Winter Garden

Something is growing in my winter garden. It is not plants or anything living. As the water splashes down the waterfall, my winter Ice Garden grows.
Can you see the fern inside the ice?

Everyday the Ice Garden changes.

The shapes become fantastical.

The Ice grows and grows. Now can you find the fern?

Even though it is cold and wintery, I am enjoying my winter garden.

Rocks

We used to go hiking down the dry branch at the farm. It was tricky walking on the rocks.
You could find all sorts of interesting things there.
So I wanted to bring some of the rocks home.

We hired a truck and filled it with rocks.

Now I have a lot of rocks from the dry branch in my yard.
They won't stay here.

I'll find places to put them in the garden.

Wait! One of these things is not a rock!

Do you know what it is?

Last of the Pawpaws

All summer long Jacob counted the pawpaws.
Every morning when we went out to feed the birds he stood under the three pawpaw trees and made sure that there were still 10 pawpaws.
They began to fall in October. First one, then two - hard and green so we put them on the windowsill to ripen.

Granddad saved the seeds after we ate them.
Then one morning two more came down, nice and ripe. Granddad saved the seeds, 10 seeds in each one.

We gathered two in a rush after the first frost and they were a little too ripe. Squishy.
Grandad saved the seeds anyway.
That leaves four pawpaws we didn't eat. Wonder who got them? Maybe 'possum - 'possum likes sweet fruits. Wonder where those seeds will be planted?
Granddad is going to plant his seeds in last year's leaf pile. In the spring we'll see if we have any new baby pawpaw trees.

Fall colors

Out by the barn the tall trees are brilliant with yellow and gold leaves. All along the road the trees have turned bright colors and leaves are flying through the air.

Right outside the kitchen window the sassafras catches your eye. Up close its leaves are red and orange and yellow, with brown spots.

When you look out the window all those colors blend together to make this tree the brightest one around.

A Winter Monarch

Outside the frost has made all the flowers droop. The air is quiet and there are no more butterflies. But inside a butterfly has found my birthday flowers.

Is it a real Monarch?

Or is it a puppet that will help me tell stories about butterflies?

Touch-me-not

In the summer lovely orange flowers hang on the Jewelweed.

They look like little jewels in the sunshine. The hummingbirds hover at each flower to sip its nectar.
But now the flowers are gone and the seeds are ready to pop- and now we don't call it Jewelweed any more.

Now if you touch the seed pods they POP open and the seeds go flying through the air. Where they land a Jewelweed plant will grow next year. After the seeds are sent flying the sides of the seed pod curl up in your fingers as if they were a little animal. Even if you just brush against the leaves and shake the seed pods, it sends seeds flying.

Now you can call this plant "Touch-me-not".

Another Mantis

"Oh Mantis, what big eyes you have!" "All the better to see you with, my dear."You can't fool me, Mantis, you don't belong outside like a real Mantis. You are going to go to school with me to tell stories!

Shelf fungus

I told you that mushrooms were popping up in the back yard. Those mushrooms had a stem and a cap on top.
It's still raining. Mushrooms are still popping up.

Here's a different kind of mushroom:

These mushrooms look as if they are growing straight out of the fallen limb. They don't have separate stems or caps.

Why are they growing there?

They are helping the wood decay.

Mantis

I decided to pull the Virginia Creeper vine off the rails of the deck. I tugged and clipped and ripped. I stuffed the vines down into an old garbage can to carry off for composting. Then something moved on the sage plant next to the railings. It looked like a stick with legs. It turned its tiny head to look at me with its huge eyes. Then I saw another one right where I pulled off the vines. It was pretty well camouflaged before I took off its cover, wasn't it? I'll bet the vines were full of them.
See how it holds its front legs together as if it is praying? That must be why it is called a "Praying" Mantis.
You could also call it a "Preying" Mantis because it is a ferocious predator that eats all sorts of other insects.

Fall Mushrooms

Do you remember the big tree that used to be in our backyard? The one that we had to cut down?

After the rain I noticed something. Just where that tree used to be, mushrooms are popping up.
Some are like jaunty little umbrellas.

This one looks as if it has turned inside out. There is a little pool of water caught in that mushroom cap cup.

I wonder why mushrooms are growing just right there, where the tree used to be? What do you think?

Vanessa cardui

I'm sneaking up on a butterfly. She's landing on the Ironweed.Just hold still while I get a little closer.

There! Now you see her - she's called Painted Lady. Her formal name is Vanessa cardui. You can find her all over the world (except in Antarctica!). I am glad to see her in our backyard too.

The First Leaves Fall

What are those bits of bright red on the ground? No, no, it can't be that leaves are turning already. It is not Fall yet! It is still Summer until next Tuesday.

I guess the Sumac tree didn't look at the calendar.

Seeing things clearly

Aha! This is what I needed to spot which bird is which- New binoculars!

Bird feeder down

Look what I found smashed on the ground.

The whole feeder - the hook - even the entire limb of the tree it was hung on.

Who would have broken off the whole branch?

It must have been one big fat raccoon!

At the Zoo

The flamingos all got together. "Are you all ready?"

one...

two...

three...

Go to sleep, everyone!

Clearing the path

It is a lot of work clearing an overgrown path.Jacob has taken on the path behind the waterfall. Now we call it "Jacob's path"

He found some BIG leaves to cut!

A special rock

Hiking along the creek, Mimi found something special.We were looking for unusual rocks.
This one was really unusual.

Fossils - in a rock the exact shape of the state of Indiana!

Catching crawdads

Nothing is more summer -y than wading in the creek. Look closely - there are little animals in the water.
Click on the picture and you can see the crawdad Sarah caught!

"You never saw..."

Granddad's Dad used to say " You never saw bones up a tree, did you?" So don't worry if an animal seems to be stuck up there - it will come down by itself. Especially cats.

But when Sarah was climbing the Magnolia tree, we did find bones stuck up between two branches!

We found the hip bones of some small animal. Sarah thinks that maybe a predator dragged its prey up into the tree and that is how the bones got up there. What do you think?

Thrill of the Tiny Turtle

Jacob can hardly believe it! He actually caught a tiny baby turtle.
It was so small.

He was very gentle with the baby turtle and carefully set it back beside the pond after we looked it over.

Taming the jungle

It takes a lot of hard work to clear out the garden.Jacob has been cutting and clipping back the weeds.
He discovered that someone was eating the Virginia Creeper.

I wonder what kind of caterpillar this is. What sort of butterfly will it grow up to be?