Happy Holidays!!!
/Lights and good food…wishing a joyous season and happy new year for all (enjoying old Christmas cards too even though we don’t send or receive them anymore)!
Our Missouri Yard – December 2025
/December had started off with some very cold days with low temperatures in the 20s or teens at night and barely getting above 50 on 3 days (other days the high was in the 40s). Almost all the trees had lost their leaves abruptly in November when we had some very cold days. As I walked around the yard taking pictures for this post, I found myself searching for color and interesting textures.
The Virginia Creeper that had been so beautiful in previous falls (red leaves) had either died back or retained the color for only a few days. Some of the vines retained their leaves – but they are brown rather than bright red.
The crape myrtles have interesting seed pods. I am going to cut them all back when there is a day above 50….they will look better next year if I do. One of them is tall enough to brush against the eve of the house so that one is the priority to get cut. The other one to tackle is the one that has a Callery Pear (wild form of the Bradford Pear) growing with it. The red leaves are the pear so I can (hopefully) cut it very close to the ground.
The bed near our front door has some color – bushes that are bright yellow (that need to be trimmed) and some plants that haven’t succumbed to cold temperatures yet because they are protected. The Japanese Maple in the corner has lost its leaves and may be dying; that corner has not worked well for that small tree.
The places where I put the bark mulch from our last tree trimming are holding up well. I will pull weeds from them and plant new plants into some of them next spring. The one under the Kousa dogwood mulch needs some native ground cover planted there…and maybe some of the lower branches cut.
There are seed heads on the lambs ear and goldenrod and chives…hopefully I will have more of those plants next year.
Our backyard is fenced and I am planting to not mow until early summer - leave the leaves. A lot of the leaves are from our neighbor’s oak and probably contain overwintering insects. The birds will appreciate the bounty – food for their chicks next spring. I am noticing that the circle where the pine needles are falling is enlarged than last year. I will be mowing less of the side yard next year! My long-term plan for the side yard a mowed path….not much grass at all…native plants filling in on both sides of the path (and maybe the path itself which might change from year to year.
The bed where we removed a pine tree that fell over is more exposed that most of our beds. The plants there had frost. The small cluster of American beautyberry (Callicarpa americana) fruit is a pop of color. Hopefully next year the beautyberry will begin to grow more rapidly and become the dominate plant in the bed at some point. I will probably allow a native tree that comes up (bird or squirrel planted)…whichever one shows up first: oak, redbud, or hackberry.
On the west side of the house there is a clover pillow that seems greener than the area around it. Maybe the grass growing there is greener with the extra nitrogen the clover provides in the soil! The witch hazel is still small but I am hopeful I might see a few blooms next year. It is a Missouri native – Ozark Witch Hazel (Hamamelis vernalis) which blooms in January/February.
I am watching the forecast for warmer day to get some cleanup done….and to put down a thick layer of mulch for my new bed that will be planting into next spring. My daughter will be getting more mulch when she has her oak trimmed.
Very Cold Weather
/Last week we had snow and some very cold days with temperatures in the single digits (on both sides of 0 degrees Fahrenheit. Fortunately we had been paying attention to the forecast and could simple stay indoors for 3 days!
I took some pictures through the window on the second morning. There was still snow caught in the holly trees around our bird feeders…and there was enough breeze to move our wind chimes. Later in the day most of the snow had been knocked out of the trees.
In the afternoon, I opened the door to our deck for a few seconds to get a picture of the chairs with snow drifts. The wind was still redistributing the snow; when the sun was out, it looked like there was glitter in the air.
I bundled up and went out to assess our driveway…no melting even though the sun had been out for most of the morning. The temperatures were too low.
I shoveled about a third of our driveway before a neighbor came home and walked over to ask if I wanted him to use his snow blower on the rest of it. Yes!!! He said he had gone to Kansas City to buy it a last month and I am now thinking we might need to do something like that too!
Zooming – February 2025
/There seems to be more going on this winter than usual. Most of the pictures I selected to represent February were taken within a 100-mile radius of home in Nixa MO…except for a few at the Josey Ranch ponds in Carrollton TX. There were some warm days…and some snow. Some of the bulbs are coming up --- growing slowing in the still frigid temperatures that keep coming. Enjoy the February slideshow!
Our Missouri Yard – February 2025
/It was a warm day in February when I took a walk around my backyard. I wasn’t in the mood to do any work…but I did mentally begin to make a list. The yew branches I scattered over some bare soil in my wildflower garden when I trimmed the bushes last fall are still green! I thought they would be rotten by now. The other green is Japanese Honeysuckle which I need to get to pull and dig so it won’t take over the area. There is a small eastern red cedar that has come up at the edge of the bed and I will dig it up to plant elsewhere in the yard to increase the privacy of our back patio and deck. Perhaps my aromatic sumac is large enough to make seeds this year.
There are iris coming up in the mulch from last year’s irises and violets. They look fresh and green. In years past they have weathered the late frosts of winter and gone on to bloom. Hopefully that will happen this year too.
There was a feather among the leaves near the small spicebush I planted last fall. There was only one feather so maybe it wasn’t the remnants of a predator’s meal. I have high hopes that the spicebush with thrive and grow a lot over the next summer. That side yard has pawpaw and persimmon and buckeye seeds planted…will be quite the patch of understory trees if they all come up. Right now the daffodils are beginning to come up…a first sign of spring.
In the other side yard, the Ozark witch-hazel is bare. Hopefully it will grow a lot this next summer…but it still might not bloom for a few more years; the normal bloom time is January/February. The irises I planted from my parents’ garden are up along the fence. I’m not sure if they will bloom this year or not.
My plan to gradually reduce the amount that will need to be mowed in the summer seems to be working!
Our Missouri Neighborhood – February 2025
/We had a day in the upper 60s in February!!! It was a great day to walk around the neighborhood. The beds planted with native wildflowers at the edge of the pond are new – a next-step in the project to put more natives in the shallow water and along the edge of the pond. The water plants were done first and surrounded my wire mesh to protect them until they are established. This second phase was cardboard covered my mulch and planted with native wildflowers…mostly coneflowers based on the labels I could see.
The turtles were enjoying the sunshine and warmth. There was a group on the small island – primarily facing the bank. All except one slid into the water as I got closer.
There was one on the opposite bank – a little higher out of the water….looking out over the pond. Perhaps it was a different kind of turtle?
I saw a pair of mallards in an area with some downed branches. The female was alert as I neared…but male stayed asleep. There have been ducklings on the pond for the last two years, but the turtles have gotten them. I wondered if the pair I saw was the same as in years past and if they will try again this year. Based on the number of turtles I saw (and their size), I think our pond is probably not be a good place for ducklings.
Frozen Cranberries
/The cranberries I froze back in November and December are enhancing my winter meals. I like the flavor and color they add! Here are a few of my recent cranberry additions…
I processed frozen cranberries into bits to fold into oatmeal cookies; I liked the tang of the cranberries as a change from raisins. My husband surprised me by liking them as well since he usually says he wants plain oatmeal cookies – no raisins or nuts.
I processed frozen cranberries into bits to fold into oatmeal cookies; I liked the tang of the cranberries as a change from raisins. My husband surprised me by liking them as well since he usually says he wants plain oatmeal cookies – no raisins or nuts.
Cranberries also are great in spicy soups. The one I have enjoyed most recently was one I made with left over taco meat. I cooked arugula and cranberries before adding the left-over meat. The cranberries split as they cook…and can we squished…no need to process them beforehand.
Cranberries are always good with any chicken or turkey dish…probably because of the priming from Thanksgiving meals over the years.
…. I am savoring the supply I still have in the freezer.
Sustaining Elder Care – January 2025
/Bad weather in Dallas caused my sisters to be unable to visit my dad for several days; it was a milestone for us. We were all glad that the assisted living staff had anticipated the travel challenges and adjusted so that they were never short-staffed. The residents could simply enjoy the snow (and ice) through the windows…without disruption of their usual routines.
This time of year, we are always a little concerned about winter ailments – colds, flu, etc. When we visit, we mask if we think we have been exposed to anything…and stay away if we are sick ourselves. Dad was not feeling well one morning – which always puts us on high alert - but seemed to bounce back later in the day; the vaccinations and his immune system seem to be helping him stay healthy.
The 300-piece puzzles are still something we do with him…and walking…and just sitting with him. He has never been a very talkative person and now he often seems to just want to sit in silence, enjoying the companionship of a visitor but not needing to talk.
Making Hot Chocolate
/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.
Frost Patterns
/On one of the mornings I had an early Physical Therapy appointment, the temperature was in the teens and sunny. When I parked, I noticed the car parked next to me had frost on all its non-vertical surfaces. I couldn’t resist taking a few pictures with my phone!
A little magnification made the variations in the crystals more visible. Some looked like feathers, others like brittle stars from the sea. In some places the crystals had become so dense that they became an aggregate. The sun was beginning to melt some of the crystals; I thought about why some areas were melting and others were not.
A few seconds of photography and I hurried into the building feeling grateful for the little bit of creative time – one of my favorite ways to start the day.
Patterns in the Snow
/A few days after photographing the snow activity around the patio, it was a little warmer (in the teens) and the sun was out. I ventured out at mid-morning to look around the yard and neighborhood. I noticed tracks in the snow. Squirrel?
My real objective was to walk patterns on the untracked snow of the tennis courts. It was my first attempt…and a learning experience.
I had chosen 2 simple patterns from my Zentangle experiences. The free form curves worked better than the “straight” lines.
The contrast between shadows and bright sunlight played havoc with my line of sight. The poles at the ends of the net worked well but the other corners were more nebulous.
Even though I tried to retrace each line at least twice, additional retracing would have made the lines more solid. Maybe wearing snowshoes would make that easier although I am not quite ready to make the purchase (yet).
The tennis courts are an optimal surface to walk patterns in the snow – flat and with ‘posts’ for orientation.
The snow was a good depth…2-3 inches.
It was cold enough (teens) that there had been no melting.
After I finished on the tennis courts I walked along the path a bit – made arches away from tracks made by others. Some had melted through to the asphalt. On the bridge over the channel into the ponds, there had been more traffic and the snow had fallen between the planks.
My winter gear kept me warm enough (down filled coat with hood, tube scarf over my head under the hood, mask, snow pants, hiking boots with wool socks, battery powered heat in my gloves). But I was ready to head indoors!
Snowy Day on our Patio
/The birds were very active at our feeders recently with the temperature in the single digits (Fahrenheit) and the wind blowing up to 16 miles per hour! Multiple perches were in use much of the time. The house finches were the most numerous but there were sparrows (white-crowned) and a woodpecker (hairy?) and a female Northern Cardinal too. It was quite a feeding frenzy!
I was taking pictures through an office window with a screen so the pictures have a softened focus. Sometimes birds were still enough for portraits (female finch, male woodpecker, white crowned sparrow, cardinal).
I attempted a picture of sparrow through vegetation….and liked the artsy veil that the automatic focus produced with the challenge.
Of course, there were other items catching snow around our patio – the chiminea, the holly trees, the gnarled vine to the side of the stairs to the deck, a paver near the almost covered lambs ear, fall leaves in the bottom of the wagon. I stepped outside to take these pictures….and all the birds flew away!
The birds returned within minutes of my exit from the patio back to the warmth of my office.
Snowflakes
/It has been a few years since I posted about my attempts to photograph snowflakes. My recent attempt was my first in Missouri…and not a great success…more a learning experience. It was a bitterly cold day (in the single digits). It was snowing at a good rate…small flakes. I used the same materials I had in years past: red glass plate, magnifying lens clipped onto my phone, external clicker to take the pictures. I hadn’t realized the low temperature and the deck/patio being on the north (versus southwest) of the house would have on how cold I felt! The images are tantalizing but I was too cold to spend more time to get the flakes more isolated.
The better location in our Missouri house for snowflake photography will be the garage which opens to the south. It would be a good place to have my set up and be out of the wind. I might even set up an LED light underneath my plate! It’s only January; surely there will be more opportunities for snowflake photography this winter.
My previous snowflake macro photography attempts:
Feb. 2021 (and a second post…third post)
March 2014 (and a second post)
Staying Warm in Winter
/We had some very cold weather recently…prompting us to implement our strategies for staying comfortable.
Staying indoors is the primary strategy. We do things like closing insulating drapes and blinds…opening them if the sun is shining through the window. Opening or closing vents to help the heating system do its job. Small sources of heat like candles or halogen lamps are also something I am conscious of in the winter. They don’t do much, but I like the extra bright light and the glow of candles on a winter night. Maybe the extra warmth is purely psychological!
Warm food also helps. My winter favorites are:
Hot tea or milk (with water) to drink.
Homemade soups. They are so easy with bouillon for the broth then veggies and meats. Right now, I am doing a lot with pumpkin puree that I cooked/froze last November and frozen cranberries. I rely on my spice cabinet…or use salsa as one of the ingredients. Leftover meats or canned chicken or quinoa are my favorite proteins in soup. My favorite toppings are fried onions or pumpkin seeds. Another strategy for a winter soup: a well-seasoned spaghetti sauce from a jar, added sausage bits, and arugula. You could still eat it over pasta…but I usually eat it as soup these days.
Stir fry. I like chicken, bell pepper and onions a lot….then add whatever other veggies I have in the crisper or freezer. I am still savoring the flavor of cranberries with chicken – adding frozen ones from last fall to stir fries. I also like apple and raisins cooked in butter for a winter dessert. I generally make enough stir fry for a second meal – very quick heated up in the microwave.
Meat loaf. It’s not a bad thing to cook in the oven in the winter…no reason to not put a little extra heat into the house. Still – I try to fill the oven when I do. There is generally a baked potato for my husband (I enjoy the skin!) in with the meatloaf…and I usually cook a pumpkin custard or some cookies as well!
Clothing is important too.
We keep our house warm but not too warm. We wear jeans, sweaters/sweatshirts, and wool socks with shoes indoors during the winter.
Being outdoors can be a challenge but we both enjoy winter walks/birding. Over the past few years we’ve ramped up our gear.
My coat is filled with down and styled to reduce air leaks. It works beautifully for my head and body.
We both have snow pants that we bought them large enough to go over leggings/skinny jeans. They keep our legs very warm.
Wool socks help keep feet warm.
Our hiking boots keep our feet warm enough if we are moving. If we anticipate that we will be standing or sitting for very long outdoors (i.e. sometimes this happens when birding), we add foot warmers to the bottom of our boots.
A tube scarf works well for me to cover my head and neck. The hood of my coat goes over it and keeps my head very warm.
We’ve discovered that the masks we have for COVID help keep our lower face and noses warm! We haven’t invested in goggles yet!
Gloves are still a work in progress. We have some battery powered ones that work OK…not excellent. Prior to that we used hand warmers in the palm of gloves. That worked OK but fingers still were cold when not wrapped around the warmer…and the outer part of the hand got none of the warmth. Mittens might work better but it is difficult (or impossible) to use a camera with mittens.
Overall – we’ve been comfortable this winter even when the temperature outside was below 0 degrees Fahrenheit recently.
Our Icy Neighborhood Pond
/
I ventured outdoors on a sunny morning with the temperature in the teens; I wanted to see what the ice on the pond looked like at closer range than the windows of our house. Along the way I noticed the lingering snow near some rocks leaning up against a retaining wall; they’ve been leaning there since we moved to the neighborhood – maybe it is intentional to make the wall look unfinished? I like the color of the pine needles around the rocks…contrasting with the snow.
Closer to the pond, I photographed a leaf among the remnants of snow and moss/algae in the channel that feeds the pond with run off from the neighborhood. A little further on there was a big wad of oak leaves caught under the small bridge; it would slow the flow during a big rain.
And then there was the pond. Parts of the surface were white with ice…some ice was almost clear. It was hard to tell if there was any open water. There appeared to be some areas that migh have thawed and then refrozen…clear ice between areas of white.
I took zoomed pictures of the surface – noticing twigs where ice accumulated, leaves under the ice.
My favorite picture of the morning was a leaf frozen under some ice with the big frost/snow crystals on its surface.
More Yard Work – January 2024
/The forecast for very cold blustery weather in Missouri had me scurrying to get a few more things done in the yard.
I picked up a pile of sticks from our side yard; they are from our neighbor’s river birch…too small to cause damage but I’d rather not let them accumulate too much. They make good kindling in our chimenea to enable me to burn some of the bigger pieces that have accumulated from other trees.
The rock rose my sister sent home with me is now planted in the corner of the back yard. It will probably get through the frigid cold better being in the ground rather than a pot. There was also a millet seed head in that corner; if both grow next summer that corner should be an interesting new bed…rounding the corner to make mowing easier.
I also planted some iris rhizomes along the fence. I still have more of them in buckets; I put the buckets close to the wall of the house on the patio under the deck and hope they survive to be planted next time the temperate is in the 50s!
Dried hydrangeas
/My daughter let me cut the last three flowers on her Asian hydrangea bush last October (see post here). They lasted a long time in a vase on the windowsill in my office. About the time I headed to Texas in mid-November, I put the flowers into separate vases with no water to enable the flowers to dry.
When I returned home, the flowers were nicely dried with most of the petals still blue! I took some high key images of the best one – where the petals stayed relatively flat rather than wilting/curling.
This is a great way to prolong the flowers of fall into winter. I wonder how long the color will last….
Yard Work – January 2024
/Normally I don’t do much yard work in January but I was away from home for the last mowing of leaves in November so that was my project for the first warmish day after I was back in Missouri; I mowed the areas with thick leaves when the high temperature for the day was less than 50 degrees Fahrenheit. After that I began to worry that there wasn’t going to be a day warm enough to plant some of the bulbs my sister dug up for me from my parents’ yard.
Then it happened. It was in the forties again, but the sun was bright. Before I started my project, I walked around my yard to assess the plants in the flowerbeds. There must have been an early hard freeze because all the crape myrtles have leaves on the stems – no time for them to turn and fall. The same thing might have happened to the rose bushes too. Next spring there might be a lot of dead twigs to cut out of those plants. On the bright side, there were several plants – including the hens and chicks – that appear to be handling the temperatures very well.
I used the wagon to carry the pots of spider lily bulbs around to the front of the house. They were going to become a ‘ruff’ around the base of our two red maples. I had put mulch around the base last spring, so it was relatively easy to dig a rig near the outer edge of the mulch and then plant the bulbs. It only took one pot for each tree; I still have one pot of those bulbs to plant at my daughters.
I hope I get another warmish day to plant the iris rhizomes and a rock rose….but first I need to decide where I am going to plant them!
First Snow of the Winter
/I was home for a bit of snow last week; I don’t know that it was the first of the season overall…but it was the first for me! It started by covering the deck and railing…the cover of the gas grill.
I was hopefully that it would cover the tennis court so I could try out walking a pattern there…but it didn’t stick to the court since the temperatures before the snow had been significantly warmer. I’ll have to wait for another snow event. I used my camera zoom to photograph snow caught in the holly branches.
I celebrated being home for the snow!
Daisy Dells
/A book for children published in 1927…
Rhymes and verses by Clara J. Denton and illustrations by Garnett Cheney, published by Albert Whitman & Co. in Chicago.
I enjoyed the illustrations…thinking about how books for children have changed over the years. The different clothes in the depictions of the children are a sign that these are from an old book, but they still are charming hints at a commonality among childish interests that continue.
Available from Internet Archive.
