Photo-a-Day Week 4

Welcome back, hard to believe another week has zoomed by. Here is last week's photos, enjoy!

Day 20- A very cold day, clear blue skies. I have had a flurry of Eastern Bluebirds at my feeders and on the deck. As I said last week, I purchased a big box of dried meal worms for them to enjoy. As they wait their turns at the feeders they sit in the tree, fluffed up to keep warm. 

Eastern Bluebirds

Day 21- Mature Bald Eagle, sitting in a pine tree, overlooking the lake. In the winter the lake level is drawn down and we have lots of Bald Eagles taking advantage of fishing opportunities. Always a treat to see our nation's bird.

Bald Eagle

Day 22- As I mentioned above, we have had some very cold temperatures lately. Ice has been forming on the top of the lake. We also got some snow that sat on top of the ice. It made for some interesting photos. 

Snow on ice on the lake

Day 23- Lots of cut crystal in our curved glass curio cabinet. Many of these pieces were either my mom's or my husband's mom. The curio cabinet was also from my mother in law, a perfect place to showcase our treasures.

Cut crystal sparkles

Day 24- As the planets are on the minds of those who like to stargaze, I find myself outside quite often, either getting photos of the moon or on very rare occasions, an Aurora Borealis! Our night sky out the back includes the lights on the other side of the lake.

Evening sky

Day 25-  Our dogs get their food delivered by Chewy and our kitty, Millie, thinks the box is hers. She loves hiding in the box. No one can see her, right?

Box!

Day 26- Long time readers may remember my mermaid table. You can read more about her here, or here or here. I named her Gilmore, after the siren Lorelei, then to Lorelei Gilmore from the TV show, ending up with Gilmore. She still is in our living room. Now that we have grandkids we are extra vigilant that they don't sit or lie on the glass. We did get a lot of fingerprints over Christmas. 

Gilmore

Thanks for joining me again on the Photo a Day posts. Come back again!

©Copyright 2025 Janet. All rights reserved. Content created by Janet for The Queen of Seaford. words and photos by Janet,The Queen of Seaford.

Photo-a-Day Week 3

We are now at week 3 of my photo-a-day series. I am trying to get a wider range of photos to share. I had set a current photo parameter for myself. Every photo has been taken within the past 24 hours. Most photos are taken with my cellphone, though not all. Those from my camera will be noted.

Day 13-  A large box of dried mealworms. I have had a lot of Eastern Bluebirds visiting recently, counted 7 on the deck at one time. To keep them coming back I bought mealworms. 

Day 14-  Really cold day. Plants that have hollow stems often will hold water, be it from rain or snow, in the hollow pith. When temperature go below freezing, the ice has nowhere to expand but through the stem, breaking the outer layers and curling as it expands. This is a spent Goldenrod stem.

Day 15- I received an Amaryllis bulb for Christmas and it has been blooming for a few weeks. As the blooms fade and dry, they become a bit translucent. The lamp behind really illuminated the beautiful veining of the bloom.

Day 16- Great Blue Heron, perched on the roof of our deck. This was taken with my Canon Powershot SX 70 HS camera. I was outside, on our deck, which is about 200 feet away from the dock. 

Day 17- Bouncing along the regularly traveled road at night, tried to get a blur of headlights as we drove. The bumpy road gave me a different look.

Day 18-  Inside our front closet, a box of rings and Frisbees and other puppy dog toys. You open this door and you will have two dogs trying to get to the toys!

Day 19- Book open to a folk tale "The Elves and the Shoemaker" to read to my grandkids. The book is from a 20 volume set called "The Book of Knowledge". This collection has everything from songs to folk tales to geography to science (albeit a bit outdated now!) to politics and crafts. The copyright edition of this set 1953, published by the Grolier Society, calling this a Children's Encyclopedia. 

Thanks for stopping by again this week. I posted a Fling post this past week,  a couple more to come. 

©Copyright 2025 Janet. All rights reserved. Content created by Janet for The Queen of Seaford. words and photos by Janet,The Queen of Seaford.

Puget Sound Fling Day #3 - Heronswood

Our visit to Heronswood was a feast for the senses! 

From the bus drop off, on the pathway of the woodland garden was a striking example of a Japanese climbing hydrangea, Schizophragma hydrangeoides. Heronswood is 15 acre garden founded by Dan Hinkley and Robert Jones. Over time the place was sold to Burpee Seed, then sold off at auction.  The Port S'Klallam Tribe purchased it and it is now under a 501 (c)3 Foundation open to the public. More can information can found at Heronswood site. 

Schizophragma hydrangeoides

A woodland meadow with lots of pinks and blues and yellows caused me to stop and get a few photos. 

Astrantia, Greater Masterwort, was present in many gardens in the PNW. At first I thought it was something else. Many conversations occurred with my fellow Flingers and I lost out on the plant ID and now I can't remember what I thought it was in the first place. I was so sure I was correct, funny how that happens. 

Astrantia

Many of the gardens in Heronswood were groupings with great color complements. White, gray, silver and pale blue paired with some dark colors.

Eryngium 

I wish my Crane's-bill geraniums looked half this nice! 

Geranium pratense, Meadow
crane's-bill

Hot colors included this one, below, common name Angel's Fishing Rod or Fairy Wand Flower. 

Dierama pulcherrimum

And who doesn't love some Meadow Rue dotting the garden on its wispy stems? 

Thalictrum 

There were a few different varieties of ornamental oregano, they all were lush and full of blooms. 

Origanum sp. 

The first Fling I attended was in Asheville and I fell in love with pitcher plants. There are so many varieties and many are native to my area. This planting around a pond with lily pads was just amazing.

Sarracenia sp. 

Isn't this a great color combination? I really am drawn to complementary colors. The peachy yellow lilies and the blue/purple Agapanthus really look great together. 

Agapanthus and Lilium 

More Astrantia 

Astrantia 

Would you believe this is a Fuchsia? I had no idea there were varieties with variegated foliage. 

Fuchsia 'Tom West'

This is a wide shot of the formal parterre garden. I didn't want to leave this spot! Once a kitchen garden for Dan and Robert it is now purely ornamental. Be sure to check out the videos on my Instagram page.

Walking back to the parking area, much as we hated to end our visit, we came across ferns and ferns and ferns!! It was almost prehistoric! 

Here is another oregano, I had never seen this variety before. This one was near the gift shop.

Origanum 'Xera Cascade'

Another plant near the gift shop was an unusual pitcher plant. It almost looks like it had a nose! 

Darlingtonia californica 

This post just scratched the surface of a wonderful garden. If you are in the Puget Sound area and have plans to go to Kingston, WA, be sure to add a visit to Heronswood to your itinerary. 

Next up is our visit to Dan Hinkley's and the Brindley's (Dan's neighbor) gardens. 

©Copyright 2025 Janet. All rights reserved. Content created by Janet for The Queen of Seaford. words and photos by Janet,The Queen of Seaford.

Photo-a-day Week 2

Welcome to week 2 of the photo-a-day posts. All of the photos have been taken with my cell phone, Pixel 7, except for the last one, today's photo at the bottom of this array.

Day 6- Forsythia bush sprouting and blooming well ahead of the season. This poor shrub has not done well though it keeps holding on.

Day 7- Glowing rain gauge. The sun setting behind the gauge. I volunteer to observe and report rainfall to Cocorahs.org, a citizen scientist program. Do you like observing weather and want to be a part of this large organization? Go to the link above and find out how. 

Day 8- Frosty morning photo of lichen, moss, and leaves in one of the planters on my deck.

Day 9- Two dogs, anxious to play, regardless of the chilly tempertures.

Day 10- Our snowfall has begun. It was short lived, changing to sleet then rain in a couple hours. Weeping Redbud, Ruby Falls.

 

Day 11- Seed pods of Leucothoe fontanesiana, in my front woods.

Day 12- American Goldfinch feeding on Rose of Sharon seed pods. This one taken with the camera instead of my cellphone.

Thanks for stopping by again this week. Now that Christmas items are packed away until next year, we can get back to Puget Sound Fling photos. Stay tuned.

©Copyright 2025 Janet. All rights reserved. Content created by Janet for The Queen of Seaford. words and photos by Janet,The Queen of Seaford.

Photo-A-Day Week 1

Before I get back to the Puget Sound Fling, still have some fantastic gardens to share, I am starting a new series.

My friend David Sullivan, CIOPhoto instagram, has had a series of a photo a day for 365 days for a number of years. After enjoying his series, I thought I would jump in and do the same. Mine are posted daily on my personal Facebook page, but every Sunday I will share what was previously posted here on my blog. This week's photos will include only 5 photos as this is the first week of the year, a short week.

Day 1- A ground level photo of my dog, Liebling. She doesn't seem to be very impressed with this project. Perhaps I will photograph her in the coming year showing more enthusiasm. 

Day 2- A frosty morning with long angles of the winter sun. Below is our septic drain field, cut not too long ago to make way for daffodils to emerge come spring.

Day 3- A waxed Amaryllis bulb in bloom on my dining room table. Christmas tree is still up and all decorations still out for us to enjoy.

Day 4- A side view of one of our Nutcrackers, perhaps looking sad as it is time to begin to put away the decorations. 

Day 5- Outside with the dogs I spied the first open bloom of the Prunus mume 'Hokkia-Bungo' one of the flowering apricot trees. I especially love this one as its fragrance is that of cinnamon and the flowers are dark pink. It is a lovely small tree and on warm winter days our honey bees enjoy the flowers.

This ends our first week of photo-a-day. Please come back weekly to see what has been posted next. 

More of the Fling will come soon....as soon as I finish putting all the decorations away! 
 

©Copyright 2025 Janet. All rights reserved. Content created by Janet for The Queen of Seaford. words and photos by Janet,The Queen of Seaford.