Daisy, Daisy

The tenacity of wildflowers! This little daisy, a variety that grows in the dry fields and culverts along the road, took root in a crack of our old stone sidewalk while blue chicory peeks through the dry grass.

I appreciate Mother Nature's eye for garden design. This year she clumped feverfew, anise hyssop, and black-eyed Susans into a lovely summer bouquet border along the side walk, with the thyme and parsley providing ground cover.

Being such a dry summer, I'm surprised we had any flowers at all. My rule of (green) thumb: If it's got a flower on it, it stays right where it is. Any color is a bonus.

Ice Blues

One morning last month, just before sunrise, the temperature plunged to -2 degrees. That's not so unusual for this time of year, but this particular morning brought with it one of my favorite winter phenomena:  rime ice (also known as hoarfrost, ice fog, and rime frost). Every inch of every branch, stem and tree trunk, shimmered and glistened with a soft coating of white jagged ice. 

It was a spectacular, foggy, winter wonderland against crisp blue skies. On some surfaces it was thick as snow while on others it appeared to be growing in sharp spikes.

Winter birding was a challenge.  However, a family of seven lovely, little bluebirds have been with us all winter, feeding on berries in the garden and singing from the trees. Brilliant blue against the white snow and the red berries of the winterberry bush, they flit away from the stingy starlings and manage to out-wit the sneaky cats. At night, I find them huddled in the eaves outside our bedroom window and checking on them has become my bedtime ritual. 

Usually all I can see is a tail or two high up in the corner, but many nights one adult is sleeping separately from the group, alone on a ledge but tucked in against the weather. About two weeks ago, however, they stopped coming in to roost even though it is still windy and cold. Are these bluebirds winter birds who have since started their way north? Or are these the same bluebirds we have here in the summer? (will there be seven?) And if so, where ARE they right now? I miss their cheery songs and the promise of spring!