The Queen of Seaford: 2025

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?

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

Sunday, October 12, 2025

Photo-a-Day Week 41

Week 41 seems to have more blooms with butterflies; Fall brings an abundance of these winged beauties. I need to read more about Fritillary butterflies. I have seen some that are quite a bit smaller than the ones I have pictured below.

Day 279-

I noticed this tiny mushroom in the garden and bent down to photograph it. After looking at what I captured I realized there was a small snail on the mushroom. Before the photo, I thought it was a bump on the mushroom. Pays to lean in and look closely!

Snail on Mushroom

Day 280-

The Pineapple Sage, Salvia elegans, blooms in October and it attracts Cloudless Sulphur butterflies. With the sun behind the butterfly, it really glowed.

Cloudless Sulphur on Pineapple Sage

Day 281-

These beauties are Gulf Fritillary butterflies. As I mentioned above, I have seen smaller Fritillary butterflies, and after reading more, I found that there are several Fritillary butterflies in South Carolina. Perhaps the ones I see that are smaller are the Variegated Fritillary. These are enjoying the nectar of the Ironweed that is blooming in the garden.

Fritillary butterflies on Ironweed

Day 282-

We arrived at the grocery store this week to find a fire truck sitting by the entrance. I have no idea if anything was wrong. I tried a few views of the truck to see if I could get a good photo. While I used this one, I had others from which to choose. Still not sure if this was the better choice. One of the other choices is below.

Fire truck at the grocery store

Day 283-

I have had this Encore azalea for years. The deer have pruned it over the years, taking flower buds away with the tasty leaves. For some reason, the deer allowed it to bloom this fall. Encore azalea 'Autumn Twist' blooms twice, once in the spring and then in the fall.

Encore!

Day 284-

We went to a concert in Greenville this week, at the Radio Room. I like the open ceiling where you can see the ductwork and structure supporting the ceiling and lighting throughout the area.

Radio Room

Day 285-

I try to use fewer paper napkins. By the dining room table is a basket full of colorful cloth napkins. When the kids visit, everyone is assigned a color, and that is their napkin for a meal or two. They wash easily and when they are worn out, they make good dusters.

Rainbow Selection

Discarded photos-

I didn't choose the black and white image of the fire truck because I wanted a bit of the color to pop. This filter is from an app called 'Prisma'. Some of the filters are free, and others are behind a paywall. I only use the free ones.

The day I chose the Cloudless Sulphur on Pineapple Sage, I also had this little beauty in the possible photos. It is interesting to see the inner spiral of the snail shell. While not the first choice, worth sharing.

This brings another week to a close. There are only eleven weeks to go! Keep coming back, at the end of the year I would love to hear which were your favorites!

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