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 | November 2025

 Here are my nature photos from November. I don't have many pictures of insects this month. I have very many pictures of Autumn leaf colors. Right before November was over we had a big snow storm and I have some pictures of the snow. 

 My favorite picture must be the Cypress cones. (I would like confirmation that they are indeed cypress cones. Cypress is not a tree that I have learned how to identify.) I had so much fun with those cones. The pieces of the cone break off and inside are little pockets of amber sap sealed in small cells. When the membrane is broken the perfume is intoxicating. I sat on the ground breaking open sap sacks and smelling them for a good 15 minutes. The scent is so refreshing and head clearing. It's piney and resinous and clean. It reminded me of Frankincense essential oil.

Anyway, here are the pictures. Do you have a favorite?

My camera is not doing justice to these beautiful colors. You had to be there to see it!

I saw this beetle at the park.

This close up picture of a Burning Bush is my second favorite.

My favorite picture.

I have a story to go with this picture:
I found this green bug and thinking that our pet jumping spider could eat it I put it in our terrarium.

The spider didn't eat it. Many days later I caught a fly to feed the spider. A few moments after I had put the fly in the terrarium I saw that this green bug had stolen it! I was quite unhappy with this green bug. Do you know how hard I had worked to catch that fly alive for the spider?

Realistic Paper Snowflakes

Snowflakes are six sided water crystals. Most paper snowflakes are four or eight sided.

I found some very thorough instructions for cutting realistic paper snowflakes on this web page Right Here. Please go check it out, if you are interested. There is a lot of good information on snowflakes with many details and some templates.

Here are the basic instructions:

Start with a square piece of paper.

Fold it in half, diagonally.

Fold the triangle in half.

Fold the new triangle into thirds. (This part can be tricky.)

Cut an angle off the top.

Cut your design. The templates from the aforementioned website come in handy here. Tip: don't leave more than 1/4 inch of dead space anywhere in your design.

Unfold to reveal your snowflake!