Photohunters: Curved

The photohunters theme this week is curved. I thought I'd select curved forms from nature as well as man made ones.

The wings of the bird in flight are curved and the wall surrounding the fountain below is curved.

The limbs on the tree below are curved. Late fall and winter is a good time to see the curved limbs once the leaves have fallen off.

The parking deck stairs below are curved. I'm afraid that I'll take the elevator and avoid the curved stairs.

Below is another tree with curved limbs. I love winter trees so much I decided to show you two.

The fountain below is curved which isn't surprising since the wall surrounding it in the earlier shot was curved.

Please visit the home of the hunt where participants post beginning Saturday morning.

Nature Notes: December begins with a walk

I thought since we are beginning a new month, I would use my nature notes post this week to show you a walk I took on the first day of December.

Almost all of the trees in the triangle area of North Carolina where I live have given up the last of their leaves with a few exceptions.

I was surprised to see so much color in the tree above. With some checking I think I've identified it as a Pond Cypress and apparently they tend to keep autumn color later than other trees.

I'm not positive of the identity of the water birds above. Since they seemed to be deep in conversation, I didn't ask. I thought it was nice of the wood ducks to let the Canadian goose join it for ring around the roses or rather ring around the rock.

The grass is still very green although the tall grasses I love were mowed.

I've mentioned this before, but I enjoy how I can get different views of the lake once the trees drop their leaves. Areas that used to be hard to see through have a clear view.

I think these are canna lillies below and they are a little sad being so tall but winter brown. I actually like the way tall grasses and leaves from trees look brown but I don't think it's as good of a look on plants like the ones below.

I like the way these leggy plants below are still red. I think they are some type of bush growing wild in the wooded area.

The shot below is kind of dark but I liked the reflection so I'll end with this shot from my walk on the first day of December, 2009.

For other participants, please visit the home of Nature Notes and Signs of the Season.

Today's Flower: Camellia blossom way ahead of schedule

I couldn't believe it when I spotted a full bloom on this camellia bush last week. This bush normally starts setting its buds in late fall/winter but the blooms wait for early March. It looked so odd to spot one full bloom on an otherwise resting bush. I'm glad I took the picture before Friday night's frost.

Please visit the home of Today's Flowers for other paricipants.

Photohunters: Technology

The photohunters theme this week is technology. Motricity develops and provides mobile technology. They have offices in Durham, NC at the historic American Tobacco Campus. After the big tobacco companies left Durham, their historic buildings were converted for new mixed use, including businesses, retail, restaurants, arts centers, and apartments.

Construction technology was employed to create a river which runs through the campus. Beginning at the old train tracks and loading docks the water descends to the courtyards and has a number of layers and waterfalls.

The UNC public radio station is housed in the campus and technology makes it possible for the radio programs to be broadcast not only on conventional radios but also on the internet.

Digital camera technology and the internet brings you this post. For other participants, please visit the home of photohunters.

Nature notes and Green Thinker Award

Rambling Woods the host of Nature Notes and Signs of the Season, has kindly created a Green Thinker Award. I appreciated her mentioning my blog with others who visit Rambling Woods and who she's presenting this award to.

She asked that we post about how we try to take care of the planet by living green, when we accept the award. I have decided to combine that post with my nature notes post this week. I'm even earlier than usual with my nature notes because I wanted to go ahead and write the combo post.

To be honest, at this point in my life a lot of what I do in my own home suits my lack of energy as well as the environment. I've been an organic gardener for a long time, and still am, but it's a lot less active at this point. By that I only mean that I recycle leaves, and organic refuse back into my garden but rather than spend a lot of time turning and sifting compost, chopping leaves, etc., I let the leaves break down where they sit.

I do rake up some leaves and put them where I have paths and don't want grass and weeds to grow, and in the spring I will rake them away from bulbs and areas where I want the spring flowers to emerge, but it's a low key effort and depends on strength and how I'm feeling.

The first photo was take this week of my nandina berries. The second shot was taken today from my neighbors sidewalk showing how my nandina hedge provides privacy for my back garden. The two shots above are small areas in my front garden where the leaves are falling in suitable spots with no help from me.

I have a lot of overgrown bushes which provide privacy but also provide homes and shelter for a wide variety of birds. The shot above was taken today of one of my many enormous azaleas. The shot below is of the same azalea from last spring. I get color in the spring and the birds get homes.

On the other side of the same azaleas (also a spring shot) you can see how it provides one side of the privacy screening. Joining the azaleas at a right angle is the nandina hedge pictured in earlier shots.

Below is the seed head from echanasia (purple cone flower) and I shot that today. I let flowers go to seed and leave the seed heads up until the birds have gotten what they want. They always leave enough for new flowers to come up in the spring.

The shot below was taken today and shows about 24 hours worth of leaves in my driveway as I raked yesterday. The leaves all go back into my garden. The bushes at the bottom of my driveway always have nests in the spring and new babies.

The shot below is of the same bushes but was taken in the spring. I was standing in the street facing my house instead of standing at the top of the driveway shooting down like I did in the shot above.

In the shot below (spring of course), I'm facing across my front yard and you can see one of my smaller azaleas (white) which also provides a home for birds.

I think I'll stick with spring for the rest of this post and show more of my bushes/bird homes. I also have nesting boxes which are always used but the overgrown bushes are the mansions.

I used to grow most of my fresh produce in my back garden and used mostly compost from my composting heap for fertilizer. I don't have the energy for the kind of gardening I used to do. The good news is sometimes thinking green means doing less. Less pruning, less watering, less chopping down, can result in a suitable habitat for wildlife and humans alike.

Please visit the home of Nature Note, Signs of the Season, and Green Thinkers for other participants as well as interesting posts with good information for green thinkers and nature lovers.