A Walk in the Woods

 Yesterday we took a spring walk at the NC Arboretum. Somehow, I missed the turn in the trail and we ended up on a woodland trail a bit above the riverbed where I had hoped to see some early wildflowers. No problem, as there is much to see no matter which trail you are on.

We started just to the side of the Baker Center. I especially like the "natural" signage at the center which frames this red bud in bloom. In fact, throughout the grounds the red buds were at their peak.

 Above is a nice solitary example and below you can see the magnolia blossoms against the red bud.

Since our walk took us through a forested area there was lots of moss, but we didn't really see any of the wildflowers which require more sunlight. At the end of the walk is a small sunny area and I did see some violets.

 In contrast, there are some showy pansies planted in the more formal gardens.

The dogwood are just starting in our area and this particular dogwood tree had only a single blossom!

 There were also several different magnolia varieties in bloom and the walkway through the Garden of Promise was "littered" with discarded white and fuchsia petals.

I have quite a few photos to share today and many of them I couldn't really identify by plant name, but they are pretty, so I will post them for you to enjoy.

There was lots of butterfly and bee activity as you'd expect with so much in bloom.
Here is a butterfly enjoying the ground phlox.

The container gardens are changed out each season and I wanted to document what is probably the last of the daffodils... they are definitely on their way out this year in our area. I especially like these cheerful flowers!

And next to them was a colorful display of crocuses, another flower that is pretty much finished with in this area. They were a treat to see!

And let's not forget the tulips, which are currently in their glory!

Here's a view of some flowering trees...along with that blue Carolina sky!

I hope you enjoyed seeing some of the things I saw in bloom yesterday and maybe it will motivate you to take a walk in the woods or in a garden or just around your house to see what is waking up this Spring.

Anticipating Spring at the Biltmore

The calendar says we still have almost a week until Spring officially arrives, but this past week we have had some lovely pre-spring weather and Mother Nature has already started to embrace the new season.

Yesterday I went to the Biltmore Estate with my friend Alice to see the display of movie wedding gowns in the house and the new display featuring three generations of Vanderbilt family weddings at the Legacy Building in Antler Village.

We took a walk through the gardens to see what was happening there.  

 As you can see, it's still a bit early for tulips.

There were nice colorful rings of daffodils. (You can see the estate peeking out in the photo above.)

Delicate crocuses were bordering the tulip beds.

 Here's a nice spray of daffodils or perhaps they are narcissus.

 The crocuses looked pretty in the sunlight.

 And a few hyacinths were there, too.

Inside the conservatory we were momentarily overcome by the fragrance of the hyacinths.

The flower heads were so heavy, many were drooping, but I liked the yellow color of this pot.

I'm not sure what this is... kind of looks like a yellow artichoke, but I thought it made an interesting picture!

There are always orchids in bloom and these are some nice examples.

And I couldn't pass by this brilliant red amaryllis without capturing it!

Less than two weeks from Easter, so I needed to include a lily, even though this isn't the traditional white Easter lily.

I have to admit, I like yellow better!

I hope you enjoyed this spring preview!  Perhaps I can get back to the gardens to see the tulips, but they might be at their peak when we are in Maine for Easter.  Oh, well, the lucky Easter weekend visitors to the Biltmore Estate will be getting their money's worth!

A Quilt for Everett

My niece, Emily, who lives in California, had a baby on March 1st. 

I knew from her baby shower registry that they had a "fox" theme going.  I was unable to attend her shower, but decided I would make a quilt and send it when the baby arrived.  We knew it would be a boy, so I wanted something with foxes and something that looked "masculine."  

A friend at my bee brought in a simple baby quilt she had made that featured a fabric with very suave looking male foxes, so that was my inspiration.  I was able to find the fabric in a local store and thought it looked good with the black and white cross hatch fabric.

This is not the greatest photo... I don't know why I didn't take time to smooth the quilt out better and center it properly in the frame.

 Here's a close up of some of those handsome foxes.

I was delighted to find a flannel fox fabric in the same color scheme for the backing.

And here's 9 day old Everett enjoying his fox quilt!

Now, isn't that pretty darn sweet?

Some signs of spring? Please!!!

This is the time of year when I often wander our small patch of property looking for signs of spring.  This month has been particularly damp, cool, and cloudy, so signs of spring are few and far between. 

I have seen a few daffodils in bloom, though those on our slope still need a few days of sunshine to show their faces.

But our Lenten Roses, tucked under the edge of our deck, are in bloom right on time.  So I can share a couple of photos of those with you.

Officially "hellebores," they are a plant I was not familiar with until we moved to North Carolina.  Here's our smaller plant which has a nice rich burgundy tinge.

I have also noticed that the pussy willows are out as we drive by one large roadside bush nearly every day.

Below are a few "fuzzies" on our weeping pussy willow bush which I severely pruned last fall.  I was glad a few new shoots survived to give us a little show this year.

I bought this weeping pussy willow at the local grocery store several years ago.  It was in a sunny yellow 4 inch pot, meant to be enjoyed inside this time of year.  After the plant leafed out, I planted it outside, maybe 5 years ago, and it now stands about three feet tall and over four feet wide.  So it was time for a "hair cut" because it's drooping branches were snaking into other plantings and under the deck.

I was outside during a brief sunny period on this windy, stormy day.  I wasn't inside more than 5 minutes before I could hear the rain pounding against the windows.  Crazy weather!

A Week in the Big City!

Earlier this month, Russ and I spent a week in NYC.  Our daughter and her husband are in the process of moving across the hall to a unit in a co-op building in Astoria Queens that they recently purchased.  Since they had access to both units for the month, we decided that it was time of a long overdue visit to the Big Apple.

Everyone seems to have their air travel horror stories, but this time we flew nonstop from Charlotte in the mid afternoon.  It was an easy drive to Charlotte on a sunny afternoon and we arrived at LaGuardia during this beautiful sunset.  It was a breeze!

Though Nora and Ari have not gained any square footage, they have gotten a few nice upgrades in the new space, they've had time to paint and add a new vanity and some new flooring, and they've had the luxury of an easy move across the hall and time to really sort through their belongings and create a more modern, stylish place.  One major gain was an impressive view of Manhattan from their 12th floor living room window.

 They are just a few blocks from the East River.  If you enlarge the picture, you can see the river and the northern end of Roosevelt Island with the lighthouse at the very tip.  The taller buildings in the distance flank Central Park East.

This is the view at dusk, and at night it just sparkles!

We seemed to spend a lot of time on the trains and subway.  Here is a picture similar to others taken on other trips.

I'm not sure who my new friends are, but I do like the subway artwork!

Our first foray was to Brooklyn to see Nora's current workplace, Fusion Academy, and meet some of her colleagues.  I enjoyed seeing this quilt on the wall which Nora said was made and donated by a "satisfied parent."  

The shape is a surf board which is a Fusion symbol used on all their campuses.

In Nora's office, I also saw a couple examples of my handiwork.

You might remember that I made a flag banner for Nora's wedding shower and wedding brunch... here she has repurposed it as a wall decoration.

After lunch with Nora we continued on to the Brooklyn Museum.

We actually spent the majority of our afternoon in the series of exhibits on Coney Island, which were fascinating.  So, I had to share this picture of the cyclops.

One sunny day, on our way to Brooklyn again and an afternoon at IKEA, we emerged from the Subway at Times Square.

We paused with all the other tourists to watch the Revlon advertisement cycle through until we could see ourselves on the giant billboard.

You can see Russ in the picture above, but I am behind my iPhone.  It took me a while, but I finally figured out how to position the phone so both our faces showed.

Not really worth the time and effort, but it was fun!

Much of our weekend was spent sanding and painting, sorting and carrying things across the hall, but we were delighted to be able to help with some of the work of moving.  

Our only other touristy day was spent at the Museum of Natural History.  Though the day was sunny, it was quite cold and a perfect day for an indoor activity.

Here's Russ with Teddy Roosevelt... you can see that clear blue sky!

And I paid homage to my Buffalo roots...

before heading inside to see the dinosaurs.

We went to four "timed" special exhibits, including a walk through exhibit on new research on The Secret World of Microbes, the Butterfly Conservatory, where Russ made a friend...

and an underwater 3-D reef movie in the IMAX and a program about Dark Matter in the Hayden Planetarium.  It was a pretty full day!

In the evening, Nora treated us to dinner and a show at the City Winery.

A perfect ending to a perfect day!

This weekend both Western North Carolina and New York City are expecting to be impacted by a big winter storm that will bring snow to much of the eastern part of the US.  We were very lucky to have made this trip during the snowless part of January!

A Most Unusual December

I'm writing this just about 10 hours before the New Year changes the calendar page to 1/1/2016.

In Western North Carolina we have had a very interesting final few weeks of 2015.  The air temperature has been extremely mild, with quite a few days that felt almost summery.  We have flirted with historic high temperatures, only missing them by a degree or two according to the experts who keep such records.  Additionally, we have had a lot of rain, which in the last week or so has caused some local flash floods and road closures.

I thought I would just share with you a few things I see in my yard which makes late December look more like spring than winter.

 First of all, this is the magnolia tree across the street from us.

 Then we have a small pussy willow bush in our back garden.

And the hellebores under our back deck are trying to open some flowers.

On the slope you can see some color in the azaleas.

And finally, we have this plant/bush in the nook between our deck extension and the stairs, a very shaded spot.  At the suggestion of BB Barnes, we planted a tiny cluster of twigs which turned into a rather large bush which is thriving there.  I can't remember the name of the plant, but it certainly filled up the area.

In the fall it sets these grayish caps that point downward and then in spring we hardly notice it when it blooms because the blossoms are facing downward.  Right now it is very fragrant and drawing the attention of a lot of bees.

I was delighted to capture it in bloom, even if it is not the correct season for it to be happening.

I lifted a branch to get this next shot.

Each of the flower clusters is about an inch and a half in diameter.  Rather interesting, don't you think?

Who knows what this strange weather has done to the plants.  It is possible our lawn will need to be mowed again.  Maybe these plants which blossomed in December will be too stressed to provide much of a show come spring.  I guess we will find out! 

Meanwhile, Happy New Year!