Nature | October 2026

 I have a small selection this month. Just one Morning Glory and two pictures of orange maple leaves. Our weather has been unseasonably warm this year. We haven't had temperatures dip below freezing yet and we are at the end of October. It's hard to believe!

I enjoyed seeing this Morning Glory one morning, even though I tend to think of Morning Glories as invasive weeds. The blossom looked up from under the overgrowth, very timid and unassuming, and I was grateful to see it's cheering color. It's delicate petals seemed to say, "I am no threat to you. Please like me."

Our neighbors have a brilliant Sugar Maple tree. It puts on a spectacular display of color every year. I can never get a good picture. I try and try, on different days with different lighting, but it never comes out quite right. These two pictures are the best representation that I could capture.

I hope you are having a good fall! 30 days until Thanksgiving. We can't wait!

Nature| December 2025

Our Christmas cactus started blooming at Thanksgiving this year. The flowers are so gorgeous. I found myself staring and staring at them.

My favorite: 

I admired these blooms so much that I made some sketches of them in my journal.

Snow and more snow!

We have had more snow this December than any other December that I can remember.

I think it is pretty. If it has to be cold, it may as well snow!

I haven't been outside at the right time to catch too many sunrises this month. At this time of year I have to put a lot of effort to get a good view of the sunrise. I had to walk to end of our road, cross the highway, and walk out into the bean field a hundred yards or so to capture these, but it was worth it. It's so invigorating to see the dawn!

Nature This Week

 

Can you smell the lovely Lilac perfume through your screen? 

A baby bunny burrow. They were so new!

A rat snake. Everyone wanted a turn holding it.

We found some morels! My first time mushroom hunting since being married. 

These oak flowers, catkins, were so pretty in the afternoon sun. Much like earrings dangling, all eye catching in the sunlight.

April showers..............

Bring May flowers. ☺️

Flower Update as of 3/28/25

 

   So many things are happening in nature this time of year. These flowers all popped open over night. I see these flowers on my walk in the morning. I'm not sure what type of shrub this is, but it's flowers sure are pretty. 

  I found my Bleeding Hearts! I was so happy to see them. I have been looking for them for a couple weeks. This morning I was looking again and gave up. I figured they must have been too trampled during the summer and frozen solid in the ice over winter. As I straightened up and turned to leave, my eyes landed right where they are coming up! I had been looking in the wrong place all along.

The Lilac buds are forming. I am looking forward to their sweet, sweet perfume.

The Daffodils are going to town! Pretty blossoms and more infant buds coming up still.

Matthew 5:44-45

But I say unto you, Love your enemies, 

bless them that curse you, 

do good to them that hate you, 

and pray for them which despitefully 

use you, and persecute you; 

That ye may be the children of your Father 

which is in heaven: 

for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil 

and on the good, and sendeth rain 

on the just and on the unjust. 

I Spy With My Little Eye!

 

Poking through the frost

Bringing sunshine in their folds

Springs the equinox

I saw these this morning and they made me so happy! I had to write a haiku to celebrate. 

Here is an old post in which you can read about my excitement over daffodils back in 2015. I haven't changed in that regard.

A Bouquet And A Verse

 I have some beautiful zinnias growing so I cut myself a bouquet today. I had some hostas to put in this bouquet, too. The hosta flowers have such a heavenly fragrance! 

So, I have bouquet and a verse to share this week. 

Nehemiah 9:6 

Thou, even thou, art LORD alone; 

thou hast made heaven, 

the heaven of heavens, with all their host,

the earth, and all things that are therein, 

the seas, and all that is therein, 

and thou preservest them all; 

and the host of heaven worshippeth thee.

I hope you are having a happy day wherever you are and I hope that you can see God's greatness from your vantage point.

Spring Woods!

We went for a walk in the woods at a nature preserve yesterday. This nature preserve is special because of the expansive carpet of blue bells on the forest floor in early spring. This was my first time visiting this preserve. The blue bells were like nothing I had ever seen before. They were everywhere!

There were a few other flowers blooming, too.

Spring Beauty 

Flox

Woodland Violet

Creeping Buttercup

I, also, saw a bunch of Prairie Trillium (the ones with burgundy petals and mottled leaves), and one early White Trout Lilly. Mayapples had popped up already. It was a little early yet for Toothwart, Hepatica, Wild Geranium, Yellow Trout Lilly, and Great White Trillium.

I saw some Red Admiral butterflies, a tiny copper butterfly, and a few sulfur butterflies. We heard some very loud tree frogs. The oak trees were all bare still. The buckeye trees were leafing out. There was a flowering tree that I will have to look up. It has five petaled white flowers in clusters. It was growing in the under canopy. It had reddish brown bark and the trunks and branches were delicate in character and finely featured.

We had a wonderful day in a beautiful place with delightful weather! I hope you are having a wonderful day, too. :)

Violet...…...Jelly?

Last Saturday, my children and I started picking all the violets that we could find. There are so many this time of year. Initially I thought we should add the violets to a salad for color. We just kept picking more and more violets. Pretty soon we had far too many violets for a salad.

I told my children that violets could be made into jelly and one time in my youth a friend of mine had given me a violet jelly recipe. I had followed the recipe and made violet jelly once. The really neat thing I had remembered about making violet jelly was how the violets made a purple tea that turned pink when the lemon juice was added. In fact, I still had the recipe.

That story pretty much sealed the deal for what to do with all our violets. My children wanted to see what violet jelly was like. We just had to make some.

Well, the jelly was a big failure. I tried to make it without pectin. I cooked it too long. It cooled into a solid mass of hard candy. I re-melted the mass, added water, jarred it again. Now it is the consistency and color of honey. All the beautiful violet color cooked out. It really does taste like honey, too. 

So, I guess what we actually made is bee-less honey.

Not bad. We will enjoy it on toast. And we had fun during the process. It's a win!

Now what I want to try is making pink lemonade out of violet tea. Wouldn't that be cool!

Chrysanthemums By Henry Beer | Poem

Chrysanthemums

Whene'er I see Chrysanthemums,

Arrayed in colors bright,

I think of Autumn's pageantry,

Each cool and frosty night.

In yellow, bronze, and snowy white

These flowers are displayed 

As lovely as the autumn trees,

In colors bright arrayed.

Chrysanthemums of snow-white bloom

Remind us of the snow

Which soon will cover hill and vale

As wintry winds will blow.

Ye artists henceforth should portray

With Cornucopia's horn

These gorgeous flowers, bright and fair,

With fruit, and grain, and corn.

As flowers in a patient's room,

Chrysanthemums give cheer;

These lovely flowers of varied bloom

Console the dying year.

We praise Him for these lovely things,,

For all that He hath done.

To see His power in humble works,

It makes us truly one.

By Henry Beer 

My Garden of Verse

Page 171

Seed Saving

I have been saving seeds from the plants in my garden. I have looked up information on collecting seeds. Hopefully, I am doing it right. It will be interesting in the Spring to see how well the seed I have saved germinate. And then next summer to how the fruits or flowers compare to their parents.

I have many Bachelor Buttons that came up voluntarily. I collected a bunch of seed heads. 

Bachelor Button Seed Heads

I am mixing together several different herb and flower seeds as I collect them. I think it will be fun to have a mixture to sow in an area of the yard. I have cilantro, dill weed, bachelor buttons, calendula, borage, and cosmo in my mix thus far.

Calendula seeds develop on the maturing flower head in a visually interesting way. The shape of calendula seeds are quite unique, too.

Looking directly down at a seed head of calendula.

Calendula seeds 

Borage usually self sows very readily. I have included borage seeds in my mix just as insurance.

Borage

I have these gorgeous rust colored sunflowers that I am saving seed from.

Also some ordinary sunflowers.

This sunflower was still opening up one morning.
Can you spot the sleeping bee resting on the flower?

I heard that once the rays have fallen off of the sunflower blooms the heads can be cut and dried in a paper bag as the seeds continue to mature. The seeds look quite under developed at this stage, but I hope they turn out to be viable.

This is my first time saving tomato seeds. I have Black Krim, Rutger, and Roma varieties.

I followed the fermentation method for saving wet seeds with my tomatoes and my cucumber.

I wanted to save pickling cucumber seeds. I don't remember the exact variety of cucumbers that I planted. I didn't grow anything that would cross with cucumber so, I'm sure the seeds I saved will grow some kind of cucumbers.

Once the seeds were clean and dry I put them in labeled, paper envelopes for storage.

Do you save seeds from your garden?