We have been easing into winter with freezing nights and warmer days. I took advantage of one of those warmer days today, with temperatures in the 40's, to work in the yard. There have been a couple of hard freezes that have killed most things in the flower beds and my goal was to clean the beds of the dead plants. During my work, I found little bits of color that surprised me among all of the dried leaves, brown dirt, and gray branches. It's always fun to see what hidden treasures nature has for me when I take the time to do a Second Look.
Here are a few of those surprises I found today.
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| A native ladybug. These are harder to find these days since the invasion of the Asian ladybugs. Our native ladybugs are red while the Asian ones are orange. |
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| A wild snapdragon has managed to survive and bloom. |
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| Part of a butterfly wing was hiding under some mums. |
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| Violet |
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| This forsythia bloom thinks it is spring. |
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| And now that the leaves have fallen from the forsythia bushes, I found this bird's nest. |
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| I think you can find dandelions anytime of the year. |
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| Bright red nandina berries just in time for Christmas. |
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| This ornamental kale survived the freezes. |
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| As did this pansy. If the winter is not too harsh, this pansy should grow again next spring. |
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| The sun is setting earlier and earlier these days. However in just a couple of weeks, the days will be getting longer again. |
What lovely color you found! We have not had a freeze yet and could use some cold to kill some of the buggy critters!
ReplyDeleteI remember when I lived in New Orleans, some years it never got below freezing and it was really buggy. Actually, it was really buggy much of the time. There are definite advantages to cold weather. Here's hoping you have a freeze soon.
DeleteWow... 40 degrees is a warm day? It was 70 here in Denver today. Next week it's supposed to get "cold" - meaning 40s and 50s. I'm wondering if we'll ever get anything resembling winter.
ReplyDeleteAnyhow, I'm fascinated by the ladybug thing. I've actually found a few of them indoors this fall - which is odd. I wonder if they're the native or invader variety. Hmmm... I think some Googling is in order!
They were probably the Asian ones. They like to come indoors to winter and can be quite a nuisance in numbers, so much so, they can line an entire wall. And they kind of stink. I found all of this out by helping my parents at their house and listening to the stories of others. I think there have been fewer of them over the last few years, but I still see more of them than than I do the others. In fact, my rate for spotting red lady bugs is about one a year. That's one reason I was so excited when I saw the one yesterday.
DeleteIt is just a couple of weeks till longer days again, isn't it?! I needed that reminder. I had no idea that there were different types of ladybugs. I'll be looking again next summer to see what we have in our area.
ReplyDeleteI've been trying to frame the depressing darkness we have this year in a more positive mindset to see if that helps my mood. It can't hurt.
DeleteSo many colorful little surprises. I've been unusually busy lately and I needed this reminder to "stop and smell the roses".
ReplyDeleteToday I'll try to get to our outdoor Christmas decorating. Tomorrow we are supposed to get an arctic blast and then the lake-effect snow will start up. Our leaves are finally starting to fall from the trees, so hubby and son have been working to get up some of them--looks like we will be raking and shoveling snow all in the same week.
I used to joke and say that leaves that get covered with snow just disappear. We even watched one year to see if it were true. Alas, the leaves were still there when the snow melted. We still have a yard full of leaves that we didn't get to last weekend. Hopefully they'll all be down by the time we get around to them and we can be done with one big effort.
DeleteI had such a good time working in the yard. I'm glad I did.
I love all of the different shapes, sizes and colors in these photos and learned something about Lady bugs, too.
ReplyDeleteI just take pictures of things that interest me and usually those are simple things of nature. I guess they do come in all shapes and sizes.
DeleteLovely pictures. You found quite a bit of color in the garden; so worth a second look. I didn't know that about the ladybugs (we used to know them as ladybirds). I am wondering what those three cup shaped things are, next to the butterfly wing - they seem to be holding small seed-like things - are they some type of seed pods?
ReplyDeleteI think those are some kind of fungi. I noticed them in the picture after I uploaded it and wondered about them also. However, when I went back outside, I couldn't find them. I do remember other fungi of a similar shape next to the wing, but with no "seeds" inside. If I can get home before dark tomorrow, I'll go look again.
DeleteLOVE these pics. Especially the pansy. What a great way to show the combo of seasons...
ReplyDeleteI have always love pansies and their cousins, violet. Such velvety colors.
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