The Queen of Seaford: 2025

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!

Sunday, November 2, 2025

Photo-a-Day Week 44

Welcome back to another summary of the week's photos. More photos of autumn are included in the collection.

Day 300-

I have three Drift roses bushes near the front door, and they are really reliable bloomers. They are black spot resistant. The variety I have is 'Popcorn'. They will bloom until late November/ December.

Roses

Day 301-

For most of October, we didn't have any rain, then we had four days of rain. There is riprap along the roadway to mitigate erosion, and this day, there was a lot of rainwater rushing downhill along the road. A rapid rushing of water cascading down, into the riprap and through the culverts, into the lake.

Water

Day 302-

Many of my hostas are on the deck, away from the deer and their nibbling. I have some hostas in the garden and before the cold weather came, those hostas looked like celery stalks stuck in the ground.

End of a Season

Day 303-

Our Kmart in town closed several years ago, and a U-Haul storage place and rental facility moved in. The parking lot is sloped, and I was surprised that the storage units were placed so that the front of the unit was not even with the ground.

Storage on an incline

Day 304-

Remember the beautiful roses from a few days ago (see above)? The deer are very hungry. They nibbled almost every rose and rosebud off the shrubs. My poor rose bushes look like Morticia Addams pruned every single stem.

Morticia Addams did my pruning

Day 305-

In the fall we get a lot of spider webs but I think these Funnel weaver spider webs are so interesting. They are a very tight funnels, though I rarely see the spider that makes these.

Funnel weaver spider web

Day 306-

I have a variety of Camellias in the garden. Most of the ones I have are Camellia sasanquas, blooming anytime from September through December. This beauty is Camellia sasanqua 'Ashley Eden'. In the coming weeks, I will be sharing more Camellias. There are lots of pollinators who like these beauties.

Camellia sasanqua 'Ashley Eden'

And now for a few of the not chosen photos-

Possumhaw holly, or Ilex decidua. It is in berry at the corner of my septic drain field.

This is the dogwood that grows along my driveway. The colors of the leaves almost make it look like candy corn. The colors of our fall foliage always makes me happy.

Raindrops on Edgeworthia leaves. The leaves are a little fuzzy and the raindrops sit on the top of the leaf.

Afternoon light shines through the trees along the driveway.

That's all for this week, hope you liked the chosen and not chosen photos. Come back again next week.

Sunday, October 26, 2025

Photo-a-Day Week 43

As I started collecting the photos for this week from my posts, I found I had misnumbered most of the week's photos. I was all excited, I had reached number 300!! It wasn't #300, it was 299. Next week start with 300. Whatever the numeral, we are getting close to the end of the year. It has been an interesting project to get a new photo each day and not use my rather large library of photos from past years. While getting a new photo each day isn't the challenge, it is not to repeat subjects- or at least make them appear new. You will see more than one photo of my pets, but they are doing something different. Hoping to keep you, my audience, interested and coming back for more is the job!

Day 293-

Fiona is an insistent dog, she wants to go out and play all the time! She is a Border Collie and will do her best Border Collie stare to get me to move. Sometimes it works, but not always.

I want to go out and play

Day 294-

This building is on a corner that we pass at least once a week, it is across the street from a gas station that has been redone recently. I don't know anything about the history of this building but am sure there are stories to be found!

Days Gone By

Day 295-

Foggy mornings draw me to try and get a photo of the misty fog and the light of the morning sun, shining through. The fog that rolls across the lake in the morning is also a scene I would like to capture. As we move into the cooler weather, I hope to get a fog on the lake picture.

Foggy morning

Day 296-

This day, I was a little hard pressed to find a subject to photograph.. Turns out a few bananas, a couple of avocados, and an overripe pear were good to capture. The black and white show the shapes and shadows.

Still life in black and white

Day 297-

This week I was getting my houseplants ready to come back in the house from the screened porch and found a couple frogs on the plants. The first one was a Green Tree Frog, I didn't take a photo of it. The second one I came across was this little guy, Cope's Gray Tree Frog. It was chilly, and he wasn't moving very quickly. Once I picked it off the plant to move it into the garden, I expected it would jump off my hand right away. He didn't. I think it was glad to be in my warm hand. I placed it on the branch of the Edgeworthia at the bottom of the deck steps. It was there for a good while before hopping off to a good spot.

Cope's Gray Tree Frog

Day 298-

Driving to our friends' house for dinner, we had glimpses of a sliver of a crescent moon. The sky was beautiful as the sun was setting, giving it the oranges and reds on the horizon.

Crescent moon at sunset

Day 299-

There are a lot of churches in our county. Some with pointed steeples with a cross on top, some, like this one, are brick with a fortressed bell tower. It is the Main Street United Methodist Church. More church steeples to come in the coming weeks.

Methodist

Here are the photos not chosen-

First, our little tree frog. I wanted you to see how little this little frog was. Such a cute little frog. I find the Cope's Gray Tree Frogs every so often. Love their coloring.

An attempt to capture the fog on the lake from the deck. It was not a great representation of the foggy morning.

As Fiona was sitting at the front door, staring at me to go outside, Liebling was just chilling, staring, wondering if we would go and play.

This concludes the review of last week's photos. Please come again! Keep thinking about your favorite photo!

Sunday, October 19, 2025

Photo-a-Day Week 42

Week 42, a few more plant photos than in previous weeks. I did have a choice of several photos on one day, Day 290. Remember to be thinking about which one of the 365 photos is your favorite as the year draws to a close.

Day 286-

Millie came out to the living room area to watch as Charlie adjusted the front door. It wasn't closing properly, and there was a lot of opening and closing of said door. All the animals were interested in what was happening.

Watching from a safe spot

Day 287-

We had a nice, clear, warm/pleasant day, so Charlie decided to stain the deck. He had cleaned it over the previous days. Not a fun job, but needed to be done to protect the wood on the deck.

Staining the Deck

Day 288-

Some of my dogwood trees are starting to show their fall color. This one is also showing the fruit from last year's blooms and the tiny minarets of next year's blooms. Dogwoods, Cornus florida, bloom in the early spring with tiny yellow flowers. The white bracts that surround the flowers are often mistaken for the petals of the flowers.

Last spring and next spring

Day 289-

When I take the dogs outside to play in the morning, many times there is a lone Mourning Dove just sitting very still in the grass. I wasn't sure if it would fly away when I tried to get a photo, but this dove stayed put for a quick photo. Getting a photo of a bird with a cell phone isn't easy, the zoom isn't very long-reaching.

Mourning Dove

Day 290-

Walking through the backyard I was tickled to see one of the Cyclamen was blooming. I have several Cyclamen neapolitanum planted in the wooden area of the garden. I see the leaves but often miss the blooms.

Cyclamen

Day 291-

I am lucky to have a pair of Persimmon trees in our yard. They produce some fruit, though not a lot.

Persimmons, Diospyros virginiana, need two trees, male and female, to bear fruit. The male and female trees in my front yard almost look like a double trunked single tree. The pollinators love the blooms.

Persimmon

Day 292-

Our trees are starting to show their fall colors, and the morning light hitting the leaves makes them shine. The yellow leaves in the photo are one of the many hickories we have in our yard. The sky in the background was dark with rain clouds. We could use the rain, though we were only graced with a small amount. I checked the gauge, 4/100" of rain. First reports were an anticipation of 2/10", and it was an over exaggeration. I will be sharing the side yard foliage over the next few weeks. The lot to the left sold and the new owners are moving ahead with plans to build. The lot line is pretty close to the garden edge, so the look will be changing for sure.

Fall colors with dark skies

The day I found the Cyclamen blooming, I got a few other photos. It was a tough choice between the one chosen and the ones below. Please enjoy Rudbeckia laciniata, a small fern in the crevice of a rock, Calico aster- Symphyotrichum lateriflorum, and a tiny toad. I think the toad is a Fowler's Toad, but not sure.

Would you have chosen differently?

Be sure to subscribe to the posts on Substack. The link to my Substack page is https://janetledebuhr.substack.com/

I hope you are thinking about your favorite one! See you next week.

Pages