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Winter Photos

While driving in winter and dealing with the extreme cold are not my favorite things to do this time of the year, Mother Nature can sure put on a show.  Here are some photos that some people sent in from last week’s snow and this week’s hoar frost.  Beautiful.

And here are the photos from my attempts at photographing nature:

Snow on our southern spruce. The deep snow makes the tree look even shorter than it is.

Our neighbor's junipers. They look cool covered in snow.

This is our DeGroots Spire Arborvitae. We moved him this year and he didn't like it. We need to get the snow off of him. Maybe he will feel better then.

The umpteen inches of snow on one of our junipers.

If you shoot through the window, make sure the lens is touching the glass. That way the flash won't make your photo yellow. I blame Clyde for this one. He was trying to help.

I was going for the "artistic look". It just looks like I got a branch in the way.

This one kind of looks like I added a fuzz to the image, but that is just what happened shooting through the window.

A couple of days after the heavy snow, it was very foggy. The fog deposited hoar frost on everything. It was beautiful. I took the following pictures at home and at work. 

Some of these images were taken while I was playing with the settings on my camera. I still don’t know anything about aperature and shutter speed, but I did have fun playing with them. And with digital, I’m not wasting film.

Enjoy your photo ops!

Dig it!

Posted under Photos, Winter

This post was written by Eileen Loan on December 30, 2010

For the Birds

 While we enjoy planting flowers and shrubs that the birds can enjoy during the summer, we also make sure they have plenty of food, shelter and water for the winter.  Birds use more energy in the winter to stay warm and make it through the very long nights. 

We put out sunflower seed since almost every bird loves that. We have also been putting out some peanuts and corn for the Blue Jays but other birds like them, too.  We put those either on the ground or in our flat feeder hanging from our “bird feeding station”.

Our bird feeding station handles a lot of traffic through the year.

We have suet feeders and Dwayne found a ball of suet with bird seed in it at the local Fareway meat counter.  Ask at your local groceries meat counter if they offer something similar.  Or you can just get the suet and add the bird seed yourself.  It may be a good way to get the kids involved in bird watching!

The suet ball with a downy woodpecker eating away.

To the left of the suet and a little down is our suet feeder for the square suet cakes. This one has attracted a red-bellied woodpecker.

Winter or summer, songbirds love to have cover. 

One of our spruces. The sparrows love it and I have seen the doves and cardinals in the branches as well.

When predators come by they need to have a place to escape to quickly. The predators in our yard mainly come in the form of neighborhood cats and a Coopers Hawk that swings by every so often.  They usually go off empty pawed or taloned, but every once in awhile we find the feathers of a bird that didn’t speed away in time. 

Birds also need water during the winter.  We have a heated birdbath that we attach to our deck.  This keeps it fairly close to the outdoor outlet.  Make sure you use an extension cord that is approved for outdoor use.  The instructions that come with the heated birdbath will tell you what kind to get.  We replace the water at least once a day and make sure to wipe it out every couple of days or whenever it looks like the birds have had too much fun in it. 

Our heated birdbath. The birds come to it often to have a bit of time at the spa.

In addition to the birdbath on the deck, we have a small tray feeder that we try to keep filled as well.  The birds don’t seem to mind getting fairly close to the glass doors and the cats love it…

What's on kitty tv today? Ooo. A Junco!

This is kitty tv. Clyde is on the left, Barney on the right.

This photo is from Doug Adelmund in Parkersburg. The cats were too busy, they wouldn't give me their names.

Make sure that you keep the feeders filled on a regular basis or the birds won’t keep flocking to your yard.

We need to refill the plug suet feeder and the cake suet feeders often.

The hopper feeder is nice because it has a little bit of a roof overhang, but snow needs to be cleared out of the seed holder every time it snows.

I found a nice website that includes a lot of bird feeding and watching information.  You can check it out yourself by clicking here.

And the Iowa State Extension service has a nice publication on Iowa Winter Birds.  Click on the name to get to it.

Posted under Winter

This post was written by Eileen Loan on December 29, 2010

Poynsettah… Poynsetteeah… Let’s Call The Whole Thing Pretty

poin·set·tia noun

\pȯin-ˈse-tē-ə, ÷pȯint-, ÷-ˈse-tə\

This is the pronunciation guide from www.merrium-webster.com.  It really doesn’t matter what you call this lovely winter time beauty.  If you want to get around the argument, though, you can call it Euphorbia pulcherrima, the scientific name of the poinsettia. 

Poinsettias are native to Mexico and Central America.  They were brought to the United States in 1828 by Joel Roberts Poinsett, who, if you hadn’t guessed it, provided the plant’s common name.

What most people call the flower of the plant is actually just colored leaves, or bracts. 

Even though the colorful part looks like a flower, it isn't.

The flower is actually the small yellow things in the middle of the leaves.

THESE are the flowers.

In a natural setting (Mexico or Central America) poinsettas are perennial flowering shrubs that can grow ten feet tall!  That wouldn’t work here, but they might make it in southern Texas.  The Aztecs called the poinsettia Cuetlaxochitl (and, no, I won’t even try to pronounce that) and used the bracts to make a reddish-purple dye.  And apparently Montezuma had them brought into what is now Mexico City because poinsettias can’t be grown in the high altitude of the city. 

I have heard for years that poinsettias are poisonous.  That is just not true.  It may cause some discomfort if eaten, especially in large quantities, but it is not poisonous.  That rumor was probably started to keep the kids from playing with Grandma’s plants.  Now, having said that, don’t go out and eat them.  When the stem is cut or broken, a milky sap comes out of the plant. While the Aztecs reportedly used this sap to control fevers, it can also cause skin irritation.

A few items of trivia for you: 

     -Poinsettias represent over 85 percent of the potted plant sales during the holiday season. 

     -Ninety percent of all poinsettias are exported from the United State.

     -California is the top poinsettia producing state, but the plants are commercially produced in all 50 states.

     -The Paul Ecke Ranch in California grows over 80 percent of the poinsettias in the US for the wholesale market.

     -There are over 100 varieties of poinsettias available.

Now the most common color is red, but you can have purple, burgundy, pink, salmon, white, cream and gold.  There are also  bi-colored and speckled poinsettias available.  I like the multi-colored ones, especially if I have a few red and white ones around, too.  Of course, I have four “boys” (the cats), so I don’t have poinsettias at home, but I do enjoy seeing them everywhere.

When you select a poinsettia, you want to choose a well-shaped plant with dark green foliage and well-colored bracts. There should be little or no pollen being shed by the true flowers.  Most poinsettias are priced according to how many blooms it has, so the more blooms, the more expensive the plant will be. 

Poinsettias are tropical plants, so make sure they are wrapped carefully before you transport it home. Unwrap them as soon as you get home and plce it near a sunny window or other bright location.  Don’t let the plant touch the cold window pane, however.  That will cause the plant to wilt and possibly freeze.  Keep the plant away from cold drafts or heat sources.  The heat source may dry it out too much, plus poinsettias prefer to be between 60 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit.

I have noticed the poinsettias on the set don’t like the dry air in the studio.  Of course, neither do the computers when I shock them after I sit down on the cloth chair and push the chair along the carpet.  I don’t like it much, either!  The poinsettias are drying out pretty quickly, so they need to be checked often.  Check yours daily by putting your finger in the soil. If the soil surface is dry to the touch, water the plant until water begins flowing from the bottom of the pot.  Since most poinsettias are placed inside decorative pot covers, carfully remove the plant from the pot covering when watering.  Water the plant in the sink and then place the plant back in the decorative pot cover.

Two more things… December 12 is National Poinsettia Day, so go on out and celebrate.

And if you want more information, check out the University of Illinois Extension’s Poinsettia Pages. There is a lot of nice information on them, including more interesting facts about the poinsettia.

Enjoy the season!

Dig it!

Posted under Houseplants

This post was written by Eileen Loan on December 9, 2010