A new year is always a chance to begin anew and
do it better this time. May 2015 bring you joy,
peace, good health and all good things.
Happy New Year!
This is an eclectic blog in which I discuss whatever in the world happens to be on my mind today.
January - American Goldfinches were everywhere in the garden and at the feeders, still dressed in their winter drab. |
February - The leucojums, one of my favorite spring bulbs, were blooming. |
March - I saw and photographed my first Giant Swallowtail butterfly of the year in the garden. |
April - Many of the amaryllises were in blossom. |
May - The Eastern Bluebirds were already busy with their first family of chicks for the year. The first of three. |
June - The Echinaceas were in full flower. |
July - Dragonflies in many colors were everywhere! They filled the air of the garden in the late afternoons. |
August - The beautyberries were already ripening and the Northern Mockingbirds had already found them. |
September - The first of the Rufous Hummingbirds had returned and were happily feeding on the Hamelia blossoms. |
October - One of my favorite backyard visitors was this little green treefrog. |
November - The Whooping Cranes were returning to Aransas National Wildlife Refuge on the Gulf Coast, their winter home. |
December - The Christmas cactus was in bloom, right on time. |
A colorful male Mallard at rest on the calm waters of a pond. Mallards are among the many species of ducks that frequent our area in winter. |
I often see them visiting the late blooms that still hang on in the garden here in late December. |
You can just see them tucked in among the pine needles here. They remained there for at least an hour. |
Not only were they taking a walk on the fence, but the pellets of poop were proof they had been there for a while. |
I wondered if perhaps they were looking for a place to pupate, although they did not look quite fully grown. |
And so the Shortest Day came and the year died
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.
They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen;
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive.
And when the new year’s sunshine blazed awake
They shouted, revelling.
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
Echoing behind us – listen!
All the long echoes, sing the same delight,
This Shortest Day,
As promise wakens in the sleeping land:
They carol, feast, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends,
And hope for peace.
And now so do we, here, now,
This year and every year.
Welcome Yule!
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I always look forward to seeing that first waxwing in the fall. I know I say this about all my backyard birds, but they really are one of my favorites. |
"He loves her," said Jane, with a tone of admonishment. "That's how he can stand her."And love is at the center of these tales. The love of husbands for wives and wives for husbands, parents for children and children for parents, love between friends, and love between strangers. Love, however silent or poorly expressed, rules these lives.
Olive finished the doughnut, wiped the sugar from her fingers, sat back, and said, "You're starving."
The girl didn't move, only said, "Uh - duh."A perceptive woman to see that we are, indeed, all starving for something and we try to fill our emptiness in different ways, whether with doughnuts or sex or music or walks by the river.
"I'm starving, too," Olive said. The girl looked over at her. "I am," Olive said. "Why do you think I eat every doughnut in sight?"
"You're not starving," Nina said with disgust.
"Sure I am. We all are."
"Wow," Nina said, quietly. "Heavy."
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At night, even the Mediterranean geckos have been out once again, patrolling the ceilings of my front and back entry porches. |
The loquat tree has been in bloom all month. I dug this seedling from my daughter's garden six years ago and planted it here. This is the first year that it has bloomed. |
The ever-blooming azaleas are still...well, ever-blooming. |
As are the cyclamen, of course. |
And the violas. |
The 'Radazz' Knockout roses are in bloom again, just in time for Christmas. |
And several of these late-blooming brugmansia blossoms are still hanging on. |
There's the Christmas cactus. |
And the bromeliad. |