Spatter

BBR Tour

Some have asked to see pictures of what I've been sweating over the past couple of weeks.  My sweat...our sweat...has actually been flowing for five years now, so I've decided to put up pictures that reflect it all.

Just to give some perspective, I've started with one of the house under construction in 2003.  

 
Now fast forward to 2008.  The first two photos show the mountain view side of the house.  

That's the deck and rockers we sit on to look out at our "kingdom" and you can see the sliding doors that yesterday's little bird flew into. 

The bushes along the deck are red hibiscus.  When I arrived here on Memorial Day weekend they were all just the stubs that we had cut them back to last year.  As you can see, they've grown a lot in just a couple of weeks.  I expect they'll be in full bloom soon.  They actually get to the height of the railing by mid summer if the beetles don't get 'em.  You can tell by the grass how little rain we've had!

Below is the side flower bed.  You've been introduced to the daylilys there along the porch.  The foreground part of it is new this year.  It contains shasta daisies, fothergilas, split rock false cypresses, and some blue grasses.

This bed bends to the front of the house around a thunder pine. That boulder doesn't look like much in the photo but in actuality, it really makes an interesting focal point.

The thunder pine is an interesting specimen.  It has thick needles with cone sprouts called candles and its trunk twists and turns as you train it.  You do that by snipping the candles.

 

More of the same in front except there's a small Japanese Maple and behind it...and out of view in this photo...are two clematis vines that will eventually decorate the lattice on the dog run. We put that up a couple of years ago so we could go to Christiansburg all day without worrying about Shaynee's bladder.

Everything looks...well...new.  Try to picture it after everything fills in and up as you look at the photo below.  It's actually the front and the official back of the house.  The front door is straight ahead.  The "back" door to the mudroom is to the right.  I'd have planted something along the walkway and/or brought out the bed a bit further, but there are compromises to be made when you don't live alone.  Judy wanted to leave grass to drive on as a practical matter. 

 

Coming up next is our rock garden...this week's project. I thought I'd never get that trench/edge made!  All I had was a shovel to do it with and breaking through the grass and hard earth was  tough.  But I did it, and on the same day we laid the soil and planted both rocks and foliage. Yesterday we spread the mulch and Judy planted her little seedlings...flowers that she's been nursing in egg crate like incubators for weeks.

By the way, the dead tree branch is there by design.  We pick a new one out each year from downed branches.  The birds love to perch there..especially the goldfinches. Sometimes there are so many that they looked like Christmas tree ornaments  as they cue up for a place at the feeders and  hopefully soon, the birdbath.  Here's the rock garden before...first in 2004 and the next in 2005:

 

 

 
Moving around to the northwest side,  a red oak tree has joined a redbud and a couple of dogwoods.  The dogwoods have started blooming since this picture was taken...

We added two river birches to the front.  One is off to the right of the driveway and the other is on the left.  The bigger tree in the second picture is an ash that we planted last year.  The river birch is to the left and behind it.

Not counting the hundreds of white pine twigs that we got through the Department of Forestry in our first year, our maples are our oldest trees.

Two of the three are looking mature now. The third...over there on the right...is younger. Deer destroyed its predecessor.  We learned the hard way that we needed to protect their trunks.  By the way, the pines that made it are now about 4-5 feet high.

Why so many new trees? We've been trying to get some shade on this this ex-cow pasture.  I believe we're done now though.  We now have a mix of trees and grasses that seems to please the birds.  And that suits us fine since we love to watch them!

Finally, there's the entrance area...long neglected. This week I finally got around to planting three barberry bushes there to give it some color.  

 

I think we're finally at a point where we're satisfied to let it be, let it mature, and let us sit back and enjoy it.  It's been a lot of work, but it's been a labor of love!  
 

 

 

Photo Hunt - Bad Hair Day

"Bad Hair Day'
 bydamanti

More Photohunters found here.

Tuesday Take - Bald Cypress

"Bald Cypress"

The bald cypress is a member of the redwood family. It has needles and cones, but it's not an evergreen. It's deciduous.  Its needles turn brown in autumn and fall off by winter giving the tree its common name, bald cypress.

It's usually found in areas too wet for many trees. In adapting to this environment, it developed trunks that widen at the base...providing additional support in the soft, wet soil... and shallow roots that  spread out from the base of the trunk.  In areas where there is standing water during part of the year, the roots develop into elongated cones or "knees" that rise above the mud and correspond to the high water level. You can see a few in this picture.  These knees help anchor the tree and they actually provide respiration for it.  They're hollow and usually die if the water is permanently drained.

This photo happened to be taken at First Landing State Park in Virginia Beach, but of course, bald cypress trees can also be seen here in Florida. Heck, there are even a few bald cypress stands left in the urban landscape of south Florida.  You can see them on golf courses or tucked here and there in community landscaping in the western part of the county...the part that once was at the Everglades' edge. Most were cut down by developers, but those still standing were saved when the bald cypress became "protected". 

Water Ballet

Webbed feet busy working against the current...I can see them as I look down into the water...two mottled ducks performing a water ballet. 

Ostriches

I was checking out the 10 day weather forecast for Chattanooga and happened upon a survey about global warming.  I voted and then saw these results:

Amazingly, eleven and a half percent of the people aren't concerned and thirty-nine percent aren't convinced that it's true. Incredible! Perhaps they should get their heads out of the sand and ask the polar bears what they think. They're now an endangered species, and are dying horrible deaths as their habitats melt away.

 

 

Florida Fires

Again...fire.  Sadly, fire has become an annual occurrence in Florida.  This year, the fires burning Florida are reminiscent of those horrendous ones in 1998, when Florida's landscape was so widely charred. 

The pines planted to replace those lost that year were finally getting tall enough to make you forget how ravaged the landscape looked.  Now, they and other trees are burning again with no rain in sight.  The drought and heat has made the whole state tinder.

Lost vegetation...animals displaced and killed...homes burned to the ground.  Heartbreaking.  Set by lightning?  No...it was arson.

 

Nests

I found myself unexpectedly back at Green Cay Wetlands this weekend.  Friends had invited me to join them at Deerfield Island Park. Once done there, I told them about GCW and they wanted to go. Fine by me!  As usual, I wasn't disappointed.  Among the wonderful sights I always find there, this visit had one that was a little extra special...nests. The first one we found had mom sitting on unhatched eggs:

As if that weren't special enough, a little further along we spied a nest full of chicks. You sure can't figure them for Red-Winged Blackbirds here!

 

My favorite chick had to be the one on the far left.  Look at him below spreading his wings as he opens wide for food.  I'm a bit disappointed that I didn't get a shot of the food going into their mouths, but mom came and went without making the drop...a bit spooked by us.

And, now look at him. He's there in the shadows. He's annoyed that the didn't get  the food. He's giving us the evil eye!

We apologized, then left. The nest was not easily seen, so hopefully not too many people interrupted their dinner.

Ah, I'm going to miss this place!

 

Florida Rains

We call them gully washers. Torrents of rain with thunder and lightning in a short span of time on a summer day. They're violent, they're dangerous, they're exciting.

They were an integral part of my Florida childhood.  The day would always begin with sun and an abundance of cumulus clouds. It was oh so hot and oh so humid. You looked up and you just knew that by afternoon a storm would come. Sure enough, as the day went on the clouds would grow taller and darker and heavier, laden with moisture...the earth's sweat having risen up to them. More and more, hotter and hotter until at last the distant rumblings began. The storm announced its coming: I am strong. Better take cover. I am bigger than you. I am coming, I am coming. Better take cover.  In the distance out over the glades you could see the rain...a solid sheet coming out of a cloud. Look to the glades, always from that direction.  Still sunny here, but better take cover. The wind picks up, the air becomes electrified, the sky becomes a darkened blanket. You know it's close now. Better take cover. Take cover now!  Crank the the windows closed. Spatters of rain striking your face...needles. Tension now crested. I am coming...one last warning. Then...in an instant...relief. I am here.  The storm arrives full of power, taking ours.  Blowing rain...flashes...cracks of thunder. Over and over until finally gone. 

In those times, you could almost set your clock by these storms. They came every day around 4 p.m. and were gone by evening. Now days, it's still hot and you believe it's got to happen just like it used to, but so frequently, it doesn't. Nature's cycle has been disrupted by man's insistence of imposing himself. What once was part of the Florida landscape is now more of an occasional guest.

More Weekend Wordsmith writings here

Green Cay Wetlands - Second Time Around

There's no place in south Florida that is both as convenient and as full of birds as Green Cay Wetlands.  It's one of my favorite places to go with camera in hand.  I went back to it this weekend for perhaps my last visit before I head north. 

I went early this time...in time for the feeding frenzy.  Everyone was eating and it was fascinating to watch. For instance, the wood stork would open its beak and stick it in the water to become a sort of vacuum cleaner collecting bugs and such that it stirred up with one of its legs.  It was a pattern that all of them repeated: first the beak would go in, then the leg scratched from behind creating the stir. Unfortunately, the low light made it tough to capture a photo of their little dance. I did a little better with others. 

Here's a moorhen tugging on some leaves...

and a mottled mom with her ducklings gobbling up bugs...

Here's a green heron...fascinating and a bit disturbing to watch.  He had staked out a spot on a log waiting for something to come along.  I watched him watch...

He never moved a muscle until...ZAP. In one movement he pierced the water and came up with his meal:

It seems the frogs were having a tough day.  Perhaps, every day is a tough one for them.  Here's a little blue who had the same idea:

Then I came upon an anhingha feeding...this time on fish instead of frog:

On a lighter note, I made a friend.  I love the song of the red-winged blackbird.  This little one followed me around singing it to me:

I spent a couple of hours walking around and around, filling up a 1GB memory card before leaving to go find my own breakfast. I too hit the jackpot. I found a place called Lox Around The Clock. I splurged and had a high fat breakfast.  They had the best link sausage and blueberry pancakes I've ever had...not the type with syrupy blueberries.  These had real ones combed into the batter.  Yum!

 

Friday Fact -The Gulf Stream

I've got a bug and I'm feeling neither creative or focused.  So it's pretty much straight Wikipedia for this week's Friday Fact. 

The Gulf Stream, together with its northern extension towards Europe, the North Atlantic Drift, is a powerful, warm, and swift Atlantic ocean current  that originates in the Gulf of Mexico, exits through the Strait of Florida, and follows the eastern coastlines of the United States and Newfoundland before crossing the Atlantic Ocean. At about 30°W, 40°N, it splits in two, with the northern stream crossing to northern Europe and the southern stream recirculating off West Africa. The Gulf Stream proper is a western-intensified current, largely driven by wind stress, while the North Atlantic Drift, in contrast, is largely thermohaline circulation driven.

The Gulf Stream influences the climate of the east coast of North America from Florida to Newfoundland, and the west coast of Europe.

In Florida where it's just a mile or two off the coast, winters are kept warm. During the summer, the effect is opposite but smaller. 

Up north, the Gulf Stream makes the climate of offshore islands of Massachusetts, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket milder than that of Massachusetts Bay, which is isolated from Gulf Stream effects by Cape Cod.

Then, The North Atlantic Current makes Western Europe and especially Northern Europe warmer than they otherwise would be. Ireland is a  couple of degrees warmer than the east.  However the difference is most dramatic in the western coastal islands of Scotland.  Plockton, just east of the Isle of Skye, on the west coast of Scotland, has a mild enough climate to support palm-like cabbage trees even though it is a degree further north than Moscow.  

There is some speculation that global warming could decrease or shutdown thermohaline circulation and therefore reduce the North Atlantic Drift. Put another way, global warming might (might??) cause massive Greenland ice-sheets to melt and/or break off.   Explaining how this affects the Gulf Stream is too technical for a blog called "Spatter".  You'll have to do that research yourself if you're so inclined.  Here, you'll have to trust that it can. 

The timescale that this might happen in is unclear; estimates range from a few decades to a few hundred years. This could trigger localized cooling in the North Atlantic and lead to cooling (or lesser warming) in that region, particularly affecting areas that are warmed by the North Atlantic Drift, such as Scandinavia and Great Britain.

Interesting that global warming can at the same time make places colder! The chances of this occurring are unclear, but given what I see happening at the poles, I'd be willing to bet on it.  The question for me is not "if" but "when".

And that's a Friday Fact!