that are probably not native.

The seeds of the chives are easily falling out of their husk. The pods on the crape myrtle will probably freeze before the can mature; the plants have died back to the ground every year we have lived in Missouri so far. The big buds on the rhododendron look great and will likely make it through the winter to bloom next spring.

Both the Eastern White Pine and Short Leaf Pines are doing well in our back yard – pokeweed growing underneath them. There is also a small Eastern Redcedar that has come up in my wildflower bed; I’m thinking about where to move it next spring…maybe to the area where I planted a button bush…which a squirrel promptly clipped to the ground.

My husband got the barn swallow nests removed from under our deck. We succeeded in not letting them build a nest on the brick of our house last summer…but they found a place on the deck supports and we didn’t notice soon enough.

Our maples in the front yard have lost their leaves. Our neighbor’s river birch has also lost its leaves and it looks like there is a squirrels nest in the tree. The oak in our neighbor’s yard (a pin oak) still has a lot of leaves but seemingly has dropped a lot as well; most of the leaves in our back yard are from that tree.

Even though the drought of the summer made the fall not as brilliantly colored, fall lingered lingered…and the transition to winter was worth noticing.

Ten Little Celebrations – November 2024

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Our area finally is getting some rain. We have been celebrating the rainy days after being very dry for months. We got above the annual average rainfall for the month before mid-November. Of course – there was a lot more to celebrate during the month as well.

 Stems for bees in a bucket…and a small turtle. The yard and neighborhood are making the transition to winter…with lots of leaves flying and the tender leaves of the violets wilting. I celebrated starting a project with stems in a bucket (hopefully becoming a good place for native bees to nest) and seeing a small red-eared slider on a branch in our neighborhood pond.

Friends of the Library. I volunteered twice during the month – sorting/boxing used books at two libraries in the county where I live; the next sale is in the spring. Celebrating the opportunity to contribute to the book availability in my community!

Harris’s sparrow seen during our first FeederWatch observations. My husband and I saw a ‘new to us’ sparrow during our first FeederWatch session! It didn’t appear in subsequent weeks so perhaps it was migrating through. Springfield is on the edge of this sparrow’s winter range…well within the migration area.

Soft peppermints. Peppermint is my favorite winter candy flavor…and the soft ones have become my favorite this year – either eaten or dissolved in a cup of hot tea!

Brilliant red Virginia Creeper. I’ve let the Virginia Creeper become the ground cover of my front flowerbed…and celebrated its brilliant red color this month.

Valley Water Mill for a second day. Celebrating the discovery of a favorite outdoor place near Springfield.

McDaniel Park. The last field session of my Identifying Woody Plants class…celebrating a city park with lots of trees.

Accumulating 40 Missouri Master Naturalist hours. The Missouri Master Naturalist training was over at the end of October which qualified me as an ‘intern’ until I accumulated 40 volunteer hours. I celebrated that I crossed that threshold by the end of November!

Seek app identification (the bug on the Rose of Sharon pods). The Seek app can be very helpful. I forgot to use it in the field (at McDaniel Park) but remembered when I got home…celebrated that I had a ‘good enough’ picture for the app to make a good identification: Hibiscus Scentless Plant Bug.

Thanksgiving. Celebrating the day….and the reminder of all that is positive for us right now….that being grateful is easy.

Zooming – November 2024

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The zooming images for November are mostly a celebration of fall in our area of Missouri. There are a few animals in the group that could have happened at other times – a robin bathing in a stream, a grackle at our feeder, and a small red-eared slider in our neighborhood pond.

Can you find the poison ivy seeds (hint…they are white), the glorious fall Virginia creeper, a chestnut husk, 4 kinds of oak, and a maple?

I enjoyed searching out little bits of nature to photograph…fill frame…using my camera to ‘see’ better than I do with just my eyes. My camera’s optics are the great enabler!

Thanksgiving

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I am thinking of Thanksgiving ahead of time – planning a quite holiday with family with activities planned before and after:

  • The holiday light display is open for Friends of the Garden the Monday before Thanksgiving…so we will enjoy our first walk through of the season unless the weather is wet. I missed seeing them at all in 2023 because I was in Dallas for the later part of the year.

  • I am not a black Friday shopper…but enjoy being outdoors (maybe working off some of the calories from the day before). Our November has been relatively mild…good hiking weather.

There is also plenty in my life to be thankful for right now:

  • My dad is comfortable at his assisted living home; my sisters and I are able to visit him frequently.

  • I have finished my Missouri Master Naturalist training, and the volunteering opportunities seem to be coming along as I expected. There is much to learn and do even during the winter.

  • The Identifying Woody Plants class at Missouri State is about over…and I thoroughly enjoyed the field trips – learned a lot about great outdoor places close to where I live.

  • Our home is snug – ready for winter…the sprinkler system winterized and the heating system checked.

  • Both cars are performing well. Both have been used for road trips recently. My husband and I both appreciate the driver’s aids on modern cars when we make longer drives.

  • The fall has been prolonged by the milder temperatures. The color might have been muted from less rain in the summer, but the length of the display made up for that.

  • Internet Archive is back online. I missed it a lot while it was down and realize how much I savor browsing through its digitized old books; many of them are not available otherwise.

Life is good….

A Walk in our Neighborhood – November 2024

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A lot of the leaves have fallen; the oaks are holding on the longest. As I walked around our neighborhood ponds, I took leaf arrangement pictures – on pine needles, in shallow water, in deeper water, and on the path.

I noticed a pine that had dropped cones near the path and picked up a few for my sister to use for a craft project with her grandson.

There are still some green water plants that the community is trying to establish at the edge of the pond. We haven’t had a killing frost yet. I hope they come back stronger and more numerous next year.

There was a very small red eared slider on a branch above the water….on the other end of the pond I saw a large snapping turtle – too far under the water to get a good picture.

The day was in the 60s and sunny – the aeration on the pond created a rainbow.

It was not a long walk; I should make the circuit more often.

Project FeederWatch

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My husband signed us up for Project FeederWatch and we are counting our feeder birds together – 2 days a week, an AM and PM time each day for a total of 2 hours. We have comfy chairs situated at a large window and leave our binoculars within reach. I do the logging into the app on my phone as we observe – no paper involved at all. This is the view from our window. I moved the chairs from around the table before our latest count. It’s a very calming activity. I usually have a cup of hot tea at my elbow.

We’ve had several rainy days. The light was poor enough that we opted to take the screens off the window (no bird strikes there so far). It made photography a little easier too.

A squirrel has come through may times while we’ve counted; it only stopped at a feeder once (didn’t manage to get anything) since there were plenty of acorns around and it’s the squirrel’s time of year to bury them!

The most numerous birds are sparrows (white throated and white crowned) and finches (gold and house). There are a couple of juncos but we had more last year so maybe they have not all arrived in our area yet from their breeding areas to the north. There are occasional titmice, chickadees, and a red-bellied woodpecker. The grackles are also occasional….they are too big to get much from our feeders; one or two come around to try but don’t stay long fortunately.

Our holly tree has berries, but we haven’t had any hard frosts yet…haven’t seen any birds eating the berries.

Our Missouri Yard – November 2024

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We haven’t had any extremely cold weather yet. Some trees have lost their leaves but not the oaks. We already are well above the monthly average for rainfall so are recovering somewhat from the drought through the summer and fall…just as we are bracing for winter.

The violets are reduced in volume but still mostly green. They have been a great plant for extending the flower beds on the east side of our house into the yard (I have several feet of ‘grass’ that is so thick with violets that I haven’t mowed it for at least two months!).

I have an area that is full of pine needles and clippings (grass, boxwood, yew) that I will plant with hostas next spring – as soon as my established clumps of hostas begin to sprout and can be easily divided. The rhododendron looks great…lots of buds for next spring’s blooms. The grapevine that I’ve draped over the stubble of a crape myrtle is turning yellow. I’m not sure what I will do with it next year. I don’t want it growing into the rhododendron but there is not a lot of space where it can go otherwise.

The seeds are falling out of the chives. These plants were started a few years ago from seeds I got from my mother’s garden. There is an oak seedling growing in the lambs ear. The closest oak tree is a pin oak, but the squirrels might plant acorns from further afield. The parent of a maple seedling might be one of the maples in our front yard…although it is on the other side of the house from where this seedling is growing.

The spicebush that I bought and planted about a month ago is showing some fall color…hope it comes back in the spring.

It is obvious we haven’t had a hard freeze yet this year. There are ‘intimate landscapes’ with fall colors everywhere.

I am trying to ‘leave the leaves’ this year rather than mow them. There were two piles that had been created by the wind in my front yard so I gathered them up into the wheelbarrow to move to my compost spot where the hostas will go. Otherwise I am leaving the scattering of leaves on the yard. I might have to move some oak leaves that fall into our yard once our neighbor’s tree drops its leaves. Overall, the wind had done most of the ‘raking’ of leaves either away from my yard or into areas where they can stay.

The Virginia creeper on the west side of the house has already lost its leaves but the plants near our front door are spectacularly red.

The aromatic sumac has lots of buds. I hope it makes seed clusters next season.

The Ozark witch hazel is probably too small to bloom in January but hopefully it will in a few years. I found a small tree growing under the holly trees. The leaves are rough…maybe a hackberry? I am going to leave it be for now…just as I am all the redbud seedlings!

I still have work to do before it gets too cold: pulling/digging out Japanese honeysuckle primarily.

Sprouting an Acorn

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I picked up some acorns back in September – pin oak (neighbor’s oak) and white oak (from Identifying Wood Plants field trip). Some of each were wrapped in damp paper towels to sprout. Only one sprouted! It was a white oak which was not too surprising since they are known for sprouting in the fall (didn’t learn this until I had the acorns in the damp paper towels).

The sprouted acorn is now in a modified soft drink bottle with some soil…in the window of my office. The pictures below show the young white oak over the past 7 days.

The plan is to keep it indoors through the winter and plant it outdoors after the last frost next spring. It could be the only white oak in the neighborhood!

Next Spring Dreaming

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I have been doing some seed planting this fall…dreaming of what will come up next spring. There are some areas that I might have to thin in a few years if too many of the seeds grow!

On the east side of the house where I have a patch of volunteer lambs ear taking over a bare spot in the yard, I planted a persimmon seed. If it grows, it would help stabilize the slope on that side of the house.

In the same area that I planted a spicebush (right side of image), I planted 3 pawpaw seeds…visions of a spicebush and pawpaw garden in that corner of our yard.

A little further down in the violets that have grown into the grass…directly out from my favorite office window, I planted two red buckeye seeds…hopefully I got them far enough apart that they could both thrive (I will feel lucky that even one comes up). I used the iris and peacock stakes to mark where I planted them.  I have visions of blooming buckeyes enjoyed by frequently visiting hummingbirds! The American spikenard is closer to the window and I am hoping to propagate it to other shady parts of the yard as well.

In the mound left when the pine tree fell (stump ground), I have a beautyberry that I planted (to the left in the image) and the goldenrod and volunteer asters are still blooming on the right. I planted 3 pawpaw there…so maybe some trees that will come up next spring.

The area that was a dead patch in the yard has recovered somewhat since I stopped mowing it completely and the mole tunnels crisscrossed it. I planted common milkweed seeds and 2 persimmon seeds there. If the milkweed and persimmons come up the patch will become another garden surrounded by yard…eventually merging with the mound left when the pine tree fell.

I planted 2 other persimmon seeds at the end of the retaining wall in an area that is difficult to mow not that far from where I already have fragrant sumac spilling out of the flower bed.

On the west side of the house, I planted some Hopi Sunflower seeds in an already existing bed. The vegetation there holds the moisture well from the sprinkler system. And maybe that same vegetation will keep the squirrels from finding the seeds!

I also planted Hopi Sunflowers toward the back of my wildflower garden (I am letting the stalks from this summer stand since they might be harboring native bee/wasp larvae). I covered my seed plantings with clippings from the yew…to deter squirrels. This area was very dry so I will put up a sprinkler to water it next spring; evidently our sprinkler system does not reach it.

I have started keeping better records of where and when I am planting in my yard….and dreaming that most of it will come up next spring! It will be a step forward in increasing the number of native plants and reducing the amount of yard I mow.

First Frost and a Comet

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The first frost at our house was on 10/16; the low was 29 degrees, but ice crystals only formed on part of our yard…and I went out shortly after sunrise to capture the event. Some of the crystals seemed to outline the leaves (and their holes) while other leaves seemed to be more thoroughly dusted. There were no crystals on taller plants.

The freezing temperature did not last long enough to wilt vegetation. The violets outside my window are still mostly green…with a few yellow leaves. The maples still have most of their leaves. Our area has not had much rain recently so we are anticipating that the fall color might not be as vibrant as usual.

On another outdoors note…we have been viewing Comet Tsuchinshan-Atlas (A3) from our front sidewalk!

Our Missouri Yard – September/October 2024

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The chives have flowered and the seeds are almost mature. I savor these plants at the edges of some of my back yard beds since they are descendants of my mother’s plants; I harvested the seeds from her garden several years ago and will be enjoying them in my garden and in meals for as long as I live in this house.

The poke weed that I didn’t pull up is being eating by something. Maybe I should leave more of it for the insects.

There is a plant blooming in one of the areas I’ve not been mowing…letting the violets grow into the grass. I think it is sweet everlasting – which is native. Maybe I’ll collect the seeds and plant it elsewhere too.

I’ve harvested some of the American Spikenard seeds and planted them in a shady area where they might grow next spring. I would like to establish more of this plant in my yard. It dies back each winter but comes back from the root the following year getting bigger each year.

The shortleaf pine has dropped most of its mature cones but there are still a few in the tree and the terminal buds are a great color contrast to the needles….good photo opportunities!

I bought 4 native shrubs and small trees

And got them planted in my back yard the day after I bought them:

Spicebush – Lindera benzoi

Ozark Witch Hazel – Hamamelis vernalis

Buttonbush – Cephalanthus occidentalis

American Beautyberry – Callicarpa American

Digging the holes for these small plants was harder than I expected – a lot of small rocks and some plastic mesh that is a few inches under the soil surface (the previous owner had the yard sodded and they must have put the mesh down before they put the sod…I am chagrined that there is a plastic pollutant under most of my yard but can’t do anything about it).  

I’ll save the fall foliage pictures for another post!

Some New Native Plants

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This time of year, there are native plant sales at local gardens and nature centers. My daughter and I went to one last week and I got 4 new native plants for my back yard:

Buttonbush – Cephalanthus occidentalis is going in a location to extend a flowerbed out into the backyard and maybe eventually connect to the bed that is in the middle of the yard that I planted where we had a pine tree that fell over and was removed.

Spicebush – Lindera benzoin is going on the east side of the backyard that is shady most of the day and the violets are overflowing the boundaries of the flower bed. I have stopped mowing part of it and the Spicebush will go into that area (I’ve also planted some pawpaw seeds there so the area could be very lush in the future if they come up.

Ozark Witch Hazel – Hamamelis vernalis is going on the southwest side of our back yard where I have stopped mowing. I will have to make a point of walking out into the yard to see it bloom in January!

American Beautyberry – Callicarpa American is going in the bed where the pine tree was removed. It is a lower growing that the button bush so will be a nice layer in the yard from the walking trail on the outside of our fence that leads to the neighborhood ponds….in a few years.

Several of the native plants that I got last year are doing well this year. The goldenrod is blooming and the American spikenard has made seeds that I am scattering in other shady places in my yard where they might grow well. I’ll continue to plant native wildflowers…but with these 4 new ones I probably have most of the bushes that I want to add to my yard.

I am preparing a relatively narrow area between an eastern white pine and the beds on the east side of our patio by making layers of clippings; it will become a leaf pile un a few weeks for the winter. It is very shady there. I have hostas and lambs ear that I will divide in the spring (non-native but I have them already growing in my yard); longer term – I hope the American spikenard seeds come up and that that plant will add an ‘umbrella’ of vegetation.