Carver's Sight or is that Site

Today's Flowers: One for my Home Garden Records

2012-01-29T05:08:00.000-05:00

The white camellia in my front yard has one bloom open already which has never happened this early.

All the other buds on the bush are thankfully still fairly small and closed.

Although my neighbor's red camellia was starting to bloom way ahead of schedule, I thought my white camellias would be safe until at least the end of February. After I shot this bloom it was freezing cold that night and the blossom froze and turned brown.

Click for the home of Today's Flowers.

Both Saturday Photohunts: Dark and Fluffy

2012-01-27T05:57:00.003-05:00

Dark

Fluffy

My next door neighbor's cat Black Jack is very Dark and Fluffy.

The second shot is one I took of him on my deck before I started keeping my back fence shut so the cats wouldn't annoy the backyard birds.

The cat below is also dark and fluffy but I can't remember his or her name.

I sure do have a lot of dark and fluffy cats visiting me, particularly since my city has an ordinance against people letting their cats roam. Click for Sandy's Fluffy Photohunt and/or click here for Gattina's Dark Photohunt.

Nature Notes: Down side of mixed up seasons

2012-01-24T17:10:00.005-05:00

The down side of the way our weather is so mixed up this year, with lots of spring like days as well as winter ones, is that the flowers are totally confused.

The helleborus (lenten rose) above is always among the first to bloom in the early spring but not in the middle of winter.

The narcissus are also popping through the leaves.

Usually in the spring when the narcissus pop up I start moving the leaves away, but this year having them emerge in winter they need more not less protection.

Hopefully we are having enough freezing cold weather scattered in between the premature spring like weather to keep the birds from mating too early.

I'm not hearing the calls that I associate more with mating season. I'm sure day length is a factor in birds mating which should prevent that happening too soon.

I am worried about the spring flowers. I have a feeling that early spring blossoms will be a loss this year.

We can have a hard freeze through mid to late April where I live, and often have March flowers that do alright with a mix of weather.

However, it seems like some of the spring flowers are getting ready to bloom MUCH too soon this year.

I would even prefer to have it stay cold for awhile before it warms up again but there's no telling what will happen.

I certainly do seem to talk about the weather a lot.

I used to think of talking about the weather as boring but in reality weather affects all of nature so much, including human beasts.

I apologize for how blurry some of the bird shots are but it has been so overcast and they have been rather animated. Click for the home of nature notes.