The Queen of Seaford: 2025

Sunday, December 7, 2025

Photo-a-Day Week 49

Another week is in the books! Hope you enjoyed this week's photos. Let's take a closer look at each and see what might not have been selected.

Day 335-

I hope you enjoy live music as much as my husband and I do. It is great to see artists in person and feel the energy of the crowd. This night was standing room only, and we were able to get up to the rail along the left side of the stage. This band is American Aquarium, lots of fun.

Live Music

Day 336-

I love our cabinet pulls; you saw some in a previous day's photo of the day. This door hook is part of the collection. It is a great spot to hang my aprons.

Mustache

Day 337-

I planted a number of Illicium parviflorum 'Florida Sunshine' in the woods and along the driveway. During the summer, even though they are bright yellow, they don't pop in the landscape. In the fall and into the winter, once the other leaves have faded, these yellow leaves shine. The nice thing about the Illicium is that the deer don't like them; the leaves have a strong licorice aroma. Their flowers are small and rather unnoticeable. During the winter, the low angle of the sun finds its way to shine directly on some of these shrubs.

A Couple Spots of Sunshine

Day 338-

This is my cereal bowl, full of plump blueberries. I liked how the milk settled into the recesses of the berry.

Blueberries with Milk

Day 339-

This time of year, I find myself at the post office mailing our family calendars across the country. I put these calendars together every year. All the members of the family have their photo on their birthday date, and each month is a photo of something blooming in my garden. It is fun to see how the little ones grow and change over the years. We currently have two birthday doubles, my grandson and my brother, and my granddaughter and my sister. There's a new member of the family due to be born around the grandson/brother date, so we shall see if that date will have three born on that day!

PO Box

Day 340-

We had a cold blast of weather this week, and it is nice to be able to turn on the gas logs to take the chill off the room. These are vent-free logs, so they do warm up the room nicely.

Cozy

Day 341-

I know many of you have Robins in your gardens, and they aren't a novelty. I noticed a large flock of them in my front yard, high up in the pine trees. They were making a lot of noise, fluttering and calling to each other. If it were springtime and a nest was nearby, I could understand the commotion, but that wasn't the case. I did a photo book of the birds in our neighborhood, but there were no Robins. I have updated the book a few times with newly observed birds, so it might be time to update the book again!

Robin

And the also-rans-

I took a few photos of the band and the stage for the photo of the day- trying to get that perfect shot. The black and white one was kind of flat. The one with the yellow spotlight didn't measure up either.

Driving to the concert I tried using a slow shutter speed and get the lights of traffic. Will try this again in the future.

The day I posted the fireplace, the frozen bird bath caught my eye. Again, it was kind of a meh, not too exciting.

The last one not used was a flock of Canada Geese swimming on the lake. Getting a photo through the trees was not easy. You can see the gray, dismal day. The fireplace photo took the spotlight for that day.

Thus ends another week for my photo a day! Come back again next week.

Sunday, November 30, 2025

Photo-a-Day Week 48

Hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving. Ours was quiet, but we are looking forward to a full house at Christmas. Let's see what we had this past week with the photos.

Day 328-

I bought this planter after one of our Flings. I had seen it in one of the gardens, and I loved it. After a Google search, I found him! I change out the plant material every so often. Currently, there is a pup of a Color Guard Yucca and some 'Angelina' sedum. Our front porch is home to countless Anoles. Seems like every time I take the dogs outside, the first statement out of my mouth is, "Leave the lizards alone!"

I have an Anole on my face

Day 329-

The crescent moon was bright on Monday night. If my ride to bridge had been a few minutes later, I would have taken the photo from my driveway. She was right on time, so I waited until we got to our neighbor's house where we were playing cards. I wasn't sure the photo would come out because as soon as we got out of the car, her motion sensor lights came on. I tucked around the corner of her garage and captured the moon through the branches. It is not easy to photograph a bright moon with a cellphone.

Crescent moon

Day 330-

The rain came, and there were ripples and splashes of water on the deck. Shadows and light are a great way to show off ripples of water.

Ripples

Day 331-

After a light frost, most of the herbaceous plants have disappeared. This little volunteer seemed to appear overnight. The little ray of sunshine made it really glow. I think it is another of the Golden Asters that have been volunteering in this area of the yard. Chrysopsis mariana, a lovely little native plant.

Golden Volunteer

Day 332-

Not sure if this is the first hard frost, but when I finally rolled out of bed, there was still a good bit of frost on the deck. First frost or not, I love the water crystals.

Frosty

Day 333-

There was a lot of bird activity in the side yard, and I decided to get the big camera and zoom in to see who was flitting around from branch to branch. Turned out it was a flock of Eastern Bluebirds. I like how this male Bluebird was staring at me from afar. There were a couple of not chosen photos, check them out below. I love Bluebirds!

What are you looking at?

Day 334-

The bird feeders on the deck attract lots of birds and a few squirrels. The dogs are on alert; unfortunately, they will bark at the birds in addition to barking at the squirrels. Liebling, the German Shepherd didn't used to bark at the birds, but now with Fiona, our Border Collie, there is a lot of barking. We are working on it.

On bird/squirrel alert

Our not chosen photos are as follows-- like I said before, I love Bluebirds!! I just thought the photo of the one looking at the camera was my favorite.

On the frosty morning there was also ice on the top of the hose caddy, where there was once ripples of water.

The skies before the rains and the cold weather were kind of cool. Not used, but still an interesting sky.

This brings us to the end of another week of photos. Leave a comment and let me know what you think. You can comment on Blogger, on Substack, or on Facebook. Thanks for visiting.

Sunday, November 23, 2025

Photo-a-Day Week 47

The days are continuing to grow shorter, the leaves are falling, and my year of a photo a day is drawing to a close. Only five more weeks of photos. Hope you stay with me to the end. Please be thinking about your favorite photo or photos from this challenge. On January 1st next year I will post a link for a slideshow of the entire series.

Let's look at this week's photos.

Day 321-

The front of our property, near the street, is the sunniest part of the garden. I have a couple of varieties of Opuntia sp. Prickly Pear cactus. I like the red seed pods on this one. It is a pass-along plant from my brother in Illinois. This one's blooms are bright yellow with red centers. The other one I have is all yellow.

Opuntia

Day 322-

Nothing is prettier to me than the calm waters of the lake with the reflection of fall colors on the other side. I was quite lucky to capture this image as within two days all the leaves across the lake were gone.

Reflection

Day 323-

I brought the Snake plants inside a few weeks ago. Two of the planters have flower stalks with lots of buds. Some folks tell me they never knew that Dracaena trifasciata, or Mother-in-law's tongue, bloomed. I was a little confused on the botanical name. I thought it was a Sansevieria trifasciata, but apparently the name changed in 2017. (according to my reading in Wikipedia and further reading on the Kew website)

About to bloom

Day 324-

Driving home from Greenville, I had a few items I wanted to try and capture for a photo of the day. This tower is near Hickory Tavern, SC. We always take the back roads, the road less traveled, and enjoy the scenery. Not sure what this tower's job might be. Looks like a lead into an airport, not a cell tower. I will have to look more closely next trip.

Tower

Day 325-

The Camellia sasanquas are blooming now. The C. sasanqua 'Yuletide' is a reliable bloomer. I like that it has the bright yellow anthers for the pollinators to enjoy the pollen available. Some of the Camellias are doubles or more, covering the anthers, providing little to no pollen.

Yuletide

Day 326-

Greenwood, South Carolina, had a number of textile mills. Over the years, most have closed, but Greenwood Mills Harris plant is still operating. There are two water towers near the plant. There is a lot of history throughout South Carolina with the textile mills, the mill villages, and the communities that grew up tied to the Mills.

Water Towers

Day 327-

My Hydrangea quericfolia 'Ruby Slippers,' is really a stunning fall performer. The deer have nibbled down two of the three that I have. I will be more attentive next year with spraying deer repellent. While during the growing season this hydrangea is like any other oakleaf hydrangea, come fall, wow! Its color just pops.

Ruby Slippers

Thanks for visiting once again for this week's round-up. Be sure to come back again next week.

Sunday, November 16, 2025

Photo-a-Day Week 46

Week 46! We are closing in on the end of the year quickly. Here is last week's photos with some rejects and explanations of the photos taken.

Day 314-

We have had a crazy fall, drought conditions, and then a big rainfall and warmer temperatures. My spring-blooming azalea started blooming again in the fall. So I have a little fall color where none was expected.

Mixed up Coral Bells

Day 315-

My husband won this truck and tank set earlier this year. So many others had photos of their veterans on Facebook, I chose to share a fun military vehicle set. At some point, our grandson will get the set, still a little young for now.

Happy Veterans Day

Day 316-

This oak leaf was dangling on a thread of spider web, twisting and turning as the breeze blew. A little portrait filter, blurring the background, and a light adjustment made for a super photo.

Leaf on a spider web thread

Day 317-

We went to another concert, surprise, right? While waiting for the show to start I took a few photos of the lights, the stage, and my surroundings. I liked the two fiddles on the stand best of all. There's another one below, my beer glass with the blue lights behind it. We saw Kelsey Waldon, a Kentucky country/Americana music singer. We saw her at Albino Skunk fest a few years ago and really liked her.

Twin fiddles

Day 318-

My Christmas/Thanksgiving cactuses are getting ready to bloom. Nestled in one of the pots is a little garden gnome that I bought on one of the Garden Flings I went on, though right now I can't remember which one it was, maybe San Francisco?? Or Denver? Or Portland? Who knows, but I like it in my cactus planting.

Pot Gnome

Day 319-

While walking the dog in the late afternoon, I noticed how blue and clear the sky was. The pines, standing in a line, left after the lumber harvest, made a good foreground to set off the blue. Enjoy our sunny day.

Blue Skies

Day 320-

Kind of at a loss for what to get a photo of for the day, I was taking the bird feeders out of our new trash can, where they reside overnight. The raccoons are too destructive to leave the feeders up after dark. I put my Bird Buddy back up with a cage around it to deter the squirrels, the lightweight cage would not hold back Mr. Raccoon. Anyway, the empty can has a nice pattern in the metal, making for a good photo.

Night home for bird feeders

The also-rans- photos thought about using but decided against them-

While going outside after dark, I noticed the leaf with its shadow on the stone wall. It caught my eye but I still felt like the daylight photo was better than this one.

Beer with a backlight of blue. I thought this was going to be "the" shot, but after we got home and I looked through the other photos taken at the concert, I liked the fiddles better.

I shared a number of our Aurora Borealis photos on social media, pretty excited to have the experience AGAIN! Seeing the Northern Lights has always been a bucket list item. To see them twice in South Carolina was amazing. I read we would have more on the following nights, while the reds and greens didn't show, the lights and clouds made for a cool photo.

Late afternoon walks with Fiona are a great time to see low-angle sunlight through the trees. My neighbor has an American Beech in her front yard and this time of year it just glows.

That's all for this week, thanks again for stopping by. Let's see what next week brings!!

Sunday, November 9, 2025

Photo-a-Day Week 45

Sunday is almost over, time to get my post written! I spent a good deal of time outside today, working in the garden, spreading some wildflower seeds to new locations. Removed a good amount of blackberry brambles, though there's a lot more to get rid of. Not sure where the rest of the day went, but here we are, after 10:00 PM, and I am just starting the week's post. Let's get right to it.

Day 307-

Liebling is nine years old and starting to get gray around her muzzle. Her eyes are so expressive. There are times I forget how old she is, if the toys come out of the closet, she is jumping and barking- ready to go out and play.

Sad Eyes

Day 308-

A quick snack of some leftover snacks from bridge. Yogurt-covered pretzels and spicy Sriracha mixed nuts. I made my own mixed nuts with cashews, pecans, almonds, and peanuts. It is a quick and easy recipe. Spicy Sriracha Mixed Nuts a hit in our house!

Spicy and Sweet

Day 309-

Coming back from the doctor's appointment, over hill and dale, we came upon a logistics company, Amplify, a Landstar agent's yard. Charlie worked with Ranger Landstar in Florida for a year in a program Army calls "Training with Industry". Some families have a yellow punchbuggy call out while on a trip, we call out Landstar trucks and trailers. To see a whole yard of trailers was kind of fun.

Landstar

Day 310-

While waiting for the moon to rise on the night of the Super moon, I was able to enjoy the sunset. The best place to view sunsets and moonrises is down on the dock. Our house faces south, and the lake is to the north. East and west views are hidden by the woods. To get clear views, the dock on the lake provides long views.

Sunset on the Lake

Day 311-

Goldenrod blooms have faded into puffy seedheads. I love how the sunlight dances and sparkles on the seeds. Of course, no photo in my garden is complete without a strand of dog hair. Today I scattered some of these seeds in our drain field. Solidago sp.

Goldenrod seedhead

Day 312-

The low angles of the sun make for wonderful photo opportunities. The dogwood along the driveway is in its full fall colors, and the light behind it is something to behold.

Dogwood with Sun

Day 313-

This photo was from a series of a number of photos, trying to get the best angle to show off the tiny mushrooms. I have the "not chosen" ones included with the one I think was the best. A small, tight pinecone with several small mushrooms popping up at each crease caught my eye. I was next to the pollinator garden, hanging a bird feeder in place of the hummingbird feeder (long taken down) when I noticed the pinecone and all its adornments. Do you like the one chosen or those I discarded?

Pinecone with mushrooms

Some not in focus

Again, not the best

Different view, still not my favorite

This brings us to the end of another week of the photo a day. Hope you are still enjoying the variety of photos. We are getting close to the end of the year!

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