Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Art In Nature #14.
Hi everyone on this snowy day! Well, it’s definitely a good day to look at some summer type pics anyway. This week we will look at some seeds produced by trees and plants, something that is important for the plants but they also produce some interesting art in nature as well. I was going to continue our look at berries this week, but I decided to wait and show them along with the flowers in my new wildflower of the day series coming up soon. I just thought it would be good to show the flower and the berry together so that people know what each looks like. I will let you all know exactly when that will be starting so you don’t miss any, for those of you who are interested. Now for today’s art…
In the first pic above we have the seeds from the mountain maple which is an abundant, small maple tree in our area. They only grow to about 15 feet high, so they are more like a shrub than a tree. When the seeds first come out they look like this before drying out later in the summer and fall and turning a light brown color. I think they look quite nice at this stage and add some beautiful summer art.
Then we have the beaked hazelnut in the photo above. These are delicious and nutritious nuts loved by squirrels, chipmunks, blue jays, hairy woodpeckers and others. They do make an interesting natural art picture as well. They are also good for people to eat if you can get to them first, which isn’t easy. The fuzzy hairs can sometimes irritate skin however.
Now, the photo above I can’t remember if I ever used it before, however, we have it again if I did. It is the seeds of a water loving grassy plant, common down by our river’s edge. They really do produce a lot of fuzzy seeds on top which I think look very beautiful. A wonderful addition to our art in nature. Considering all the seeds they produce, it’s not an overly common plant. I don’t know the name of this one unfortunately. Have a wonderful day everyone and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2021 Steve McLeod.
Coffee Time #99. More Snow And Other Things.
Good morning everyone! And welcome back to winter! It actually feels like winter never left us, and yet I know we did have some beautiful spring days for a while. Now it’s all white again. But we have lots of hot coffee to enjoy while we relax a bit this morning. Yesterday we ended up with a little over an inch (3cm) of snow, which is not much, but it did make things white as you can see in the pics. Most of that snow was gone by evening, which was good for all the little birds that had returned from the south, like the juncos which had become quite abundant. And robins, flickers and grackles. All those birds rely on bare ground to find food. Then it snowed some more overnight. There was 2 inches (5cm) on my deck and 3 inches (7.5cm) on the ground.
So I went down and cleared the snow in some spots and spread seeds for all the little birds. Where did they all go? Only one junco showed up, and two grackles. There was easily a hundred juncos around before the snow and a dozen grackles. But there was a lone robin chirping cheerfully in a tree, letting us all know that spring will return again. And if the forecast is right, that should be Thursday. On the plus side, I haven’t seen the bears around since the colder weather hit. Maybe they went back to bed. That’s okay, whatever the reason not having them around right now makes things easier for me. The chickadees are still busy and the white-breasted nuthatches, and yesterday the two purple finches were here as well. The squirrels were busy yesterday, haven’t seen them today though.
I think my chipmunks have gone back to bed as well, they haven’t been around. Don’t blame them, running around the snow in bare feet would not be fun at all. I didn’t see any blue jays yesterday, but Baxter was here this morning picking up some peanuts to bring back to Betty who is likely sitting on the nest trying to keep her eggs warm. But Baxter is good, he’ll make sure she gets lots of nutritious food. Chickadees and nuthatches should be nesting now too, but they nest inside trees so it should be a bit warmer and more cozy for them in this weather. Hmm, I was going to tell about something else this morning too and here I go wandering around again instead. Oh well, I’ll save it for tomorrow now instead. It is something quite funny with one chipmunk and 3 squirrels. These chipmunks really do think. Have a wonderful day everyone and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2021 Steve McLeod.
