Photo-a-Day Week 11

Week eleven and still going strong! 

Day 69- 

We still keep honey bees and dress in our beekeeper outfits when we tend to them. We were done, closed the hives, and came up the driveway to empty the smoker. I always listen to make sure I don't have any bees following me away from the hives. I heard nothing. After extinguishing the smoker I looked across the street to all my daffodils blooming in our septic drain field and thought I should take a photo. Reaching in my back pocket to get my cell I encountered a couple of bees hanging out on my phone. Needless to say, I was stung a couple times.

Which Finger Got Stung?

Day 70- 

This photo is kind of fun. One trick I learned along the way is using your video function. I took this photo/video while my husband was driving. I videoed the house as we drove by. My cell has a function where you can grab or rather export individual frames from a video to your folder. I have used this to get a mid-air photo of my five-year-old grandson jumping off a stone wall.  Anyhow, after I took the video I noticed the white smoke on the left side of the image. I thought it made for an eeriness to the photo. The white is a reflection of my windbreaker sleeve off the window. 

Rainy Day

Day 71- 

In the springtime we have an abundance of wildflowers that grow along our road. In the photo below there are Bluets, Houstonia pusilla, and Draba verna, a tiny white flower. 

Wildflowers Along the Road

Day 72- 

We had trees fall from the Hurricane in September. Root balls with upended trees still dot the landscape. This root ball has a clump of daffodils blooming. 

Resilience 

Day 73- 

While at the beauty shop to get my hair cut, I thought I'd get a photo for this day. So many items from which to choose!

Product

Day 74-  

Spring is here! My Crabapple is blooming. This one is Malus x 'Red Silver'. The leaves are burgundy and the blooms pink. The honey bees enjoy the pollen and nectar on these trees.

Crabapple bloom with Honey Bee

Day 75- 

Across the street from our house are many lots that still have trees on them. Some are septic fields but a few are buildable lots. I did no filter or light adjustment on this. Through the trees is a cleared area where the timber company has cleared the lumber and is getting ready to replant. 

Gloomy

That's all for this week, come back again next week!

©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 9

Week wrap-up a couple days late. We were on the road and I am old school with my blog posts, always write it on the computer. Bouncing down the road and writing on my cellphone is an open invitation to many mistakes!

Day 55-

I always clean and sharpen my pruners in the early spring. Additionally, they will be sharpened after each pruning session, but it is good to do a thorough cleaning regularly. These pruners are 27 years old and have been used every year. One of these days I might break down and buy a new blade!

Sharpen and Clean

Day 56-

Springtime daylight has long shadows and windows of bright light shining through the garden. Yellow daffodils really pop with these rays of sun.

A Spot of Sunshine

Day 57- 

This home has a brick column at the entrance of its driveway. On top of each pillar is a horse of some sort. I don't remember if this is a replacement for the matching horse's head on the other pillar. Just makes me laugh.

Wanna Ride?

Day 58-

The Great Blue Herons have nests, high in these trees along the creek. I have counted eight different nests as we drove by. Before the leaves open on all the trees, I will have to bring my camera with the zoom lens with me to get better photos

Turkey Creek with Great Blue Rookery

Day 59-

Something I have not seen before, fire hydrants on a truck. Not sure where they were going, we were going to Nashville.

Splash!

Day 60- 

Walking to get coffee in my daughter's neighborhood, telephone pole with staples and nails, but no posters or messages left. It is a nice walkable neighborhood, so advertisers or folks with lost pets know this is a good spot to post their message.

Message Center

Day 61- 

Not sure why all these shoes are hanging from the line, but thought it was a good picture.

Shoes

Another week is done, follow along as we move forward.

©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 5

Another week in the books. Trying to keep the photo offerings interesting. Also don't want to be too repetitive. 

Day 27-  

Two dogs who think their job is to keep the squirrels at bay and away from the bird feeders on the deck. Wish there was a way to discourage the squirrels from coming on the deck, but think that is a lost cause! 

Squirrel Patrol

Day 28- 

Making bee fondant. Yes, we keep honey bees and in the winter we feed them with a solid sugar cake that is called bee fondant, not to be confused with culinary fondant. Once this sugar/water mixture is cooled we put it in the top of each hive. At current time we have three hives.

Bee Fondant

Day 29-

Our front room has a southern exposure, the only room (except our closet) with windows facing south. My houseplants winter in this room. With the low angle of the sun and our trees, even this window doesn't provide enough sunlight for the plants. Was able to find a plant light that has a timer so I can give the plants a good amount of light.

Plant Light

Day 30-

A very cloudy day. This is a view of our driveway. I play with the dogs every day, tossing a ring or a disc up and down the driveway. They love it. As I write I have a white fluffy dog bothering me to go out again. 

Winter Sky

Day 31-

Our driveway is lined with rocks, kind of like bumpers at a bowling alley to keep us from going off the edge. Some parts of the driveway have a bit of a drop off. Sprouting up between the rocks are some Spleenwort fronds. This one is Asplenium platyneuron, Ebony Spleenwort. 

Ebony Spleenwort

Day 32-

I have a number of daffodils in my woods, field, and gardens. They vary in bloom time from early to mid to late season blooming. I believe this one to be Narcissus 'Grand Soleil d'or'.

Raindrops on Daffodil

Day 33-

One shelf of gardening books. I have a good collection of books. When I first graduated from my Master Gardener class in Virginia I bought the A-Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants. It was my first 'big' book to better learn plants and how to identify them. 

Garden Reference Books

Many thanks for joining me again this week for the photo-a-day images. Have a great week.

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

Winter Observations

I am outside every day, multiple times a day with the dogs. This time of year I see so many different things. Looking down, along the house I see that I have an oakleaf hydrangea, Hydrangea quercifolia growing along the foundation of the house. This area gets water from the condensation pipe from the AC, so it makes a nice place to try and root new shrubs. I thought I had dug up the whole shrub and put it in a new place, guess not. 

Hydrangea quercifolia

Moss covers the ground in this area in a thick patch. Have you ever looked closely at a patch of moss? It is quite delightful. 

I have wildflowers/volunteers that sprout up throughout the garden and into the woods. I think this is Solidago sp. Goldenrod. The pollinators love it and I don't mind volunteers.

Solidago sp.

Continuing looking at the ground, I see lots of nuts - hickory nuts and acorns are so plentiful that one could fall on the hillside, it is like walking on marbles. 

hickory nut

Some of my daffodils are emerging through the leaves. I moved these out of a container last year in the spring. Narcissus 'Hawera', pretty petit blooms. 

Daffodils 

As I walk through the yard I catch the fragrance of a new bloom. Currently the prevailing fragrance is from my flowering apricot, Prunus mume 'Hokkai bungo'. It has a lovely hint of cinnamon in its fragrance, I really enjoy it. The honey bees enjoy it as well.

Prunus mume 'Hokkai bungo'

No, this wasn't the apricot, the Edgeworthia chrysantha is starting to open! It will bloom now through March. The fragrance is wonderful.  

Edgeworthia chrysantha

Look up and look down, you never know what you will find. We have a lot of fallen branches in the woods, some are covered with lichen and fungus, almost other worldly. 

Jelly fungus mushroom

Jelly fungus and lichen

Also growing low are my Hellebores, this one is Pink Frost. It is one of my earliest ones to bloom. Helleborus x ballardiae HGC 'Pink Frost'- beautiful buds, almost open.

Pink Frost

My last observation for this post is a crazy orange flower, or what is left of a flower on my gardenia. Gardenia jasminoides 'Frostproof'. As you know, the blooms on gardenias are white. This orange coloring caught my eye. Not sure what happened to give off this dark orange color, but will watch for others in future years to see if it happens again.

Gardenia jasminoides 'Frostproof'

What do you see in the garden this time of year? Look closely, you might find something amazing!

©Copyright 2024 Janet. All rights reserved. Content created by Janet for The Queen of Seaford. words and photos by Janet,The Queen of Seaford.

Mid-February Garden Blogger Bloom Day 2020

One of the blogging memes that has been going for a long time is the Garden Blogger Bloom Day. I haven't participated in a long time but am jumping back in. Every month, on the 15th, is Garden Blogger Bloom Day, or GBBD. The meme is hosted by Carol Michel at May Dreams Gardens. Be sure to go over to Carol's blog and see what's blooming in other areas.

One of my new pet peeves is blogs not saying up front where they are located. I don't mean your mailing address but what is your zone, what state do you live in? That said- I live in the Upstate of South Carolina, zone 7b- 8a. I am right on the line. Living on the lake helps moderate the temperatures so I am claiming 8a.

On to the blooms.

We have had a very mild winter so far and many plants are saying, "hello".  I went outside this morning with new camera in hand to get some shots- after a few photos the battery light was blinking red. Bummer. The cell phone came out. The photos are a mix of both.
Starting with the daffodils- there are so many blooming right now. Some varieties are known, but not all.

Narcissus 'Carlton'

N. 'Barrett Browning'

N. 'Ice Follies'

N. 'Erlicheer'

possibly N. 'Avalanche'

N. 'Barrett Browning' and N. 'Carlton'

One of the nice things about our Garden Blogger Flings is the wonderful sponsors who share tools, products, plants, and seeds with us. The above daffodils were swag from Colorblends a few years ago. They sent you bulbs based on your location. I received 'Gritty Southern Mix' and they have done great!
Another bulb that I kept looking for and didn't see emerging. Snowdrop, Galanthus nivalis. All of a sudden, there it was!!

Iris reticulata, a sweet little iris

Let's move along through the garden- so many blooms!!
Another spring favorite are Helleborus. Some named, some pass-along plants- all great!

Helleborus orientalis 'Brandywine Series'

H. orientalis 'Brandywine Series'

View from the deck- Edgeworthia with Helleborus under planted

H. ballardiae x 'COSEH 710' 'Pink Frost'

Next up are the trees and shrubs that are in bloom.

Viburnum tinus  'Spring Bouquet'

Edgeworthia chrysantha 

Forsythia x intermedia

Lean in and take in the fragrance! Osmanthus fragrans Tea Olive

Flowering quince Chaenomeles sp.

Magnolia 'Jane'

Loropetalum chinese 'Ever Red'

"Close to the ground" group-

Iberis sempervirens, Candytuft

Violet, Viola walteri 'Silver Gem'

And last but not least- Gaillardia, it is a sporadic bloomer during the late fall through early spring. Once summer comes, it is in bloom full force.

Thanks for stopping by to see my blooms for GBBD. Be sure to stop by Carol's blog to see more gardens. 

©Copyright 2020 Janet. All rights reserved. Content created by Janet for The Queen of Seaford. words and photos by Janet,The Queen of Seaford.