The Queen of Seaford

Spring has Sprung in South Carolina

2026-04-13T15:40:00.006-04:00

Last week I returned home from a week-long trip, and my garden has exploded with spring blooms and fresh green foliage on the trees. My trip was to the beach and a visit to Brookgreen Garden, more about that in another post. First let's see my favorite views in my garden.

As you come down my driveway you will see six Spirea x vanhoutei in bloom. Beyond is a mature dogwood, Cornus florida. Closer to the house is a fringe tree, Chionanthus retusus. White flowers in many forms dot the driveway.

The view from the front door might be my favorite. The weeping redbud, Cercis canadensis 'Ruby Falls' is just starting to leaf out with its burgundy leaves. A little closer to the door is a Loropetalum chinese 'Purple Pixie' (I got it when I went to my first Fling in Asheville!!). Planted around the loropetalum are Bletilla striata 'Big Bob' and Dianthus- maybe Firewitch?. From left to right beyond the redbud is an unamed Japanese maple, a very large tea olive, Osmanthus fragrans, on the corner of the shed, an unknown Viburnum, a pink dogwood, a burgundy redbud, and another Japanese maple, Acer palmatum 'Butterfly'.

I was happy we got a little bit of rain, love the raindrops on the Dianthus. Their clove fragrance is wonderful!

In the lot where our bee hives are placed are a handful of Paw paws. This is not the Asimina triloba but Asimina parviflora, a small fruited Paw paw. See the tiny flowers?

In the backyard one of the native azaleas is blooming, this one is 'Admiral Semmes'. The deer have not totally eaten this one, thank goodness.

I think this is the first time this Barrenwort has bloomed. Epimedium x rubrum. The Epimedium x vericolor 'Sulphureum' bloomed earlier in March. There is a third one in the woodland garden, somewhere, but it may not be with us any longer.

The Solomon's Seal is up and blooming. I have some native ones that appear every so often, these are not native. Polygonatum odoratum var. pluriflorum 'Variegatum'

The Pieris japonica 'Cavatine' is doing well, at least two of the three. One had a limb fall on it, breaking a third of the shrub apart. The bumble bees love this shrub!

There are three different Serissa foetida in my garden, a double, a single, and a single with variegated leaves. Here are two of them. It is a nice small shrub, semi-evergreen. The blooms are about the size of my thumbnail.

Another Epimedium, Epimedium wushanense 'Caramel' is thriving in my side yard. Love those spidery blooms.

The Red Buckeye, Aesculus pavia, is blooming, making the hummingbirds happy as well as the Hummingbird moths. I brought two seedlings with me from Seaford when we moved here. One is doing better than the other, though both are about ten feet tall.

Finally, Amsonia x 'Seaford Skies' is blooming and it is before I was able to cut back last year's stems, so it will be a little messy this year. Oh well.

This is just a portion of what was open in my garden when I came home. It has been an explosion of spring. I am enjoying every corner of the garden as more and more plants come alive. How's your garden? Are you under snow or well into spring?

Fling, this time in Buffalo!

2026-01-28T21:27:00.000-05:00

Every year when it is time to register for the Fling, I reflect on the first Fling I attended. It was in 2012, in Asheville, NC. I had been blogging since 2008 and followed (*read their blog posts) a number of garden bloggers, many from Texas. I read about the Flings over the years, and hoped that one day I could attend. The first Fling was in Austin, TX.

After we moved to South Carolina in 2010, the first one that was easy for me to go to was Asheville. The garden bloggers I had followed for years were there! I felt a little star struck! Years ago there was a garden blogger website called Blotanical, a collection of garden blogs from around the world. You could zero in on an area, perhaps find fellow bloggers in your town or a favorite place you've visited. It was here I found those Texas bloggers. We had lived in Texas years ago and it was a little connection to a former home. I also found fellow bloggers in my area of Virginia. New friends with common interests, right at my fingertips and my backyard.

Dixon Gallery and Gardens

I tell you this because going to the Fling, now every year since my first (minus COVID years), is getting reacquainted with old friends and finding new ones. The gardens we visit are outstanding, ranging from private gardens of all sizes to public gardens that are bucket-list destinations. Pictured through this post are a small sample of gardens from our Fling last year in Memphis, TN. The year before we were hosted in Tacoma, Washington. Each Fling is hosted by a local gardener. In the early years it was all garden bloggers, and the Fling was called Garden Bloggers Spring Fling.

Note the color contrast with foliage

As social media grew, we, the Fling attendees, grew as well. We now include Instagram posters, YouTubes videographers, podcasters, TikTok-ers, and even those who post garden-related subject matter on Facebook. The name now is just The Fling. The website where you can find posts of past Flings and tempting posts of the upcoming Fling is gardenfling.org

Memphis host's garden

To attend the Fling, you need to have an active garden-related social presence that is at least six months old. Additionally, you should have posted garden-related topics, at least once within the six months before the registration opens.

Memphis Botanical Garden kaleidoscope

Do you want to meet "your people"? At the Fling, you will find garden enthusiasts from far and wide. Over the years, there have been Flingers from the United Kingdom, Australia, Spain, and Canada, in addition to states from coast to coast.

Japanese bridge Memphis Botanical Garden

Interested in the Fling? The destination is Buffalo, NY, a city where the garden walk is known far and wide. It is July 9 - 12. Information on registration can be found here- Buffalo Fling

New Hope Community Garden

Sign up and tour some fabulous gardens with new friends. You can thank me in Buffalo. You will see amazing gardens and make great friends.

Wall art, a nice garden addition

You will dazzled by whimsical garden art, amazed by plantings, and exhilarated by great garden conversation. What are you waiting for? Sign up today!!

Memphis host's garden

Another Dry Creek Bed

2026-01-13T20:38:00.001-05:00

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you may recall that in 2016, we had a dry creek bed installed in the backyard. You can read about the first dry creek bed here. The left side yard, as you face the house, had a lot of run-off from the driveway during heavy rains in the winter. After replacing the sod four times, we decided that another dry creek bed was needed.

As you can see in these first two photos, there was no grass, just bare clay/soil and tree roots that were exposed by erosion. Around our BBQ pad the water was cutting away the soil. We were worried that the water would go under the pad and compromise it.

We hired the same company that did our first dry creek bed. They came and marked the new path of a stone creek bed.

Equipment arrived, and the already-washed-out area was excavated a little deeper. The work went pretty quickly. It is amazing what the correct tools (or machinery) can do to make the job go smoothly. The yard is narrow, and the property line is pretty close, so there's not much room to work. If you look at the bend in the arm of the excavator there is a ribbon hanging on a tree limb. That is the property line!

After the trench was dug, landscape fabric was pinned into place. Next step is the rocks.

Dormant sod was placed next to the rocks and stone steps were placed through the new mulch bed. So far, I have planted some peonies in between the steps and the rock creek bed. You can see in the photo below where the grill is, then look at the following photo, where you see a little of the mulch bed along the downhill side of the concrete pad. From the driveway to where this newly installed creek bed meets the existing one is a drop of elevation of about 15 feet in approximately 75 feet.

I can't wait for the spring for the grass to get green. We are also waiting for some rain to see how well the dry creek bed works.

Views from downhill and uphill to see how nice it looks.

The tail end of the new dry creek bed feeds into the existing one. It will be an effort to keep the leaves out of the creek bed, but not having to reinstall sod year after year will be wonderful!

The view from the deck shows the dry creek bed, the mulch bed, and the gravel path through the garden. Once we have green grass and foliage on the shrubs, I will share a photo that highlights the new addition.

The last three photos of the Photo-a-Day challenge and a wrap-up

2025-12-31T16:29:00.002-05:00

Welcome to the last post of the year, the last of the daily photo challenge, and a little write-up of my thoughts on this year-long challenge.

Day 363-

I have inadvertently had dog hair on many of my posts. We have two long-haired dogs and they shed a lot. With our dining room table open with a leaf in it, the passage between the tree and the table is a little tight. One white dog doesn't seem to mind knocking into the tree to get to the sliding glass door to watch for squirrels or birds. Consequently, her fur is adorning the ends of the branches of the Christmas tree. Last time the vacuum cleaner was out, the branches were vacuumed.

More dog hair

Day 364-

The kids, grandkids, and I took a walk along the shoreline of our lake since the lake level is down for the winter. The wind was blustery, and waves crashed on the sand. Our lake is a man-made lake, so there are remains of trees where there had once been dry land. During the summer this stump is under about four or five feet of water. That is our dock in the background. The little ones had a great time finding shells, rocks, and sticks. They jumped on rocks and had a great time.

Tree stump

Day 365-

I wanted to have a special photo for the closeout of this year-long event. The moon was close to setting as the clock passed the midnight position into the last day of the year. On the left you can see the constellation Orion. It will be a full moon on the 3rd of January. It will also be a Super Moon. If you have a clear night, be sure to check it out.

12:09 AM 12/31/2025

Thoughts on this challenge-

I think my photography has improved a bit over this year. I know I take a lot of photos, but to be critical of subject matter and composition is a work in progress. Almost all of the photos were taken with my cellphone. It isn't a new one, Google Pixel 7- think Pixel 10 is the newest version now. Editing the photos was limited to what the phone app offered. There was one Prisma app photo used of Fiona, my fluffy Border Collie.

There are a few photos that were never taken. I drive by a small cemetery, near the Gnome house, that I kept meaning to stop and get a photo of some of the older headstones. It just didn't happen. Driving up to the airport the other day I saw a field of tall browned grass. Sitting in the field was a black cat, grasses covering up to her shoulders, watching something. The contrast of the shiny black fur and the brown grasses would have been a great photo. I was driving on a rural highway, not a place to stop. Also on the trip to the airport is a row of rusty old tractors. Another missed opportunity for a photo. I did take a few photos of church steeples; there could have been so many more!

I will still look at my immediate surroundings to see if I can get 'that perfect shot', but without the pressure of having to get a photo to share.

I have a link to the entire year's photos. You are welcome to enjoy the whole year. I tried to vary the photos so that it wasn't all flowers or trees or my dogs, but there are a good number of those kinds of photos, it is who I am- a gardener with a camera and dogs.

TheQueenOfSeafordphotos2025 Let me know if you have a favorite or two. Thanks for coming by and seeing all my photos.

Happy New Year to you!!

Photo-a-Day Week 52

2025-12-28T20:30:00.000-05:00

We have reached week 52, but have 3 more days to complete the year's worth of daily photos. We still have kids and grandkids here, so tonight's summary will be brief. Come back Wednesday night for the year's conclusion.

Day 356-

This Christmas stocking has been with us since a year before we got married. This past June, we celebrated our 45th wedding anniversary, so it has been around just a few years. The names of us, our kids, their spouses, their kids, and all of our pets over the years cover this relic. Instead of a wreath on our front door, I like having this on the glass door so you can see both sides of the stocking.

A Stocking for Everyone

Day 357-

In the winter the views of intermittent creeks really stand out through the woods. On some of our warmer days you can hear chorus frogs singing in the wetlands.

Intermittent creek

Day 358-

The late afternoon's sun's ray shine through the woods. Our maple trees keep their leaves long into the winter. The leaves really glow, making for another long angle sunshine photo. The pine needles hang on the branches like tinsel on a Christmas tree.

Backlit Maple leaves

Day 359-

Turning the lights off and leaving the tree lights on a timer makes for a magical look. The lights from the tree reflect off all the windows, making it appear as though we have multiple trees.

Reflections

Day 360-

I know I have shared snails before, but this one being so dark looked different to me. Not sure what happened to its tail end. It is kind of cut up or scarred. Of course there is dog hair on the tail.

How I'm moving OR Snail with Dog Hair

Day 361-

Greenville-Spartanburg airport parking garage. Since I drove to pick up part of the family, I could only grab a photo once at the airport. Good angles and shadows of the parking levels made for a decent photo.

Stairwell

Day 362-

Our three little grands came the day after Christmas and we celebrated once they arrived. When we were at the beach this summer they had cousin crew beach towels, so it was perfect for the kids to have t-shirts for this gathering.

Cousins

Like I said at the top, come back Wednesday for the final installment of the 365-day Photo Challenge.

Photo-a-Day Week 51

2025-12-21T18:54:00.001-05:00

We are so close to the end of the year! My week count is off a little, but the daily numbers are on target. With Christmas in just a few short days, there will be more holiday items in the daily photos. Come along and read more about the photos.

Day 349-

We went to a concert in Honea Path last week, and I wanted to photograph the decorations on Main Street. The concert venue is called Fiddle and Bow, a small former storefront building that hosts intimate concerts. This week was a bluegrass show. Small-town America really does Christmas decorations well!

Honea Path

Day 350-

Another day playing with the dogs in the driveway. It made me laugh when Liebling had the ring caught on her ears. She was ready to run after the other ring, not noticing she still had one on her head.

I did drop it, throw the other one

Day 351-

We had another cold snap, and the water in the ditches froze in an interesting pattern. The curvy patterns caught my eye as I walked Fiona.

Curvy ice

Day 352-

The tree is up and decorated. Millie has found a safe spot to hide from the dogs and check out the ornaments that are within her reach. I chose not to put the icicles on this year, some of Millie's favorite ornaments. She loved to knock them off the tree and scoot them around and tuck them under the edge of the rug. Not this year, sweetie!

Quality control

Day 353-

If you could choose a rotten day to drive an hour to go to Costco, this would have been it. The traffic was crazy when we got up to Greenville, and the crowds were what you would expect right before Christmas. UGH!!

Rainy foggy day

Day 354-

This winter bloomer is one of my favorites. Prunus mume 'Hokkai-bungo' is blooming a little earlier than usual this year. I look for it to be blooming by New Year's Day, but never before Christmas. Our weather has been different than previous years. Some days were a lot colder and others a lot warmer. If you can find a Flowering apricot, they are really nice to have, especially loved by the honey bees.

Flowering apricot

Day 355-

I was spreading some wildflower seeds on our septic drain field and noticed the holly berries on the Possumhaw holly at the corner of the lot. It is a native holly and grows wild in our area. Ilex decidua, like other hollies has male and female flowers on separate plants.

Holly berries

The ones I didn't use-

While riding to Costco, I was taking a lot of rainy, foggy pictures. It was a toss-up whether to use this one or the one I chose.

Here's another picture of the curved ice. Because I was walking Fiona, it was a quick couple of photos. Sadly, this one was blurry. A better view, but blurry, of the curved ice formation.

I got out the kaleidoscope again to capture some Christmas magic. Do you see Santa?

Thanks for reading through another week's worth of photos.

Photo-a-Day Week 50

2025-12-14T14:27:00.000-05:00

We are getting close to the end of the year, and Christmas items are starting to enter my photo array. Hope you have been enjoying the various photos and maybe you would consider doing your own photo-a-day challenge for 2026! It certainly has been an interesting exercise in observing my surroundings and finding something to photograph. Some of the photos are interesting photo techniques, and others are purely subject matter-centered. Let's look at this past week's photos and the also-ran photos.

Day 342-

Lebkuchen tins. I have more than I would like to count. Each and every tin was purchased filled with lebkuchen. I can count seven more from my chair that are visible. Downstairs, there are more- another stack like this one. There are more in the closet with the Christmas decorations. We lived in Germany two times for a total of almost seven years. We like lebkuchen and I LOVE the tins. Each tin is different, a different decoration each year. When the girls were little, they had some of their 'treasures' in a tin, another had their artwork, and others recipes. Some of the tins still have a faint aroma of lebkuchen, that yummy gingerbread cookie from Germany. Our second time in Germany, we lived near Nuremberg, home of Otto Schmitt lebkuchen (these tins are from Otto Schmitt). Starting in October, you could smell the gingerbread in the air as they began the holiday baking.

Lebkuchen

Day 343-

These two items are from my mom's house. The Ruth stained glass window is in the Chevers chapel in the casement at Fort Monroe, Virginia. My mom, along with a number of other ladies from the Chapel of the Centurion at Fort Monroe did the needlepoint chairs for the Chevers chapel. Years later Fort Monroe ended up closing, and they closed the Chevers chapel. Those who worked on the chairs were able to have one. Fort Monroe is now a National Park facility. The Ruth stained glass window has the quote, "Whither thou goest, I will go. Where thou lodgest, I will lodge." A memorial to the Army wife.

Ruth window and Chapel chair

Day 344-

This is a pet peeve of mine. Bills or bank statements that come with an additional page printed with "This page left intentionally blank". Once those words are printed on said page, it is no longer blank.

But is it?

Day 345-

Grocery shopping, looking for products that are gluten-free for when my daughter comes at Christmas. I took a photo of the shelf of breakfast cereal to see if any of these were of interest to her. She passed on these.

Gluten free

Day 346-

After college, one of my friends and I went to Europe with Eurail passes and our backpacks. I bought a couple of pairs of wooden shoes while in the Netherlands. I like having them on the side table in the living room. I also have one of the others that my mom did some tole painting on. I can't remember where it is, will have to look for it one of these days. (not a high priority)

Wood on wood on wood

Day 347-

Our neighborhood book club has a cookie exchange in place of a book discussion in December. Others from in the neighborhood are invited. The group has grown over the years. A few years ago the option of not bringing cookies was offered. I am glad as we are up to baking eight dozen cookies. We share a half a dozen in each baggie or tin. Everyone who brings cookies takes home the same number of cookies they brought. The selection of cookies is always fun to see and sample! This is just some of the cookies, I put some into the red tin with the gold rim- to keep them fresh.

Cookie exchange haul

Day 348-

I got our Christmas cards done and in the mailbox to get mailed. Charlie helped me with addressing them. It was most appreciated as the list grows. Do you still send out cards? I feel like it is a nice way to stay in touch. As the grandkids grow, it is a nice way to share their cute little faces. Our kids don't want them on social media, which I totally understand, so this is my way of being the grandma showing off her little loves.

Christmas greetings

A couple also-ran photos-

Liebling was checking out the front yard, now that the leaves are down, the street is visible. She lets us know if anyone drives or walks by.

She also likes to stare at me, hoping it is time to go out and play. Between her and Fiona, the plea to go out and play is strong.

One of the possible choices was my plant window. I have grow lights to supplement the light from the southern window. Some years, I think about starting my indoor plants over again- that means tossing the leggy, not good-looking plants, and trying something new.

Another sunset photo from a moving vehicle. It wasn't as bright and colorful as the sky, so I decided to use the mailbox full of cards.

Well, two more weeks!! If you decide to try this year-long challenge, let me know. I would love to follow your challenge. See you next week.

Photo-a-Day Week 49

2025-12-07T15:21:00.001-05:00

Another week is in the books! Hope you enjoyed this week's photos. Let's take a closer look at each and see what might not have been selected.

Day 335-

I hope you enjoy live music as much as my husband and I do. It is great to see artists in person and feel the energy of the crowd. This night was standing room only, and we were able to get up to the rail along the left side of the stage. This band is American Aquarium, lots of fun.

Live Music

Day 336-

I love our cabinet pulls; you saw some in a previous day's photo of the day. This door hook is part of the collection. It is a great spot to hang my aprons.

Mustache

Day 337-

I planted a number of Illicium parviflorum 'Florida Sunshine' in the woods and along the driveway. During the summer, even though they are bright yellow, they don't pop in the landscape. In the fall and into the winter, once the other leaves have faded, these yellow leaves shine. The nice thing about the Illicium is that the deer don't like them; the leaves have a strong licorice aroma. Their flowers are small and rather unnoticeable. During the winter, the low angle of the sun finds its way to shine directly on some of these shrubs.

A Couple Spots of Sunshine

Day 338-

This is my cereal bowl, full of plump blueberries. I liked how the milk settled into the recesses of the berry.

Blueberries with Milk

Day 339-

This time of year, I find myself at the post office mailing our family calendars across the country. I put these calendars together every year. All the members of the family have their photo on their birthday date, and each month is a photo of something blooming in my garden. It is fun to see how the little ones grow and change over the years. We currently have two birthday doubles, my grandson and my brother, and my granddaughter and my sister. There's a new member of the family due to be born around the grandson/brother date, so we shall see if that date will have three born on that day!

PO Box

Day 340-

We had a cold blast of weather this week, and it is nice to be able to turn on the gas logs to take the chill off the room. These are vent-free logs, so they do warm up the room nicely.

Cozy

Day 341-

I know many of you have Robins in your gardens, and they aren't a novelty. I noticed a large flock of them in my front yard, high up in the pine trees. They were making a lot of noise, fluttering and calling to each other. If it were springtime and a nest was nearby, I could understand the commotion, but that wasn't the case. I did a photo book of the birds in our neighborhood, but there were no Robins. I have updated the book a few times with newly observed birds, so it might be time to update the book again!

Robin

And the also-rans-

I took a few photos of the band and the stage for the photo of the day- trying to get that perfect shot. The black and white one was kind of flat. The one with the yellow spotlight didn't measure up either.

Driving to the concert I tried using a slow shutter speed and get the lights of traffic. Will try this again in the future.

The day I posted the fireplace, the frozen bird bath caught my eye. Again, it was kind of a meh, not too exciting.

The last one not used was a flock of Canada Geese swimming on the lake. Getting a photo through the trees was not easy. You can see the gray, dismal day. The fireplace photo took the spotlight for that day.

Thus ends another week for my photo a day! Come back again next week.

Photo-a-Day Week 48

2025-11-30T16:17:00.000-05:00

Hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving. Ours was quiet, but we are looking forward to a full house at Christmas. Let's see what we had this past week with the photos.

Day 328-

I bought this planter after one of our Flings. I had seen it in one of the gardens, and I loved it. After a Google search, I found him! I change out the plant material every so often. Currently, there is a pup of a Color Guard Yucca and some 'Angelina' sedum. Our front porch is home to countless Anoles. Seems like every time I take the dogs outside, the first statement out of my mouth is, "Leave the lizards alone!"

I have an Anole on my face

Day 329-

The crescent moon was bright on Monday night. If my ride to bridge had been a few minutes later, I would have taken the photo from my driveway. She was right on time, so I waited until we got to our neighbor's house where we were playing cards. I wasn't sure the photo would come out because as soon as we got out of the car, her motion sensor lights came on. I tucked around the corner of her garage and captured the moon through the branches. It is not easy to photograph a bright moon with a cellphone.

Crescent moon

Day 330-

The rain came, and there were ripples and splashes of water on the deck. Shadows and light are a great way to show off ripples of water.

Ripples

Day 331-

After a light frost, most of the herbaceous plants have disappeared. This little volunteer seemed to appear overnight. The little ray of sunshine made it really glow. I think it is another of the Golden Asters that have been volunteering in this area of the yard. Chrysopsis mariana, a lovely little native plant.

Golden Volunteer

Day 332-

Not sure if this is the first hard frost, but when I finally rolled out of bed, there was still a good bit of frost on the deck. First frost or not, I love the water crystals.

Frosty

Day 333-

There was a lot of bird activity in the side yard, and I decided to get the big camera and zoom in to see who was flitting around from branch to branch. Turned out it was a flock of Eastern Bluebirds. I like how this male Bluebird was staring at me from afar. There were a couple of not chosen photos, check them out below. I love Bluebirds!

What are you looking at?

Day 334-

The bird feeders on the deck attract lots of birds and a few squirrels. The dogs are on alert; unfortunately, they will bark at the birds in addition to barking at the squirrels. Liebling, the German Shepherd didn't used to bark at the birds, but now with Fiona, our Border Collie, there is a lot of barking. We are working on it.

On bird/squirrel alert

Our not chosen photos are as follows-- like I said before, I love Bluebirds!! I just thought the photo of the one looking at the camera was my favorite.

On the frosty morning there was also ice on the top of the hose caddy, where there was once ripples of water.

The skies before the rains and the cold weather were kind of cool. Not used, but still an interesting sky.

This brings us to the end of another week of photos. Leave a comment and let me know what you think. You can comment on Blogger, on Substack, or on Facebook. Thanks for visiting.

Photo-a-Day Week 47

2025-11-23T17:34:00.001-05:00

The days are continuing to grow shorter, the leaves are falling, and my year of a photo a day is drawing to a close. Only five more weeks of photos. Hope you stay with me to the end. Please be thinking about your favorite photo or photos from this challenge. On January 1st next year I will post a link for a slideshow of the entire series.

Let's look at this week's photos.

Day 321-

The front of our property, near the street, is the sunniest part of the garden. I have a couple of varieties of Opuntia sp. Prickly Pear cactus. I like the red seed pods on this one. It is a pass-along plant from my brother in Illinois. This one's blooms are bright yellow with red centers. The other one I have is all yellow.

Opuntia

Day 322-

Nothing is prettier to me than the calm waters of the lake with the reflection of fall colors on the other side. I was quite lucky to capture this image as within two days all the leaves across the lake were gone.

Reflection

Day 323-

I brought the Snake plants inside a few weeks ago. Two of the planters have flower stalks with lots of buds. Some folks tell me they never knew that Dracaena trifasciata, or Mother-in-law's tongue, bloomed. I was a little confused on the botanical name. I thought it was a Sansevieria trifasciata, but apparently the name changed in 2017. (according to my reading in Wikipedia and further reading on the Kew website)

About to bloom

Day 324-

Driving home from Greenville, I had a few items I wanted to try and capture for a photo of the day. This tower is near Hickory Tavern, SC. We always take the back roads, the road less traveled, and enjoy the scenery. Not sure what this tower's job might be. Looks like a lead into an airport, not a cell tower. I will have to look more closely next trip.

Tower

Day 325-

The Camellia sasanquas are blooming now. The C. sasanqua 'Yuletide' is a reliable bloomer. I like that it has the bright yellow anthers for the pollinators to enjoy the pollen available. Some of the Camellias are doubles or more, covering the anthers, providing little to no pollen.

Yuletide

Day 326-

Greenwood, South Carolina, had a number of textile mills. Over the years, most have closed, but Greenwood Mills Harris plant is still operating. There are two water towers near the plant. There is a lot of history throughout South Carolina with the textile mills, the mill villages, and the communities that grew up tied to the Mills.

Water Towers

Day 327-

My Hydrangea quericfolia 'Ruby Slippers,' is really a stunning fall performer. The deer have nibbled down two of the three that I have. I will be more attentive next year with spraying deer repellent. While during the growing season this hydrangea is like any other oakleaf hydrangea, come fall, wow! Its color just pops.

Ruby Slippers

Thanks for visiting once again for this week's round-up. Be sure to come back again next week.

Photo-a-Day Week 46

2025-11-16T19:29:00.001-05:00

Week 46! We are closing in on the end of the year quickly. Here is last week's photos with some rejects and explanations of the photos taken.

Day 314-

We have had a crazy fall, drought conditions, and then a big rainfall and warmer temperatures. My spring-blooming azalea started blooming again in the fall. So I have a little fall color where none was expected.

Mixed up Coral Bells

Day 315-

My husband won this truck and tank set earlier this year. So many others had photos of their veterans on Facebook, I chose to share a fun military vehicle set. At some point, our grandson will get the set, still a little young for now.

Happy Veterans Day

Day 316-

This oak leaf was dangling on a thread of spider web, twisting and turning as the breeze blew. A little portrait filter, blurring the background, and a light adjustment made for a super photo.

Leaf on a spider web thread

Day 317-

We went to another concert, surprise, right? While waiting for the show to start I took a few photos of the lights, the stage, and my surroundings. I liked the two fiddles on the stand best of all. There's another one below, my beer glass with the blue lights behind it. We saw Kelsey Waldon, a Kentucky country/Americana music singer. We saw her at Albino Skunk fest a few years ago and really liked her.

Twin fiddles

Day 318-

My Christmas/Thanksgiving cactuses are getting ready to bloom. Nestled in one of the pots is a little garden gnome that I bought on one of the Garden Flings I went on, though right now I can't remember which one it was, maybe San Francisco?? Or Denver? Or Portland? Who knows, but I like it in my cactus planting.

Pot Gnome

Day 319-

While walking the dog in the late afternoon, I noticed how blue and clear the sky was. The pines, standing in a line, left after the lumber harvest, made a good foreground to set off the blue. Enjoy our sunny day.

Blue Skies

Day 320-

Kind of at a loss for what to get a photo of for the day, I was taking the bird feeders out of our new trash can, where they reside overnight. The raccoons are too destructive to leave the feeders up after dark. I put my Bird Buddy back up with a cage around it to deter the squirrels, the lightweight cage would not hold back Mr. Raccoon. Anyway, the empty can has a nice pattern in the metal, making for a good photo.

Night home for bird feeders

The also-rans- photos thought about using but decided against them-

While going outside after dark, I noticed the leaf with its shadow on the stone wall. It caught my eye but I still felt like the daylight photo was better than this one.

Beer with a backlight of blue. I thought this was going to be "the" shot, but after we got home and I looked through the other photos taken at the concert, I liked the fiddles better.

I shared a number of our Aurora Borealis photos on social media, pretty excited to have the experience AGAIN! Seeing the Northern Lights has always been a bucket list item. To see them twice in South Carolina was amazing. I read we would have more on the following nights, while the reds and greens didn't show, the lights and clouds made for a cool photo.

Late afternoon walks with Fiona are a great time to see low-angle sunlight through the trees. My neighbor has an American Beech in her front yard and this time of year it just glows.

That's all for this week, thanks again for stopping by. Let's see what next week brings!!

Photo-a-Day Week 45

2025-11-09T23:10:00.001-05:00

Sunday is almost over, time to get my post written! I spent a good deal of time outside today, working in the garden, spreading some wildflower seeds to new locations. Removed a good amount of blackberry brambles, though there's a lot more to get rid of. Not sure where the rest of the day went, but here we are, after 10:00 PM, and I am just starting the week's post. Let's get right to it.

Day 307-

Liebling is nine years old and starting to get gray around her muzzle. Her eyes are so expressive. There are times I forget how old she is, if the toys come out of the closet, she is jumping and barking- ready to go out and play.

Sad Eyes

Day 308-

A quick snack of some leftover snacks from bridge. Yogurt-covered pretzels and spicy Sriracha mixed nuts. I made my own mixed nuts with cashews, pecans, almonds, and peanuts. It is a quick and easy recipe. Spicy Sriracha Mixed Nuts a hit in our house!

Spicy and Sweet

Day 309-

Coming back from the doctor's appointment, over hill and dale, we came upon a logistics company, Amplify, a Landstar agent's yard. Charlie worked with Ranger Landstar in Florida for a year in a program Army calls "Training with Industry". Some families have a yellow punchbuggy call out while on a trip, we call out Landstar trucks and trailers. To see a whole yard of trailers was kind of fun.

Landstar

Day 310-

While waiting for the moon to rise on the night of the Super moon, I was able to enjoy the sunset. The best place to view sunsets and moonrises is down on the dock. Our house faces south, and the lake is to the north. East and west views are hidden by the woods. To get clear views, the dock on the lake provides long views.

Sunset on the Lake

Day 311-

Goldenrod blooms have faded into puffy seedheads. I love how the sunlight dances and sparkles on the seeds. Of course, no photo in my garden is complete without a strand of dog hair. Today I scattered some of these seeds in our drain field. Solidago sp.

Goldenrod seedhead

Day 312-

The low angles of the sun make for wonderful photo opportunities. The dogwood along the driveway is in its full fall colors, and the light behind it is something to behold.

Dogwood with Sun

Day 313-

This photo was from a series of a number of photos, trying to get the best angle to show off the tiny mushrooms. I have the "not chosen" ones included with the one I think was the best. A small, tight pinecone with several small mushrooms popping up at each crease caught my eye. I was next to the pollinator garden, hanging a bird feeder in place of the hummingbird feeder (long taken down) when I noticed the pinecone and all its adornments. Do you like the one chosen or those I discarded?

Pinecone with mushrooms

Some not in focus

Again, not the best

Different view, still not my favorite

This brings us to the end of another week of the photo a day. Hope you are still enjoying the variety of photos. We are getting close to the end of the year!

Photo-a-Day Week 44

2025-11-02T19:39:00.001-05:00

Welcome back to another summary of the week's photos. More photos of autumn are included in the collection.

Day 300-

I have three Drift roses bushes near the front door, and they are really reliable bloomers. They are black spot resistant. The variety I have is 'Popcorn'. They will bloom until late November/ December.

Roses

Day 301-

For most of October, we didn't have any rain, then we had four days of rain. There is riprap along the roadway to mitigate erosion, and this day, there was a lot of rainwater rushing downhill along the road. A rapid rushing of water cascading down, into the riprap and through the culverts, into the lake.

Water

Day 302-

Many of my hostas are on the deck, away from the deer and their nibbling. I have some hostas in the garden and before the cold weather came, those hostas looked like celery stalks stuck in the ground.

End of a Season

Day 303-

Our Kmart in town closed several years ago, and a U-Haul storage place and rental facility moved in. The parking lot is sloped, and I was surprised that the storage units were placed so that the front of the unit was not even with the ground.

Storage on an incline

Day 304-

Remember the beautiful roses from a few days ago (see above)? The deer are very hungry. They nibbled almost every rose and rosebud off the shrubs. My poor rose bushes look like Morticia Addams pruned every single stem.

Morticia Addams did my pruning

Day 305-

In the fall we get a lot of spider webs but I think these Funnel weaver spider webs are so interesting. They are a very tight funnels, though I rarely see the spider that makes these.

Funnel weaver spider web

Day 306-

I have a variety of Camellias in the garden. Most of the ones I have are Camellia sasanquas, blooming anytime from September through December. This beauty is Camellia sasanqua 'Ashley Eden'. In the coming weeks, I will be sharing more Camellias. There are lots of pollinators who like these beauties.

Camellia sasanqua 'Ashley Eden'

And now for a few of the not chosen photos-

Possumhaw holly, or Ilex decidua. It is in berry at the corner of my septic drain field.

This is the dogwood that grows along my driveway. The colors of the leaves almost make it look like candy corn. The colors of our fall foliage always makes me happy.

Raindrops on Edgeworthia leaves. The leaves are a little fuzzy and the raindrops sit on the top of the leaf.

Afternoon light shines through the trees along the driveway.

That's all for this week, hope you liked the chosen and not chosen photos. Come back again next week.

Photo-a-Day Week 43

2025-10-26T16:47:00.000-04:00

As I started collecting the photos for this week from my posts, I found I had misnumbered most of the week's photos. I was all excited, I had reached number 300!! It wasn't #300, it was 299. Next week start with 300. Whatever the numeral, we are getting close to the end of the year. It has been an interesting project to get a new photo each day and not use my rather large library of photos from past years. While getting a new photo each day isn't the challenge, it is not to repeat subjects- or at least make them appear new. You will see more than one photo of my pets, but they are doing something different. Hoping to keep you, my audience, interested and coming back for more is the job!

Day 293-

Fiona is an insistent dog, she wants to go out and play all the time! She is a Border Collie and will do her best Border Collie stare to get me to move. Sometimes it works, but not always.

I want to go out and play

Day 294-

This building is on a corner that we pass at least once a week, it is across the street from a gas station that has been redone recently. I don't know anything about the history of this building but am sure there are stories to be found!

Days Gone By

Day 295-

Foggy mornings draw me to try and get a photo of the misty fog and the light of the morning sun, shining through. The fog that rolls across the lake in the morning is also a scene I would like to capture. As we move into the cooler weather, I hope to get a fog on the lake picture.

Foggy morning

Day 296-

This day, I was a little hard pressed to find a subject to photograph.. Turns out a few bananas, a couple of avocados, and an overripe pear were good to capture. The black and white show the shapes and shadows.

Still life in black and white

Day 297-

This week I was getting my houseplants ready to come back in the house from the screened porch and found a couple frogs on the plants. The first one was a Green Tree Frog, I didn't take a photo of it. The second one I came across was this little guy, Cope's Gray Tree Frog. It was chilly, and he wasn't moving very quickly. Once I picked it off the plant to move it into the garden, I expected it would jump off my hand right away. He didn't. I think it was glad to be in my warm hand. I placed it on the branch of the Edgeworthia at the bottom of the deck steps. It was there for a good while before hopping off to a good spot.

Cope's Gray Tree Frog

Day 298-

Driving to our friends' house for dinner, we had glimpses of a sliver of a crescent moon. The sky was beautiful as the sun was setting, giving it the oranges and reds on the horizon.

Crescent moon at sunset

Day 299-

There are a lot of churches in our county. Some with pointed steeples with a cross on top, some, like this one, are brick with a fortressed bell tower. It is the Main Street United Methodist Church. More church steeples to come in the coming weeks.

Methodist

Here are the photos not chosen-

First, our little tree frog. I wanted you to see how little this little frog was. Such a cute little frog. I find the Cope's Gray Tree Frogs every so often. Love their coloring.

An attempt to capture the fog on the lake from the deck. It was not a great representation of the foggy morning.

As Fiona was sitting at the front door, staring at me to go outside, Liebling was just chilling, staring, wondering if we would go and play.

This concludes the review of last week's photos. Please come again! Keep thinking about your favorite photo!

Photo-a-Day Week 42

2025-10-19T20:21:00.000-04:00

Week 42, a few more plant photos than in previous weeks. I did have a choice of several photos on one day, Day 290. Remember to be thinking about which one of the 365 photos is your favorite as the year draws to a close.

Day 286-

Millie came out to the living room area to watch as Charlie adjusted the front door. It wasn't closing properly, and there was a lot of opening and closing of said door. All the animals were interested in what was happening.

Watching from a safe spot

Day 287-

We had a nice, clear, warm/pleasant day, so Charlie decided to stain the deck. He had cleaned it over the previous days. Not a fun job, but needed to be done to protect the wood on the deck.

Staining the Deck

Day 288-

Some of my dogwood trees are starting to show their fall color. This one is also showing the fruit from last year's blooms and the tiny minarets of next year's blooms. Dogwoods, Cornus florida, bloom in the early spring with tiny yellow flowers. The white bracts that surround the flowers are often mistaken for the petals of the flowers.

Last spring and next spring

Day 289-

When I take the dogs outside to play in the morning, many times there is a lone Mourning Dove just sitting very still in the grass. I wasn't sure if it would fly away when I tried to get a photo, but this dove stayed put for a quick photo. Getting a photo of a bird with a cell phone isn't easy, the zoom isn't very long-reaching.

Mourning Dove

Day 290-

Walking through the backyard I was tickled to see one of the Cyclamen was blooming. I have several Cyclamen neapolitanum planted in the wooden area of the garden. I see the leaves but often miss the blooms.

Cyclamen

Day 291-

I am lucky to have a pair of Persimmon trees in our yard. They produce some fruit, though not a lot.

Persimmons, Diospyros virginiana, need two trees, male and female, to bear fruit. The male and female trees in my front yard almost look like a double trunked single tree. The pollinators love the blooms.

Persimmon

Day 292-

Our trees are starting to show their fall colors, and the morning light hitting the leaves makes them shine. The yellow leaves in the photo are one of the many hickories we have in our yard. The sky in the background was dark with rain clouds. We could use the rain, though we were only graced with a small amount. I checked the gauge, 4/100" of rain. First reports were an anticipation of 2/10", and it was an over exaggeration. I will be sharing the side yard foliage over the next few weeks. The lot to the left sold and the new owners are moving ahead with plans to build. The lot line is pretty close to the garden edge, so the look will be changing for sure.

Fall colors with dark skies

The day I found the Cyclamen blooming, I got a few other photos. It was a tough choice between the one chosen and the ones below. Please enjoy Rudbeckia laciniata, a small fern in the crevice of a rock, Calico aster- Symphyotrichum lateriflorum, and a tiny toad. I think the toad is a Fowler's Toad, but not sure.

Would you have chosen differently?

Be sure to subscribe to the posts on Substack. The link to my Substack page is https://janetledebuhr.substack.com/

I hope you are thinking about your favorite one! See you next week.

Photo-a-Day Week 41

2025-10-12T14:53:00.002-04:00

Week 41 seems to have more blooms with butterflies; Fall brings an abundance of these winged beauties. I need to read more about Fritillary butterflies. I have seen some that are quite a bit smaller than the ones I have pictured below.

Day 279-

I noticed this tiny mushroom in the garden and bent down to photograph it. After looking at what I captured I realized there was a small snail on the mushroom. Before the photo, I thought it was a bump on the mushroom. Pays to lean in and look closely!

Snail on Mushroom

Day 280-

The Pineapple Sage, Salvia elegans, blooms in October and it attracts Cloudless Sulphur butterflies. With the sun behind the butterfly, it really glowed.

Cloudless Sulphur on Pineapple Sage

Day 281-

These beauties are Gulf Fritillary butterflies. As I mentioned above, I have seen smaller Fritillary butterflies, and after reading more, I found that there are several Fritillary butterflies in South Carolina. Perhaps the ones I see that are smaller are the Variegated Fritillary. These are enjoying the nectar of the Ironweed that is blooming in the garden.

Fritillary butterflies on Ironweed

Day 282-

We arrived at the grocery store this week to find a fire truck sitting by the entrance. I have no idea if anything was wrong. I tried a few views of the truck to see if I could get a good photo. While I used this one, I had others from which to choose. Still not sure if this was the better choice. One of the other choices is below.

Fire truck at the grocery store

Day 283-

I have had this Encore azalea for years. The deer have pruned it over the years, taking flower buds away with the tasty leaves. For some reason, the deer allowed it to bloom this fall. Encore azalea 'Autumn Twist' blooms twice, once in the spring and then in the fall.

Encore!

Day 284-

We went to a concert in Greenville this week, at the Radio Room. I like the open ceiling where you can see the ductwork and structure supporting the ceiling and lighting throughout the area.

Radio Room

Day 285-

I try to use fewer paper napkins. By the dining room table is a basket full of colorful cloth napkins. When the kids visit, everyone is assigned a color, and that is their napkin for a meal or two. They wash easily and when they are worn out, they make good dusters.

Rainbow Selection

Discarded photos-

I didn't choose the black and white image of the fire truck because I wanted a bit of the color to pop. This filter is from an app called 'Prisma'. Some of the filters are free, and others are behind a paywall. I only use the free ones.

The day I chose the Cloudless Sulphur on Pineapple Sage, I also had this little beauty in the possible photos. It is interesting to see the inner spiral of the snail shell. While not the first choice, worth sharing.

This brings another week to a close. There are only eleven weeks to go! Keep coming back, at the end of the year I would love to hear which were your favorites!

Photo-a-Day Week 40

2025-10-05T19:20:00.001-04:00

Week 40, how about that! It seems that each week is going by quickly. The latter part of the week, we were at our twice-a-year music festival, the Albino Skunk Music Festival. Going to Skunk Fest lends itself to getting some fun photos. Hope you enjoy this week's offering of photos. Remember to subscribe to this blog on Substack. Here's the link- https://janetledebuhr.substack.com/ go to the page and click the subscribe button. The follow.it email subscription is now just sending advertisements and the link to my blog. When I signed up to follow.it, the entire post was in the email, now, none of it is.

Day 272-

About every two weeks, I take apart our robot vacuum, wash the filters, and replace them with dry ones. With two dogs and a cat, we have a lot of hair and dust that is picked up. Buying a second set of filters for both the robot and upright vacuums was a great idea. The drying ones were on the kitchen counter, with the lamp light shining through.

Vacuum guts

Day 273-

I was surprised to see my Bottlebrush blooming. Callistemon viminalis 'Woodlander's Hardy' has been renamed to be Melaleuca viminalis 'Woodlander's Hardy'. It usually blooms in the summer, early summer. The fact that it is blooming now is not usual.

Bottlebrush

Day 274-

If you have been a reader of my blog for a long time, you know I have written about various trees. The Beech tree, Fagus grandifolia, is one on my list. None of the photos I have of the Beech tree includes the nut. These nuts are edible. How many of you remember beechnut gum? While the gum bears the name of the Beech tree, and a logo of a stylized beech tree, it does not contain any part of the tree. This tree is in my neighbor's front yard. I told her the other day that the tree was bearing nuts. She didn't know that it had nuts this year. If you want to read more about an American Beech, here's a link to my post. http://thequeenofseaford.blogspot.com/2010/03/tuesdays-trees-american-beech-fagus.html

Beech Nut

Day 275-

While driving into town, we encountered a traffic backup. You can see a log truck up the line of vehicles. There was road work going on. The intersection roadway was in such bad condition, really glad it was getting fixed. One part of the road was like a washboard. Really bumpy!!!

Traffic in Greenwood

Day 276-

Our first day at Skunk fest, the sky was so blue. There wasn't a cloud in sight, the sun was shining, and the post oak we were sitting under was providing dappled shade. It was a perfect fall day.

Blue Skies

Day 277-

What's more fun than a disco ball? A disco ball with bubbles all around it! The sunlight was hitting the little mirrors but the bubbles really put it over the top.

Bubbles and bling

Day 278-

After you walk through the entrance to the Skunk farm, on your way to where the stage is, you pass a message board (for lack of a better word). This covered board has almost all the posters from the festivals over the years. Hurricane Helene hit the area, and the previous posters were ruined. I am glad there were more to replace those. Each poster is a great memory of past music. We have been going to Albino Skunk Fest for fifteen years, and loved every minute of it.

Skunk history

Not used photos--

Like I said at the top of the post, there were lots of possible photos from which to choose. There are multiple metal lawn chairs around the grounds. This was a sitting area, just behind the message board pictured above.

Rusty metal gears and little mirrors make some interesting mobiles to catch the sunlight.

Nice line-up of chairs, preset for the viewing of the music. Getting photos of rusty chairs is like getting photos of fog, I am drawn to it!

Last photo in the line-up is of the bib of my husband's overalls. Friday was overalls day. I looked around for a good picture of a row of bibs, but only got this one of Charlie's.

Thanks for stopping by again for this past week's photo of the day. Be sure to check out the Substack link.

Photo-a-Day Week 39

2025-09-28T18:39:00.000-04:00

Another week is in the books. We took a quick trip to Nashville to visit our daughter and family. I want to tell you, my faithful readers, that I am going to drop the follow.it email feed. I will continue to post here on my blog site, "The Queen of Seaford," but I will also be posting on Substack. On Substack there is a way to sign up to receive emails of new posts. As I figure it out, I will be sure to post about it here. I won't cancel follow.it quite yet, allowing for an overlap.

So without further delay, let us continue with last week's photos.

Day 265-

In my daughter's neighborhood in Nashville, they go all out for Halloween decorations. Our son-in-law pulled out some of theirs while we were there. The grandkids love it. The younger one was carrying a life-sized skeleton around with him, he's two and a half. Sunrise accentuated the bats and skeleton hanging on the porch.

Spooky Season

Day 266-

Our drive home took us through Chattanooga and Atlanta. Saw a lot of signs for both Rock City and Ruby Falls. I remember the 'See Rock City' advertising on barns. It was an iconic sighting. Met a woman a few weeks ago, and the conversation somehow got to the 'See Rock City' signs along the highways. She had never heard of them. I was dumbfounded. So for those who haven't seen a 'See Rock City' sign for a long time, here you go! They are no longer painted on the roof of barns along the highways but signs of their own, mimicking the barns.

Iconic

Day 267-

The Golden Asters are in full bloom. They are nice native blooms, blooming at the same time as most of the Goldenrods we have popping up. Chrysopsis mariana is the most common one here in South Carolina. Common names are Golden Aster, Maryland Aster, and Maryland Golden-aster. I like the shaft of sunlight hitting the flowers, making them shine.

Golden Aster

Day 268-

This Gnome house is a favorite of so many of us in the neighborhood. I saw activity with the gnomes and thought the owner was just moving them to cut the grass. Next time I drove by, she had set up a yard sale for the gnomes. It is so cute. I'm eager to see what she does next with them.

Yard Sale

Day 269-

Driving home the other night, we finally got a little bit of rain. I think my rain gauge reading was 2/100th of an inch...not much! We did have a few raindrops on the grill of the truck.

Raindrops

Day 270-

While waiting for the show to begin, I took a few photos of the Peace Center, where we were to see Lyle Lovett. He puts on such a great show. By showtime, the seats were all filled. When I bought the tickets the floor seats were already sold out. We were able to get row A, center seats, in the first balcony. Really like the seats.

Peace Center, pre-show

Day 271-

This native flower is such a nice burst of blue color in the fall, where there's a lot of yellows, oranges, and reds. Blue mistflower, Conoclinium coelestinum, is perennial and will spread where it is happy. Mornings are a great time to capture the sunlight sparkling on the blooms.

Blue Mistflower Aglow

That's all for this week. Next week I will include a link to my Substack page.

Photo-a-Day Week 38

2025-09-21T21:20:00.000-04:00

As fall comes, there is a big change in my garden. Orb Weaver spiders and fall colors on the deciduous trees and shrubs.

Day 258-

Large spider webs in the garden appear in the fall. The Orb Weavers put their webs up at night and generally take them down in the morning. That's a lot of work each and every night! This one was quite large, the circle was probably about two feet across. It was also across the middle of the yard, so the spider had to secure its web from the Magnolia tree to the right and the house on the left.

Spider Season

The color version of this photo wasn't as impressive as the black and white one.

Day 259-

I have multiple Oakleaf hydrangeas in the yard. Three of them are in the front yard, they are Hydrangea quercifolia 'Ruby Slippers'. They really live up to their name in the fall. Their fall color is so vibrant, it really pops in the garden. The dog hair is an added bonus!

Ruby Slippers with Dog hair

Day 260-

We live in an area where active timber harvesting is year-round. The log trucks are often overfilled. One doesn't want to follow too closely behind these loads.

Log Truck

Day 261-

When I went out front to play frisbee and rings with the dogs, there was a tiny gray feather that I just had to get a photo of. Fiona is a bit of a vacuum cleaner- she will inhale anything unusual on the ground, especially if you wanted to give it a closer look. I needed to get my photo quickly. Not sure what bird lost this feather.

Tiny Feather

Day 262-

We made a quick trip to Nashville for the weekend. This was the sunset reflecting off the buildings of downtown. Grandson (five years old) was having soccer practice on the field with views of the city.

Sunset

Day 263-

With the kids going to school and parents working, Charlie and I played tourist for the day and went to the Grand Ole Opry for the backstage tour. If you are ever in Nashville, it is a good tour to take. I really marveled at the size of the stage where "Hee Haw" was filmed. It seemed rather small. We walked through the building to the main stage. The photo was taken of the ropes and cables of backstage where the Opry is performed. The black and white image shows all the shadows and shapes.

Backstage

My first thought for the photo of the day was in the entrance area. The lights with all the guitars were an interesting photo. All these guitars are Gibsons, donated by the company.

Day 264-

Coming home from the above mentioned grandson's soccer game we encountered this trolley. It made me laugh, the name on the trolley was "Trolley Parton". These trollies circle through town, where you can do a pub crawl of different breweries. Always something to see in Nashville.

Trolley Parton

Another week done! It is fun to gather photos from trips out of town. My day-to-day experiences at home center on the yard and garden. See you next week.

Photo-a-Day Week 37

2025-09-14T20:32:00.004-04:00

Welcome back to another weekly roundup of photos. Some garnered more attention on Facebook than others.

Day 251-

While playing with the dogs in the front yard, I looked to the back and saw an odd shape in the tree. Usually it is a bird, Mourning Dove or Red-bellied Woodpecker or Brown Thrasher. Turned out it was a squirrel! They don't normally sit up that high.

Squirrel in Silhouette

Also observed that morning was a pair of Bald Eagles soaring high in the sky. I only had my cellphone with me, so the photo isn't great. My choice for the photo of the day was the squirrel, while it also wasn't a great photo, it was a nice silhouette.

Day 252-

Since we have had Millie, our kitty, we have made sure to keep the door to the room to the toilet closed. As a small kitten she would love to play with the roll of toilet paper, unrolling it all the way to the cardboard tube. So, as a rule, we keep the door closed. I guess one of us left it open. Millie unrolled a nearly full roll of toilet paper. When she does that we say that she is having a party. This was a photo that got a lot of laughs.

When the Door is Left Open

Day 253-

While getting ready to water the containers with the hose, I re-encountered the Carolina Praying Mantis. The long, tall shadow made on the wall was impressive. Thought that it would make a good photo choice. Hope you agree.

I'm Still Here

Day 254-

It is Ironweed season. The variety I have growing in my yard is quite tall, perhaps Vernonia noveboracensis. This one grows 6-8 feet tall. I have found there is a nice, more garden-friendly-sized variety called Iron Butterfly. I may try to move these tall giants to a better space. It is a gorgeous shade of purple, and pollinators love it.

Ironweed

Day 255-

When we first moved here, I planted a variety of Panicum virgatum, a native grass. There are several varieties of Panicum virgatum. I have/had three different ones- Shenandoah, Heavy Metal, and Dallas Blues. This one pictured is either Heavy Metal or Dallas Blues. I can't remember which of these two I planted in which location. Shenandoah is smaller and has green blades that turn red in the fall. The two I can't remember specifics of location, are taller, and have bluer foliage. I will have to try and determine if this one is Dallas Blues or Heavy Metal. The morning light illuminated the seedheads so nicely.

Panicum

The rejected photo was the original photo, in color. I thought the black and white image showed the brightness of the seedheads better. Which do you like better?

Day 256-

This day's image is of something that sits on my dresser. It is the telegram that my dad sent to my mom's parents, my grandparents, telling of my birth! My dad was in the Army, and he and my mom were stationed overseas, telephone calls were unheard of at that time. A telegram was sent to announce my birth. It is faded and tough to read, but I love having it.

Telegram!

Day 257-

This beauty is a native plant growing in my side yard. I have others in various spots in the yard, this one is the largest. Deer love it, so many remain small. Its botanical name is Euonymus americanus, with many common names. Our favorite is Hearts A' Bustin' because of a song by Billie Joe Shaver. Another name is Strawberry Bush. You can see why it has these names. These drupes really pop against the green foliage.

Hearts A' Bustin'

This brings us to the end of another week. Thanks for stopping by.

Photo-a-Day Week 36

2025-09-07T20:29:00.000-04:00

How is it Sunday already? The days just zoom by so quickly! I hope everyone had a good week last week. Let's talk about the photos from this past week.

Day 244-

For those who were on the Memphis Fling, you might remember a planter that had a kaleidoscope focused on the blooms in the planter. I remembered that I had a small kaleidoscope in the drawer of our hutch. After a few trial shots of other items, I settled on using this one of Lantana camara 'Miss Huff', in full bloom.

Lantana Kaleidoscope

Here are a few other photos using the kaleidoscope. The first, taken in the house of an item on the hutch.

Once outside, I took a photo of the rose bush by the front door. It was fun to use the kaleidoscope to capture some photos. I might bring it out again during Christmas season.

Day 245-

We rotate hosting bridge, and this past week it was close enough to walk. The setting sun created long shadows as I walked east towards the gathering bridge game. Walking home in the pitch black night is always interesting. I was good until close to my house when I heard a sound, perhaps a fox, call out in the darkness. I turned on my cell flashlight to finish the walk to my house.

Walking to bridge

Day 246-

Resurrection Lily, Spider Lily, or Hurricane Lily, this fall-blooming bulb is always a treat to see. The botanical name is Lycoris radiata. I have them planted around the yard/garden but so far, these are the only ones blooming. I also have a Lycoris aurea, a yellow bloom. At one time I also used to have the pink variety, Lycoris squamigera, often called Naked Ladies. All the Lycoris bloom after the foliage fades.

Resurrection Lily

Day 247-

Fall is also the time when the Tea Olive blooms. Its fragrance is distinct. I have heard some say it smells like Fruit Loops to them. Osmanthus fragrans is an evergreen shrub that can be trimmed into a multiple-stemmed tree. I leave mine in its full form. Amazingly, this tiny bloom can have such a large fragrance, it perfumes the entire yard.

Fragrance Abounds

Day 248-

In the same drawer as the kaleidoscope, I found my birth announcement and a photo of newborn me! Stay tuned, there may be more archived items showcased.

Things You Find in a Drawer

Day 249-

Saturday was an SEC (Southeastern Conference) football game. For Mizzou fans, the game was against Kansas. Long-time rivals. (or arch enemies, depending on with whom you are talking) This is the Mizzou tiger logo, in a prominent position in the living room.

MIZ-

Day 250-

Today's gem is my dad's metal truck, Buddy-L. Not sure when my dad got this toy, but I remember riding it in my grandmother's backyard as a little one. I inherited this and it has spot on the shelf in the living room. My grandkids rode it around the living room this past Christmas, four generations of love.

Buddy-L

I tried a different view for the photo, but I liked the full side view better. The one below just wasn't a very good photo. It happens.

Another week's photos shared and explained. Hope you enjoyed it. See you next week.

Photo-a-Day Week 35

2025-08-31T20:58:00.000-04:00

We are already at the end of another week. Many of this week's photos are outdoor-oriented. As the Ruby-Throated Hummingbirds migrate south, we have more visitors at the feeders and more territorial guarding happening. We have had much cooler temperatures, and it is lovely to be outside, enjoying the weather. So, on with the discussion of each photo.

Day 237-

Love how the sunlight hit this tiny bird's chest. She is guarding a feeder to the left of where this metal hummingbird ornament sits. Fiona is always on guard at the sliding glass door, barking at these little jewels.

Hummingbird on hummingbird

I was on the fence about which of the two photos to use. I used the one I did because the sunlight was brighter on it. Here's the 'reject', also a good photo.

Day 238-

We usually have the green Praying Mantis and its egg sacks around. Seeing a native one is a treat. The native mantis is brown, not green. This one was on our sliding glass door. As I was in and out, refilling the hummingbird feeders, I was worried I would disturb it before I got a photo. This was taken outside, with the trees and sky reflected on the glass.

Carolina Mantis

I did try a shot from inside the house. Not very good.

Day 239-

Driving back from the doctor, we drove past this old Wilson factory. I liked making it black and white. But wait, there's another photoshopped element. Check out the photo below the one used.

Closed Factory

Not only had I changed from black and white, but I was able to remove the truck from the front of the building.

Day 240-

On my way inside I walked past the rose bushes and saw the Katydid on the rose bush. Quick snap of the shutter captured it!

Katydid

Day 241-

One might think my garden is filled with insects, and perhaps you may be correct! I like getting photos of these beauties. It almost looks like this is another black and white photo, but it is as it appeared.

Dragonfly

Day 242-

Yes, another black and white offering. The sunlight sparkled on the spider web, and I had hoped that using a black and white filter would help accentuate the sparkle.

Sunlight on Spider Web

The original one for your viewing. Also tried to crop it to show the web closer. I decided that having the fern and downspout in the photo framed it better.

Day 243-

I like this tight little rose bud. The varied colors made me take notice today. It seems the colors red and white were what I was drawn to today as the discarded photo was also a red and white bloom.

Oso Easy Rose

Here is the discarded red and white bloom, a Salvia. Do you see the tiny ant on the left bloom?

This ends another week of the photo a day challenge. Stay tuned, there's more next week.

Photo-a-Day Week 34

2025-08-24T20:33:00.000-04:00

Welcome back for another week's roundup of the photo challenge. Once again, I will include some of the photos that didn't make the cut. Not every day has more than one photo from which to choose. Let's look at this week's photos.

Day 230-

I really love the structure of the Butterfly weed blooms. Asclepias tuberosa is native to our area, and I have it planted in a few areas in my gardens. The one that is doing the best is this one, in a pot on the deck!

Butterfly Weed

I had another photo in mind for this day, but the Butterfly Weed won out. Here's the runner-up- Illicium parviflorum 'Florida Sunshine' was glowing in the front forest. The morning sun was hitting it just right to really highlight its bold yellow foliage.

Day 231-

More dreary days. This photo might look as though I added a black and white filter, but no, it is just as seen! This is a garden ornament windmill in my front garden. While weeding under it on a windy day, I was surprised by the shadows of the spinning arms. On the ground, it looked like a snake was moving through the garden!

Windmill

Another discarded photo- Cypress vine bloom. Love how the white pollen dots the bright red petals.

Day 232-

This time of year, we have lots of dragonflies and damselflies. This one was so tiny, it was hard to get a good photo. This is an Orange Bluet damselfly. Pretty little thing.

Orange Bluet, damselfly

A rejected photo was a Blue Dancer damselfly. Too blurry to use for the photo of the day.

Day 233-

I was at the Charlotte Douglas Airport, and near my gate was a sculpture of an airplane tail. I liked how the light bounced off the floor. Using a black and white filter really accentuated the light and shadows.

Charlotte

Day 234-

This photo was in the Philadelphia Airport, looking out the window as I walked to my gate. The rail transit is another way to get to the airport. A photo taken quickly and not edited. In hindsight, I would have cropped the bottom up a little bit. Oh well.

Transit

Day 235-

On the drive home, I was routed through town; usually, we take a truck route around town. They were resurfacing the truck route, so I had the opportunity to capture a quick shot of some of the downtown area of Clinton, SC. I like how the different storefronts are different colors. (FYI- I was at a stoplight)

Clinton town square

Day 236-

More rain, now more mushrooms. I like observing some of the different mushrooms around the yard. Again, using a black and white filter, bringing the shadows and shapes into view.

Fungi

The unused photo is the photo in color. Which do you prefer?

That's a wrap for this week. Come again next Sunday.

Photo-a-Day Week 33

2025-08-17T18:20:00.000-04:00

Another week has come and gone, and I still haven't shared the discarded photos. I have amassed many of them. My thought now is whether or not to include the chosen photo along with the ones not chosen. Moving forward, I will include them in the weekly round-up of photos. Not every day has a few photos from which to choose.

If you follow along on Facebook with the daily photo-a-day posts, you might have noticed I misnumbered the photos again. Not sure where my head is!! The numbers have been corrected, and I will try to be more careful about the numeral that goes with the photo.

Day 223-

I was gathering items for donation and going through 'treasure boxes' in my closet and I found my Girl Scout sash. After posting it on Facebook, I received several fellow Scouts who also had their sashes. I thought I still had my GS Handbook, but after searching, I couldn't find it. There are a couple of bins that I haven't gone through where it might be, but if it isn't there, I am out of ideas of where it might be. So for now, hope springs eternal that it is somewhere to be found. I will let you know if I find it.

Achievements

photo not chosen- this ant was carrying its dead 'friend' across the driveway, moving quickly. I chose the sash over the ant.

Day 224-

We get a lot of spiders in the landscape in the fall. My girlfriend in NY asked if this was one of the Jojo spiders. I am not sure, I wish I had taken more photos of it to get another view, but I didn't. So for this spider, it will just be listed as a spider.

Spider

photo not chosen- raindrops on a spider web over an Iris. An interesting photo, but, eh, not chosen.

Day 225-

We have had so much rain this month. 10.27" so far and we are only a little past halfway through the month. Our average for August is 3.92". With that rain comes some amazing skies. Clouds always fascinate me,

Strange Skies

photo not chosen- I did crop and adjust the lighting for this photo. What I saw in the sky wasn't as vibrant in the photo.

Day 226-

We were in the parking lot at the grocery store and the truck next to us had HUGE tires. Thought it would make a good photo. Making it black and white added to the depth of the tread.

Tire

photo not chosen- I needed to crop and add the black and white filter. With the tire and the asphalt it doesn't look too different, but the truck is a dark blue.

Day 227-

While walking Fiona during a break from the rain, I noticed this stump that has put forth a lot of new growth with all the rain. Hardwoods will continue to sprout from a stump. Cutting like this is called 'coppicing'. Some trees are coppiced to harvest young wood. Oak, hazel, ash, willow, and chestnut are good trees to coppice. This one is an elm. Not a practice I recommend for the average garden. Pines do not sprout like hardwoods.

Coppiced

No extra photos to consider for this day.

Day 228-

Like I said, lots of rain! I was trying to get the wind and the rain in the photo, but no, just a gray, subdued photo.

Rainy night

Again, no extra photos for this day.

Day 229-

We have lots of Goldenrod coming up in our yard. The sun was just hitting the almost open blooms, and it seemed to glow. I imagine this is Solidago altissima, as it is so tall. Also near the Goldenrod are some Golden Asters. They have not begun to bloom yet.

Goldenrod Aglow

I hope you have enjoyed seeing some of the discarded/rejected photos for the daily offering. There are still a few I want to share in a post that I disregarded from earlier this year. Thanks for reading this week.

Photo-a-Day Week 32

2025-08-10T20:43:00.000-04:00

Week 32 has come to a conclusion. These weeks are zooming by at a rapid speed. This has been a very rainy week. From the forecast, this coming week will also bring a lot of rain. Hoping those who need it will receive some. Our rainfall is well over the average. Time will tell.

Day 216-

As I mentioned last week, Fiona loves to watch the hummingbirds at the feeders. She has been getting pretty wound up, barking at the tiny hummingbirds. She is now sporting her correction collar. It is a collar that I can hit the sound bell, a vibration, or a bit of a shock. I have only ever hit the sound bell. She knows what she should and shouldn't do.

Focused

Day 217-

The rain came down in buckets, and the water droplets were hanging off of everything. I thought it would be a good choice for that day's picture.

Raindrops on Crabapples

Day 218-

This little dog loves to stare at me. Charlie thinks she is trying to herd me, get me to move, take her out to play, or whatever. Who knows what goes on in her head.

"What?"

Day 219-

After the rain, all sorts of fungi have been popping up. These were so little, I almost couldn't find them from one minute to the next. I was outside, tossing the rings and disc for the dogs and I noticed these pink mushrooms. From the moment I noticed them to the next, when I got my cellphone out of my back pocket, I lost them. In the photo below, you see the pine straw needles, dwarfing the mushroom. It wasn't until I looked at my photo that I realized there was dog hair in the picture. Dog hair is everywhere!

Tiny Mushroom with dog hair

Day 220-

Our riding lawn mower needed some fixing, and my husband was busy working on it. Before I jumped in the shower, I asked if he needed anything. He needed another set of hands, so I delayed the shower for a bit. One last thing was to put the cable back into the slot and put a Cotter pin through the hole. Of course, it is above the mowing deck, facing away from us, toward the center of the mower, and is difficult to see. We were successful in completing the task and the mower has a new belt and is back together.

Put the Cotter Pin Where?

Day 221-

While pulling weeds in the front, I noticed a small Green Tree Frog in the Pitcher plant. The shorts I had on did not have pockets, so I didn't have my phone on me. As I was almost done for the day, I finished up my chores for the day, and cleaned up. Once I grabbed my phone and went back out, I was worried it might have moved somewhere else. I first saw the Anole on top and figured the frog was gone. Moving around to the open side of the Pitcher plant, there was the Green Tree Frog, still inside the throat of the plant, and Mr. Anole, sitting on top!

Anole and Green Tree Frog

Day 222-

Don't we all have a bundle of cables and wires? Every device needs its own cord to get charged. I need to move some of the less-often-used ones to the desk in the back room.

Charging Station

I haven't forgotten that I will do a reject photo post. Come back again for more photos.