Today's Flowers: Imaginary Flowers of Winter

No flowers from earth for me to shoot after the cold blast of winter but there are lots of imaginary ones. Jack Frost painted starflowers on my windshield.

I think the frozen lake looks like a field of tiny white wildflowers at certain spots.

The Christmas balls in the tree appear to be sticking around to provide colorful flowers for cold January days.

The dried fruit of the sweet gum tree below are more winter flowers. At least they are in my imagination which can turn fruit, frost, and frozen flights of fancy into flowers.

The tiny buds on a bush below may be the closest to flowers in reality but I'll be surprised if they can actually survive for the remaining months of winter.

For other participants, please visit the home of Today's Flowers.

Photohunters: Bulky

The photohunters theme this week is bulky. I thought I'd show you the bulky jacket I was wearing one cold winter morning, this week, while attempting to give the back yard birds some fresh water.

I had not intended to show you the increasingly bulky me wearing the bulky jacket. However, since I was making such a fabulous fashion statement while tending to the bird bath on my deck, I decided what the heck. Below is the bulky woman behind this blog. Good thing my deck has a privacy wall or I might scare the neighbors in my hot pink long underwear.

Please visit the home of the hunt where participants post their links beginning on Saturday.

Nature Notes: First 5 days of 2010

I love the crunchy sound of frosty earth beneath my feet.

I love the way shoe prints from days past are frozen in place.

Amazing how winter artwork can show up in old bird bath water held by the breath of cold air.

I love to spot emerald jewels on the bank, ready for me to grab them but wait a minute they moved. They have orange webbed feet beneath.

I spy a line of diamonds on top of the water. Why don't they sink?

Who knew diamonds could fly up to the blue and cloudy sky above.

Then down again to glide slightly above the water. The diamond has wings.

Now for a bow with arms held out in a balletic pose.

At home a squirrel is reminding me that the backyard gang needs fresh water.

A little bird watches patiently above as I thaw out the birdbaths enough to dump more ice for winter pictures, and add fresh water.

A hawk in the neighbor's tree is patient while I take it's picuture, staying totally still.

Here ends my whimsical or perhaps merely silly nature notes for the beginning of a new year.

Today's Flowers: Camellia for a day

I hope everyone's New Year is off to a good beginning. New Year's Day was moderate so I decided to investigate and see if any more of the premature camellia buds had opened. Sure enough there was one which lasted less than 24 hours before a freezing cold New Year's night zapped it. The bloom was protected well inside the bush but even so, it is after all January so not surprising it had a short life.

Friday was our last day above freezing for the weekend, and I'm already worried about whether the camellia buds will slow down enough to survive winter. They are supposed to set their buds in the winter and bloom in the early spring. However, they do best when the buds are still tiny at the beginning of the year.

I'm a little more optimistic about the white camellias (above) than the red. The white ones seem a little big for this time of year but are at least tightly closed. Most of the red ones are already exposing their tips and two or three really jumped the gun and bloomed in the fall and winter.

I think a mild fall and fairly moderate early winter is the problem. Also considering the fact that for the next few weeks the lows will be in the low 20s F (- 6.6 celcius) and maybe some teens F (- 12.2 celcius), I'm afraid I'll lose a lot of camellias long before time to bloom in early March because the buds are so big already.

The pansies which were doing well with a few very cold nights but mostly mild days have finally given in to the cold. I feel lucky though to have spotted some blooms to start a new year, even if they are all frozen now.

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

Photohunters: Lick

First off, HAPPY NEW YEAR ! ! ! The photohunters theme this week is lick. Unfortunately, in this day and age we know you aren't supposed to lick the spoon if it has raw eggs in the mix.

Sometimes I wonder how we all seemed to survive our childhoods way back when we did lick the spoon with raw eggs in the mixture. I received brownies in a jar for Christmas. The jar is filled with decadent ingredient and all you do is add eggs and butter. It was hard to resist licking the spoon but I resisted.

After the brownies baked in the oven and I cut them into squares, I did lick the knife just for this post, but I will spare you a shot with my tongue. Even if I could have taken the shot it would have been gross.

Photohunters post at TNChick's Home Site on Saturdays.