The Queen of Seaford

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!!

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