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.

©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 33

Another week has come and gone, and I still haven't shared the discarded photos. I have amassed many of them. My thought now is whether or not to include the chosen photo along with the ones not chosen. Moving forward, I will include them in the weekly round-up of photos. Not every day has a few photos from which to choose. 

If you follow along on Facebook with the daily photo-a-day posts, you might have noticed I misnumbered the photos again. Not sure where my head is!! The numbers have been corrected, and I will try to be more careful about the numeral that goes with the photo. 

Day 223-

I was gathering items for donation and going through 'treasure boxes' in my closet and I found my Girl Scout sash. After posting it on Facebook, I received several fellow Scouts who also had their sashes. I thought I still had my GS Handbook, but after searching, I couldn't find it. There are a couple of bins that I haven't gone through where it might be, but if it isn't there, I am out of ideas of where it might be. So for now, hope springs eternal that it is somewhere to be found. I will let you know if I find it. 

Achievements

photo not chosen-  this ant was carrying its dead 'friend' across the driveway, moving quickly. I chose the sash over the ant.

Day 224-

We get a lot of spiders in the landscape in the fall. My girlfriend in NY asked if this was one of the Jojo spiders. I am not sure, I wish I had taken more photos of it to get another view, but I didn't. So for this spider, it will just be listed as a spider. 

Spider

photo not chosen- raindrops on a spider web over an Iris. An interesting photo, but, eh, not chosen.

Day 225- 

We have had so much rain this month. 10.27" so far and we are only a little past halfway through the month. Our average for August is 3.92". With that rain comes some amazing skies. Clouds always fascinate me, 

Strange Skies

photo not chosen- I did crop and adjust the lighting for this photo. What I saw in the sky wasn't as vibrant in the photo. 

Day 226-

We were in the parking lot at the grocery store and the truck next to us had HUGE tires. Thought it would make a good photo. Making it black and white added to the depth of the tread. 

Tire

photo not chosen- I needed to crop and add the black and white filter. With the tire and the asphalt it doesn't look too different, but the truck is a dark blue.

Day 227-

While walking Fiona during a break from the rain, I noticed this stump that has put forth a lot of new growth with all the rain. Hardwoods will continue to sprout from a stump. Cutting like this is called 'coppicing'. Some trees are coppiced to harvest young wood. Oak, hazel, ash, willow, and chestnut are good trees to coppice. This one is an elm. Not a practice I recommend for the average garden. Pines do not sprout like hardwoods. 

Coppiced

No extra photos to consider for this day. 

Day 228-

Like I said, lots of rain! I was trying to get the wind and the rain in the photo, but no, just a gray, subdued photo. 

Rainy night

Again, no extra photos for this day.

Day 229-

We have lots of Goldenrod coming up in our yard. The sun was just hitting the almost open blooms, and it seemed to glow. I imagine this is Solidago altissima, as it is so tall. Also near the Goldenrod are some Golden Asters. They have not begun to bloom yet. 

Goldenrod Aglow

I hope you have enjoyed seeing some of the discarded/rejected photos for the daily offering. There are still a few I want to share in a post that I disregarded from earlier this year. Thanks for reading this 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 10

Another week is done. This isn't as easy as it would seem. Every day I am looking for something to photograph. Trying to photograph a different view or a different angle and keep it interesting for everyone is truly a challenge

Day 62-

Playing hide and seek with my grandsons. See the little toes behind the curtain? It was the giggling that gave them away. One is 5 and his brother is 2 and they love to play hide and seek.

You Don't See Me

Day 63-

Once we got home from visiting the kids, we needed to retrieve the dogs and cat from boarding. Once we were in our small neighborhood, the rear window was lowered so Liebling could survey her realm. 

The Ride Home

Day 64-

We have been behind in our rainfall totals this year, so every raindrop is appreciated. 

Raindrop Prism

Day 65-

Once again I am drawn to backlit items in the yard/ garden. From afar, this looked like a bloom and I couldn't figure out what it might be.  The Post Oak leaf glowed golden in the sun..

Backlit

Day 66-

Thursday was a busy day, I hosted our neighborhood book club, and a little later we picked up a friend and drove to Walhalla for a concert. The sunset was brilliant. While sitting in the backseat I kept trying to get a good photo of the bold colors.

Sunset from the Backseat

Day 67-

Spring is beginning to pop, every day there is something new emerging. Today was a fern, unfurling its frond- from a tight spiral. It wasn't until I looked at the photo on my cellphone that I noticed the dog hair hanging on the new growth. This is a Southern Shield Fern or River fern, it goes by many common names. Thelypteris kunthii, a native fern in our area. The Fibonacci sequence is where each number is the sum of the previous two numbers. This sequence is found throughout nature, from seed patterns on sunflowers to nautilus shells. It is the Golden Ratio.  

Fibonacci with Dog Hair

Day 68-  

This photo may not seem too exciting, but it is our attempt to block the opening around our dryer vent round tube.  For the past few years, we have had an Eastern Rat Snake living in the space around the vent. The builders cut a square hole to place a round pipe for the vent. That little triangle was the perfect spot for Mr. Snake to reside. We had some temporary blocking but this should be more permanent.  Goodbye Mr. Snake! If you are not keen on snakes, do not scroll any lower, I have included a photo from a few years ago with our 'friend'. 

Dryer Vent

Many thanks for stopping by again this week. Time marches on, I am writing this quickly as I was stung after we were working with the bees this morning. After we were done, I reached for my phone in my back pocket and there was a bee on my phone. She stung me on my finger and I am sure as it swells, typing will be harder. 

Here's one of the photos from a few years ago when the snake had taken up residence in that spot. 

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

Dry Creek Bed Follow-Up (with rain!)

Many of you saw the dry creek bed that we added to our backyard garden area. The link to the previous post is here. Since then we have had little rain to speak of while I was home.  However, when I was in Minneapolis for the Garden Bloggers Fling a good amount of rain fell but I wasn't there to see how the garden fared.

When we had a small amount of rain I was able to make a few adjustments in the grass and pathways. This photo doesn't look like much but it is a slice cut into the low part of the grass area between the patio and the garden. I wanted to channel the run-off from the house to go around the garden. My husband wasn't happy with this, saying weeds will grow in the bare soil. Perhaps, but  I needed to try something.

Here is an overview from the porch to give you some perspective. See the channel in the grass?

Another spot that needed some adjustment was the pathway, the lower (right hand) pathway emptied to the grass on the far side of the creek bed. When there was rainfall the water ran down the path and the excess water pooled in the grassy area. I dug a small ditch and a berm on the far side of the ditch, forcing the water into the creek bed.

Well, yesterday we had enough rain to access my additional measures as well as getting to see, firsthand, how well the dry creek bed worked. I measured 1.58 inches over a 24 hour period. The video below shows it all.  I am narrating so you can listen or just watch. 

We have had some sand washout from the upper part of the creek bed where they put the french drain pipes which will need be removed.  I took the advice of fellow blogger Swimray about keeping the leaves out (and will continue to do so). So very glad we did this addition to the garden. It certainly channeled a lot of water without it creating its own new path.

©Copyright 2016 Janet. All rights reserved. Content created by Janet for The Queen of Seaford. words and photos by Janet,The Queen of Seaford.

CoCoRaHS Follow Up

Wanted to share some 'after the rain' information.  Some of you had asked about reporting to CoCoRaHS and your work schedule conflicting.   I went back and reread the 'Getting Started' info.  Here is where my selective memory kicked in, you can report BEFORE 7 AM.  I must have blocked that part out.  You can report the reading anywhere from 5 AM - 9AM for it to be recorded on the map.  (So you early birds can get it done bright and early) If you report by 7 AM the amounts will be included in local weather report totals for the news.  Reports by 9 AM will be shown on the maps.   For those who might be away for a few days you also have the option of reports a multiple day accumulation of precipitation.

Our rainfall total for the rain from two days ago was less than I thought.  My rainfall total was 1.66 inches.  Further north, Greenville to Asheville and further west got a lot more... averaging about 3 inches.  Rainfall in Greenville affects us.   The lake levels have been crazy.  Here is a picture of our dock before it rained on the 15th.

Lots and lots of shoreline.  This is typical in the winter.  Our lake management brings the lake level down in the winter for the health of the lake.  The winter's lake level also allows us to clean up trash, repair docks, and explore the shoreline.   By sea level elevation the winter's low is supposed to be 434.5 feet above sea level.  The photo above is 434.5 ft.   Beginning January 31st the lake level is brought back up, slowly to what they call full pool, 439 feet.
Here is the lake yesterday-- at 437 ft.

Today the lake level is another foot higher!!  So rainfall upstream was enough to raise the level of the lake by three and a half feet!  We know the exact level because of the US Geological Survey website.  Check out the rise in water level in just a couple days!!

Not sure if they will lower the level much between now and January 31 when the level is supposed to come back up.   If it wasn't so cold we might be tempted to uncover the boat and go for a ride.
Was outside walking the yard and thought I would share an additional picture of the water.....water is real muddy but also quite high.

Saturday, January 19, 2013

©Copyright 2012 Janet. All rights reserved. Content created by Janet for The Queen of Seaford. words and photos by Janet,The Queen of Seaford.

Skyler and the Muddy Day

This is Skyler..one of the three four-legged buddies I have the pleasure of as my 'fan club'. His mission in life is to play with his ball....every day...rain or shine.

Here is the rain gauge for the last 24 hours








This is what he looked like multiple times today. The ball play is done -- regardless of the yard conditions. I use about 5 or 6 towels a day to dry him.