This one's for Dad

Every year in the spring my father moans of the work necessary to clean up after the oak trees in his yard. The oak tree produces two types of flowers, the male and the female. Here is a photo of the male flower or catkin as it is called. My dad affectionately calls these tumbleweed. They tend to pile up, and roll about.

This flower contains the pollen that will fertilize the ovum (eggs) in the female flower. The catkins then fall from the tree, and make a mess all over your yard. The female flowers stay in the tree, and the fertilized egg develops into the seed, better know as the acorn.

Here is a wheel barrow full of catkins, maple seeds, and a few fallen leaves that my husband swept up from our driveway. You can imagine what the rest of our yard looks like. Now try to imagine all the pollen that was released by these catkins prior to falling from the trees. Achoo!!! God bless you. Now where are the Kleenex and the allergy pills?

Snappers A-Laying

The other morning the bus driver stopped to point out that around the corner from us there were two large turtles on the edge of the road. I grabbed my camera, and was able to catch these photos of two different snapping turtles. Our neighborhood boarders wetlands and a pond that has grown in size over the years as a result of some very active beavers. As you can see the turtles had come up from the pond and dug holes in order to deposit their eggs. Mating season was during the fall, and female turtles can store sperm in their bodies for some time. June is typically time for these turtles to lay their eggs. Turtles do not stick around to care for their young.

Luckily, these turtles are large enough to be seen by the drivers of cars. If you come across turtles trying to cross the road you can help them (I'm not sure I would try to help these snappers) by carrying them in the direction they are traveling in. I have also noticed some communities have posted turtle crossing signs to alert motorists to areas of wildlife activity.

Spring's Stinky Plant

One of the first springtime plants to begin growing in the swampy area behind our home is the skunk cabbage. This plant gets its name from the foul odor it gives off when it is damaged. The flower or spadix as it is called, also gives off an odor to attract flies to serve as pollinators. The spadix is protected by the maroon colored modified leaf called the spathe which appears early on in the plant's life cycle. The spadix gives off heat during a two week period of development, often melting the snow that may surround it as it emerges from the ground. The leaves first emerge with a scroll like appearance, and begin to unfurl. The leaves can grow to three feet in length. Visit http://natureinstitute.org/pub/ic/ic4/skunkcabbage.htm for a great essay about this plant.

Just Look at that Face!

Johnny Jump - Ups like this one are gracing my yard. These flowers and their cousins the pansies always make me think of little faces in the garden. I purchased these, along with another variety of viola, years ago and they have seeded themselves all over the garden. Now they have jumped the boarder into the lawn.

I'm so glad that spring weather has returned, and with it the gardening chores. I enjoyed spending part of my Mother's Day communing with Mother Nature.

April Fools

April has been called the cruelest month. This photo was snapped on Sunday, April 1st on a beautiful, warm, sunny day. The April Fools joke was on me. Since then it has been cloudy, drizzly, and temps below normal. Now the forecast is for sleet and rain tonight and up to six inches of snow by Thursday morning. Life in New England always brings something new every day.

Last week's ice storm

The day after last week's ice storm, I snapped this picture coming out of work. Everything was still covered with ice, and the sun's rays were reflected everywhere. In fact I could not capture the picture I wanted to because I couldn't get the camera to focus with all the light. The ice was incredible. Even the blades of grass were coated. What was unusual is that the ice stayed on everything for several days. I had a silver birch tree in the backyard completely bent over so that the tip was touching the ground. It was like that for two days. Thank goodness they are such resilient trees. It has been a weird winter. We have finally begun to have seasonable weather.

Spring Already??!!

My last post celebrated the fact that we finally had some snow on the ground. But wait this is New England, and the weather is notorious for rapid changes. The snow lasted but a day, and has been followed by unseasonably warm weather. On Saturday (1-6-06), it was 65 degrees outside! My dad down in Connecticut told me that the state recorded the warmest day ever for January since records have been kept! Global Warming? Something's different this year, that's for sure. My grape hyacinths have begun to poke their heads up out of the ground. I took a look around to see if the crocus or daffodils were making an early appearance, but no sign of them yet. I even saw some robins yesterday morning when I went out for a walk. Talk about January thaw! We didn't have December freeze!