The Queen of Seaford: 2025

Sunday, August 17, 2025

Photo-a-Day Week 33

Another week has come and gone, and I still haven't shared the discarded photos. I have amassed many of them. My thought now is whether or not to include the chosen photo along with the ones not chosen. Moving forward, I will include them in the weekly round-up of photos. Not every day has a few photos from which to choose.

If you follow along on Facebook with the daily photo-a-day posts, you might have noticed I misnumbered the photos again. Not sure where my head is!! The numbers have been corrected, and I will try to be more careful about the numeral that goes with the photo.

Day 223-

I was gathering items for donation and going through 'treasure boxes' in my closet and I found my Girl Scout sash. After posting it on Facebook, I received several fellow Scouts who also had their sashes. I thought I still had my GS Handbook, but after searching, I couldn't find it. There are a couple of bins that I haven't gone through where it might be, but if it isn't there, I am out of ideas of where it might be. So for now, hope springs eternal that it is somewhere to be found. I will let you know if I find it.

Achievements

photo not chosen- this ant was carrying its dead 'friend' across the driveway, moving quickly. I chose the sash over the ant.

Day 224-

We get a lot of spiders in the landscape in the fall. My girlfriend in NY asked if this was one of the Jojo spiders. I am not sure, I wish I had taken more photos of it to get another view, but I didn't. So for this spider, it will just be listed as a spider.

Spider

photo not chosen- raindrops on a spider web over an Iris. An interesting photo, but, eh, not chosen.

Day 225-

We have had so much rain this month. 10.27" so far and we are only a little past halfway through the month. Our average for August is 3.92". With that rain comes some amazing skies. Clouds always fascinate me,

Strange Skies

photo not chosen- I did crop and adjust the lighting for this photo. What I saw in the sky wasn't as vibrant in the photo.

Day 226-

We were in the parking lot at the grocery store and the truck next to us had HUGE tires. Thought it would make a good photo. Making it black and white added to the depth of the tread.

Tire

photo not chosen- I needed to crop and add the black and white filter. With the tire and the asphalt it doesn't look too different, but the truck is a dark blue.

Day 227-

While walking Fiona during a break from the rain, I noticed this stump that has put forth a lot of new growth with all the rain. Hardwoods will continue to sprout from a stump. Cutting like this is called 'coppicing'. Some trees are coppiced to harvest young wood. Oak, hazel, ash, willow, and chestnut are good trees to coppice. This one is an elm. Not a practice I recommend for the average garden. Pines do not sprout like hardwoods.

Coppiced

No extra photos to consider for this day.

Day 228-

Like I said, lots of rain! I was trying to get the wind and the rain in the photo, but no, just a gray, subdued photo.

Rainy night

Again, no extra photos for this day.

Day 229-

We have lots of Goldenrod coming up in our yard. The sun was just hitting the almost open blooms, and it seemed to glow. I imagine this is Solidago altissima, as it is so tall. Also near the Goldenrod are some Golden Asters. They have not begun to bloom yet.

Goldenrod Aglow

I hope you have enjoyed seeing some of the discarded/rejected photos for the daily offering. There are still a few I want to share in a post that I disregarded from earlier this year. Thanks for reading this week.

Sunday, August 10, 2025

Photo-a-Day Week 32

Week 32 has come to a conclusion. These weeks are zooming by at a rapid speed. This has been a very rainy week. From the forecast, this coming week will also bring a lot of rain. Hoping those who need it will receive some. Our rainfall is well over the average. Time will tell.

Day 216-

As I mentioned last week, Fiona loves to watch the hummingbirds at the feeders. She has been getting pretty wound up, barking at the tiny hummingbirds. She is now sporting her correction collar. It is a collar that I can hit the sound bell, a vibration, or a bit of a shock. I have only ever hit the sound bell. She knows what she should and shouldn't do.

Focused

Day 217-

The rain came down in buckets, and the water droplets were hanging off of everything. I thought it would be a good choice for that day's picture.

Raindrops on Crabapples

Day 218-

This little dog loves to stare at me. Charlie thinks she is trying to herd me, get me to move, take her out to play, or whatever. Who knows what goes on in her head.

"What?"

Day 219-

After the rain, all sorts of fungi have been popping up. These were so little, I almost couldn't find them from one minute to the next. I was outside, tossing the rings and disc for the dogs and I noticed these pink mushrooms. From the moment I noticed them to the next, when I got my cellphone out of my back pocket, I lost them. In the photo below, you see the pine straw needles, dwarfing the mushroom. It wasn't until I looked at my photo that I realized there was dog hair in the picture. Dog hair is everywhere!

Tiny Mushroom with dog hair

Day 220-

Our riding lawn mower needed some fixing, and my husband was busy working on it. Before I jumped in the shower, I asked if he needed anything. He needed another set of hands, so I delayed the shower for a bit. One last thing was to put the cable back into the slot and put a Cotter pin through the hole. Of course, it is above the mowing deck, facing away from us, toward the center of the mower, and is difficult to see. We were successful in completing the task and the mower has a new belt and is back together.

Put the Cotter Pin Where?

Day 221-

While pulling weeds in the front, I noticed a small Green Tree Frog in the Pitcher plant. The shorts I had on did not have pockets, so I didn't have my phone on me. As I was almost done for the day, I finished up my chores for the day, and cleaned up. Once I grabbed my phone and went back out, I was worried it might have moved somewhere else. I first saw the Anole on top and figured the frog was gone. Moving around to the open side of the Pitcher plant, there was the Green Tree Frog, still inside the throat of the plant, and Mr. Anole, sitting on top!

Anole and Green Tree Frog

Day 222-

Don't we all have a bundle of cables and wires? Every device needs its own cord to get charged. I need to move some of the less-often-used ones to the desk in the back room.

Charging Station

I haven't forgotten that I will do a reject photo post. Come back again for more photos.

Sunday, August 3, 2025

Photo-a-Day Week 31

Welcome back to another week's wrap-up for my photo-a-day challenge. I have been toying with the idea of sharing some of the "rejects". Some days I take several potential photos. Keep an eye out for that post coming up. We were in New Jersey on Sunday and then drove home on Monday. If you like quaint beach towns, Cape May is worth checking out. There aren't the high-rise hotels, but Victorian homes with lots of gingerbread details. There are lots of cute shops, and a trolley that you can take for a tour of Cape May. It was an outpost during World War II, and there's a lighthouse you can walk up, 199 steps. We took a Salt Marsh tour that I mentioned in my last post. We stayed in a house on the bay side of the point, and literally had the beach to ourselves. It was a perfect spot for the little ones to explore, build sandcastles, and rescue horseshoe crabs from being stranded at low tide.

Day 209-

We went into Cape May to see some of the shops. As we drove down the street, there was a bicycle shop on the corner. We stopped at the light, quickly got my cell phone camera out, and snapped a photo. After many filter adjustments, I decided to go with the black and white image.

Bicycle Shop

Day 210-

On our drive home I took all sorts of photos of items along the way. The one below was the winner for the day's photo. I guess it is equipment for electrical lines.

Crazy things you see on the road

Day 211-

We have these wildflowers all over our yard. I like to let a good bit of them stay. Their vines tendril around anything in their way to support their growth upward. If it is strangling a shrub or plant I want to keep, I will pull the pea vine off. There are a couple Butterfly Peas native to our area. This one, Spurred Butterfly Pea, Centrosema virginianum, is prevalent in my garden. There is a non-native one, Clitoria ternatea, that is used as a tea to create beautiful purple drinks.

Centrosema virginianum, Spurred Butterfly Pea

Day 212-

As the cold front was working its way through our area, we had some amazing cloud formations. Kind of like the black and white image - makes the clouds stand out.

Flat bottom clouds

Day 213-

I love the shape of the Toad Lily. This one is Tricyrtis formosana 'Gilt Edge'. I also have a white one that is a pass-along plant from my dear friend Julie. The deer like these little blooms, so some years I have fewer than other years.

Gilt Edge Toad lily

Day 214-

We have a sundial in our garden along the driveway. This garden needs a lot of attention. Wildflowers and grasses have overrun the area. A good fall cleanup is in order.

Time Stands Still

Day 215-

This morning we had four hummingbirds fighting over the feeder. There may have been more than four but I am sure there were at least four. This little female was stretching her neck to get a good look over the feeder to see if other hummingbirds would attack! Our Border Collie, Fiona, has been watching this aerial show for the past few days. It is cute except she barks at the birds and gets the German Shepherd involved in the barking, too loud!!!

Stretch that Neck

Thus concludes our weekly wrap-up. Hope you enjoyed a little more insight into the photos. Stay tuned for my post on those that didn't get chosen as the photo of the day.

Monday, July 28, 2025

Photo-a-Day Week 30

Hey all, I am back. We were busy busy busy this past weekend, and I was able to get my daily photos posted, but no time to do the weekly wrap-up. So as it is Monday evening, I will get my act together and write.

Day 202-

I have had to hand-water my containers on the deck every other day. This time of year, we have lots of baby lizards hatch. This is a teeny tiny Anole Carolinensis. This little one was maybe an inch long. As I worked my way down the line of pots of hostas, this Anole would hop from one leaf to the next, trying to get away from the water. As I reached the end of the line of pots, it came out from hiding and was drinking the water off the leaves.

A drink of water

Day 203-

This thermometer is on our screened porch off the Master bedroom. I was amazed to see the daily temps creep up, higher and higher. We were away for the weekend, and I think it got over

100 degrees! So much of the country has been under a heat dome; it is brutal!

Too Hot!

Day 204-

With the heat and little rain, the crepe myrtles drop their blooms. We had some wind, which blew the small brightly colored blooms across the driveway, and they clustered in the rocks along the edge.

Crepe myrtle blooms

Day 205-

Our yard is oriented on a north/south axis and the morning light, coming from the east, and the afternoon light, shining from the west, create some lovely vignettes. The Abelia grandiflora at the right of the small light-colored small tree just seems to glow.

Morning Light

Day 206-

Speaking of the sun shining, - we left early Friday morning to go to New Jersey for a small family gathering. It was dark when we left, and it was lovely to see the glowing red ball emerging along the horizon. The sunlight reflecting off the sides of the trucks added to the picture.

Bright Sun

Day 207-

Our route took us across the Delaware Memorial Bridge, late in the afternoon. Traffic was thick and driving was nerve-wracking. When we finally got to the Delaware Memorial Bridge, the traffic thinned out a good bit. We are not used to rush hour traffic in the DC/Baltimore area...crazy!!

Bridge

Day 208-

Our first adventure was to go on a Salt Marsh Safari boat ride. We rode past these fishing boats: our guide said they were scallop boats. They were quite handsome, lined up along the docks. The Salt Marsh Safari tour was lots of fun. We saw so many water birds. Some of them were first-time observations for us. I enjoyed the guides who were very knowledgeable about the wildlife and the environment of this coastal area of New Jersey.

Fishing boats

Once again, I am sorry for the delayed posting. Our trip afforded me some interesting photos for the next couple of days,

Sunday, July 20, 2025

Photo-a-Day Week 29

Time for the weekly wrap-up of the photo-a-day for this week. No black-and-white photos this week.

Day 195-

Summer produce is amazing and peaches are my favorite. This week's purchase is white peaches. If you have never had white peaches, give them a try; they are so sweet. They bruise more easily than standard yellow peaches, so often they are not shipped. If you want to try them, you will need to go local.

Summer's Bounty

Day 196-

This T-shirt is my husband's, he has a lot of band's T-shirts. This one is a little different as it has a quote from a song by Ray Wylie Hubbard. It is a good quote and a good reminder about gratitude.

Words to live by-

Day 197-

Sweetgrass baskets are a treasured art form in South Carolina. Last year, there was a Sweetgrass basket exhibit in our Arts Center, and a class was offered to make your own sweetgrass basket. Artisans from the low country taught us how to wrap the palm threads around and through the coils of the sweetgrass. To work this material truly takes an experienced hand. My basket isn't large, but having made it, I can appreciate the talent and knowledge these artisans have to make larger and intricate baskets.

Sweetgrass basket

Day 198-

My husband power washes our decks, patios, BBQ pad, and driveway. When he does the driveway, it is a couple of days' process. We have lots of pine trees that line the driveway, and the sticky pine sap holds dirt on the pavement. The driveway isn't done every year, but it sure is noticeable when it is done.

Clean/dirty

Day 199-

This is a new fence near our neighborhood. There are horses in the pastures. I guess they needed to upgrade the fencing. The fence company did a really nice job. Not sure if it will be painted or stained sometime down the road.

Fence line

Day 200-

I took a photo of the glass block window in our bathroom for one of the photo-a-day offerings, Day 95. When the morning sun shines through the window, we get some interesting light play on the tile floor. While I was getting my photo, Millie, our kitty, was curious about what I was doing.

Light Refraction and Shadows

Day 201-

The Junipers in our area are loaded with berries. Juniperus virginiana, commonly called Eastern red cedar, is not a cedar. The berries are a light blue and, when ripe, are edible. They are used in sauerkraut and gin making. When we lived in Germany, I would buy them packaged when I was making sauerkraut or Sauerbraten. The German translation for juniper berries is Wacholderbeeren.

Juniper berries

Thanks for stopping by for this week's photos.

*A side note about the previous post on Clethra- the Ruby Spice blooms are open, and they are nicely fragranced. I love having fragrant plants in my garden, how about you?

Tuesday, July 15, 2025

Plant Profile- Clethra alnifolia 'Vanilla Spice'

I thought I would take a break from the Photo-a-Day posts to profile an amazing shrub that I have in my garden. Clethra alnifolia 'Vanilla Spice' is currently filling the air with its fragrance, and it is delightful. I have it planted in a few spots in my backyard gardens and I can tell you, it likes moist soil. Two of the spots I have it planted in semi-shade and a rather dry area, it is not doing as well as the clump in more sun and a wetter area.

This shrub is deer resistant, though many of the flower stalks get sampled. Clethra alnifolia is native to swampy woodlands, stream shorelines, wetlands, and can be found from Maine to Florida. The common name is Summersweet, probably for its fragrant blooms. Reading about it on the Missouri Botanical Garden site it says it can tolerate clay soils (which I have) but the soil should not dry out completely. Think I might move the struggling ones to a wetter area in my yard. The light requirements are full sun to part shade. So, more sun and more water areas for those that will get moved in the fall/winter.

The shrub grows to about 6 feet tall and creates a colony of suckers, making a wide shrub, spreading at will. Given my backyard is more of a woodland garden, I like when a shrub is thriving and spreading.

When in bloom, these shrubs are covered with pollinators. It makes me happy to see so many pollinators in my garden.

When I first purchased this shrub, I really wanted C. alnifolia 'Ruby Spice', but only 'Vanilla Spice' was available. Like I said above, the fragrance from the 'Vanilla Spice' fills the backyard.

A neighbor had some 'Ruby Spice' that they were dividing, and shared some with me. It is not quite open yet, but I can tell you from previous years it isn't nearly as fragrant as 'Vanilla Spice'. As the 'Ruby Spice' bloom opens the pink color fades quite a bit. These 'Ruby Spice' also need to be moved, not nearly enough water for them to flourish.

Clethra alnifolia 'Ruby Spice'

I wrote about the Clethra alnifolia back in July 2011. While checking my previous post, I see I need to find my photos from the post. Not sure why, but some of my older posts have the photos disappear. I know I thought I was culling excess photos from my Google photos, and inadvertently deleted some that were used for a blog post. As I find posts that are missing photos, I go back through the archives and replace them.

Sunday, July 13, 2025

Photo-a-Day Week 28

Boy, where does the time go? Seems like I just did a post on last week's photos and here we are again! After looking at this week's photos, I realized I did more black and white images than usual. Let's look at each photo and see if I can share a little detail on each.

Day 188-

Along the driveway, I have a couple of pieces of rusted front porch railing. I love the rust and have been trying to get a native wisteria to grow up the railing like a trellis. A couple years ago, I installed irrigation pipe and heads on this side of the driveway. I had installed irrigation on the other side years before and decided that if the wisteria was going to grow, it also needed water. Hoping next year to have blooms on the Wisteria frutescens 'Amethyst Falls'.

Rust and Vine

Day 189-

Liebling is the champion of the rings! She likes chasing and catching these rubber rings. This photo may look like I am holding the ring high above her, to get her attention, but it is sailing through the air. She is focused!

Queen of the Rings

Day 190-

As I was looking at the garden up by the road, I noticed there was a Cicada exoskeleton on the Russian sage. Russian sage, Perovskia atriplicifolia, has been reclassified as Salvia yangii. I get frustrated when botanical names get changed. The Cicada is the annual one, opposed to the 13-year cycle brood that emerged earlier this year. At night, when I take the dogs out, it sounds like a jungle with all the insects singing their songs. Add in the frogs and toads singing, it can be quite loud!

Cicada Time

Day 191-

We drove to a political event this past week and took the backroads to get there. I noticed this rusted-out pickup truck and tractor on our way there. There was construction a little further down the road, and I wondered if we were going to take a different route home. I was glad when my husband took the same route home. I told him I wanted to get a picture for my photo of the day. The nice thing about driving backroads, you can drive slowly or even stop to take my photos.

Hay bales and rust

Day 192-

Wild morning glories, Ipomoea lacunosa, were blooming, and the white blooms really stood out in the shade of the trees along the road. In the photo with color, the white didn't "pop" so I tried some filters and decided the black and white was the best option. To get closer to the blooms for a photo, I had to watch out for a lot of poison ivy!

Black and White

Day 193-

My Monarda fistulosa, Wild bergamot, is blooming and the bees are loving it! There have been some Skipper butterflies on it as well, but they fly off quickly when I approach with my cellphone camera. The bumblebees ignore me, so they are the stars of the photo.

Bumbles and Monarda

Day 194-

When we first moved here, we planted a red crepe myrtle along the driveway. As it has grown, so have the pines around them. The crepe myrtle is quite tall, looks like it is leaning because it is reaching for a small amount of sunlight. This crepe myrtle, Lagerstroemia indica, is most likely 'Dynamite'. In addition to the lovely flowers, crepe myrtle has the most amazing exfoliated bark.

Exfoliating bark

I thank you for stopping by again this week. This coming week, I will try not to do so many black and white photos.

Sunday, July 6, 2025

Photo-a-Day Week 27

Week 27 marks the halfway point of the year! Welcome back to another wrap-up for the week.

Day 181-

My friend David Sullivan, from whom I accepted this challenge, said it was National Camera Day. I have a shelf of old cameras, so it was appropriate to get a photo of them to celebrate. A couple of the cameras came from my folks, and one from my husband's childhood.

Yesterday was National Camera Day

Day 182-

Just outside our neighborhood, we have friends who have a gnome house. It was in an old tree stump. Over the years the stump deteriorated. Because there were so many tree stumps uprooted from Hurricane Helene, they were able to acquire a new stump. Many of us have been waiting to see the new reveal. It is as charming as ever! In the photo below, you can see a hammock and a swing on one side of the house. Around back there is a campfire where marshmallows are being toasted. I love the little window boxes. I am sure there will be more added over time. It is always fun to check out the gnomes.

New Stump Remodel

Day 183-

We have had a good number of Swallowtail butterflies this year. Some years, I only see a few, and they have tattered wings. This one is in beautiful shape and enjoying the Hyssop blooms.

Swallowtail on Hyssop

Day 184-

While looking for a Yellow-billed Cuckoo high in the trees in my backyard, I found a nest. It took a long time to finally see a little head pop up. It is a female Summer Tanager sitting on her nest. It is pretty high up in the tree, so getting a better photo isn't possible. I will keep an eye out for more activity as time goes by.

Summer Tanager nest

Day 185-

On the morning of the 4th of July, I looked out to the lake to see if there was a lot of traffic. We are on the northern end of the lake, so most of the boating in our backyard has someone teaching someone to water ski or taking some children on a tube. It is quieter and we like it that way!

Quiet on the Lake, Happy 4th

Day 186-

Every day, multiple times a day, we are outside playing. Fiona loves to play with the disc. Liebling likes the rubber rings. Fiona jumps pretty high to catch the disc. I used to play with a Frisbee with her, but the edges would get cut up and then cut up her gums. I like this fabric one, it sails nicely and is easy for her to catch.

Got it!

Day 187-

While looking for inspiration for today's photo, I noticed a dusky moth on the garage door. I think it is a Decorated Owlet. If it isn't one, I will correct the name.

Decorated Owlet

Like I said at the top, we have reached the halfway point of the year! More interesting photos to follow each day. Hope you keep coming back.

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