Florida Sketches

 

Staghorn Fern (Platycerium superbum), watercolor, 10"h x 8"w.

I spent a week in Homosassa Springs recently, and managed to do a few paintings and sketches on location. I was fascinated by these huge staghorn ferns hanging from the porch of the owner's house next door to our rental cottage. I learned on-line that the staghorn ferns (Platycerium superbum) have two kinds of fronds: the sterile fronts are those plate-like flat leaves from which the horn-like fertile fronds emerge. The spores develop on the underside of the fertile leaves as brown patches at the tips.

 

Bald Cypress in Homosassa, watercolor sketch 8"h x 5"w.

 

Our rental cottage was right on the water, and had a wonderful view of the Homosassa River, with two lovely bald cypresses covered with Spanish moss and bromeliads shading the small yard. The views were fabulous!

 

The Homosassa River from our rental cottage.

Cloudy Morning in Homosassa, watercolor, 5"h x 8"w.

Dragon Boat on the Homosassa.

 

The owner of our rental cottage was kind enough to loan us two kayaks so we could paddle up to the main spring, which we did. It was a breezy day, and the distance turned out to be a bit more than we'd anticipated--the paddle upstream was a good workout. There were many manatees at the main spring, and lots of boaters, kayakers, snorkelers and divers there on this beautiful day. Unfortunately, the kayaks were open and I was afraid to get either my phone or camera wet, so I left them behind and didn't get any photos of the gorgeous scenery.

 

Blue heron in mating plumage.

 

A blue heron visited our yard one evening--this seemed to be his habitual turf, and he had no fear of us getting close. Lots of ibises, wood ducks, and other birds congregated on the opposite shore in the morning and evenings.

 

Ibises on the river.

Crystal River Archeological Park, watercolor, 14" x 10"

We spent an afternoon at Crystal River's Archeological Park, where I painted this watercolor of the view from the top of the largest of the Indian mounds found there. Another afternoon we drove out to the Chassahowitzka River, and it was packed like Grand Central Station there! Such a ruckus from the many radios/MP players from the boats on the water, nary a manatee dared to show. I didn't finish my watercolor of the view, though I made a promising start.

 

Pages 1-2 from my new Travel Journal.

Pages 3-4 of Travel Journal.

 

I filled in several pages of my new custom-made Travel Journal with sketches of an aloe on the porch next door, bromeliads that blew down from the bald cypresses, and a bald cypress seed from one of the opening cones--those little devils were resin-y and had very sharp points! On another page I drew a terminal branch from a loquat tree and a small branch from a live oak tree that was starting to put forth its blossoms.

 

Florida coontie (Zamia integrifolia).

Page 5 of Travel Journal.

At the Archeological Park in Crystal River I came across some coonties, a native Florida cycad (Zamia integrifolia). This cycad is dioecious--that is, there are male and female plants, and both have cone-like structures that develop at the base of the fronds. Only the female cones have seeds, of course--I managed to collect these two, which I'm going to try to sprout and grow at home. Attractive as they seem, these seeds are very poisonous, as is the rest of the plant. The Calusa Indians dug up the roots and leached the poisonous chemicals out of them to make a kind of flour.

Eagerly Awaited Harbingers

The first crocus.

 

The first early crocus opened a few days ago in my front yard on a lovely sunny fifty-some degree day--the first nice warm day since late December! I always note the date of this eagerly-awaited harbinger of spring (Feb. 9 this year), and was surprised that it was somewhat on schedule. The snow has been retreating since the beginning of the week, but apart from that, it has been so dry one would think it was hardly enough to encourage any subterranean growth. And yet, there is it!

 

Daffodil buds emerging.

I went about the rest of the garden looking for more signs of growth, and saw that a lot of the daffodil bulbs are emerging. These above are Mt. Hoods, but many others are coming up too, in all my beds.

 

More daffodil bulbs sprouting.

 

The following morning, another crocus popped up! This one seems to be one of the pale lilac Crocus thomasinianus. More will be coming up soon, if only it would rain.

 

Pale purple crocus.

The toadstools growing on the mulch seem to be re-growing too. They had been frozen under the snow cover earlier.

Toadstools growing on mulch.

Next week I'm off for Florida and new adventures. We'll see what the weather has in store for us when I get back in March.

The Snow Retreats

My back yard on Feb. 4.

 

This past January has been the longest amount of time that we've had snow cover the ground since we've lived here--almost ten years! The two storms that left snow and ice in early January didn't melt much during this period of extremely cold weather. One morning it was minus six degrees! And it seems that the groundhog did see his shadow, so we still have another six weeks of winter to get through.

But yesterday's rain started to melt the icy blanket, and it continues to drizzle today. A good bit of the snow has melted, although the shady parts of our back yard are always the last to go.

 

The east garden

It's looking almost spring-like, though new shoots are still far from emerging. Even so, my native witch hazel on the west side of the house is starting to open its blossoms. What a welcome sight! My hybrid witch hazel 'Diane' is nowhere near to opening its lovely reddish flowers, it will take a few sunny warm days to entice those to open.

Witch hazel flowers.

Front yard.

Our front yard has been filled with birds since we put out the feeders: a cardinal pair, a male red-bellied woodpecker, a blue jay, several nuthatches and downy woodpeckers, and lots of chickadees, sparrows, juncos, and titmice. Not many finches around this year--a couple of house finches at most. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get any good shots of them--here's the best one from earlier in the week.

 

As the last bits of ice cling to the deck, it seems impossible that just a few days ago it was still covered with a treacherous layer of snow and ice. I look forward to seeing the first signs of spring soon. 

But first, I'm setting out for Florida with a friend in another week. I'm hoping to revisit some of my favorite places on the Nature Coast, then Big Cypress and the Everglades before we return on the 1st of March. Stay tuned for stories of our adventures.

Bits of ice cling to the deck.

More from My Botanical Journal

Christmas week sketches.

 

Last Sunday's snow amounted to about four inches, but the sleet showers that followed left a hard crust of ice about half an inch thick or more in places--treacherous to try to walk in! With daytime highs in the 20's, this is not a good time of the year to go outside looking for specimens to sketch, so I've been focusing on dried plant material I'd collected earlier, and plants from my indoor garden.

 The Asian bittersweet vine above was collected at Summerset, the historic estate that I've been documenting in watercolor paintings. The miniature pomegranate was collected at Blandy Farm; the earlier warm spell around Christmas was ideal for walks, and adding to my collection of plant oddities. The rest are all dried specimens from my garden or from my indoor plants, some of which bloom at this time of the year.

 

Last week of the year and New Year's Day.

First week of the year.

I even drew a snow cap on the dried 'Autumn Joy' sedum flowers on this page (though I collected it before it snowed) to commemorate the first snow of the year, which I covered in this blog earlier--it's been the prettiest snowfall thus far.

 

Last week.

 

One of my dark-leaved winged begonias is blooming, and despite having grown this type of begonia for over twenty years, I don't recall ever drawing its flowers. The male flowers are in bud in this sketch, the female flowers, which will emerge later from the same cluster, are just tiny specks barely showing at this stage. One of my common witch hazel trees is starting to bloom, despite the bitter cold outside--I clipped a small branch to force indoors and sketched it. 

I try to place each individual sketch on a given set of pages in different positions, so that each spread presents a different design from the previous pages, yet "reads" as flowing from one to the next. I can't wait to record the first signs of spring, which is still so far away!

Winter Beauty

Plumes of Muhly grass in the sun.

 

We had another few inches of snow overnight four days after the first snow fall, and although not as pretty as the first, it has been cold enough to stay on the ground until the past few days. After the sun came out I went out to the garden to record its passage. Some plants really do look great when bowed and covered in snow!

The plumes of Muhly grass catching the light as they bend from under the snow are lovely, as are the dried stems of my 'Autumn Joy' Sedum peeking our from the waves of snow. My 'Color Guard' Yucca looks fabulous nestled in its snowy blanket.

Sedum 'Autum Joy' peeking out from under the snow.

Yucca 'Color Guard'

There is an austere beauty to winter with its subdued colors, and the weird snowy shapes could almost be abstract paintings. Nature's capacity to captivate and astonish is endless!

Hoary Mountain Mint.

The long bed in the back yard.

Japanese maple 'Bloodgood' with deer barriers.

Our neighborhood with the Blue Ridge Mountains in back.

The Garden in January

First snow of the year.

When I got up this morning it was snowing--the first snow of 2022! There appeared to be about three inches on the ground and still falling. I love this kind of wet snow that clings to every branch, sculpting every bush and object into marvelous shapes of incredible beauty! This is such a fleeting spectacle, I ran to get my phone to take some pictures before it all vanished.

 

From the front porch.

The plantings by the driveway.

I was still in pajamas, so I confined myself to taking photos from the windows and the front porch. After getting dressed, I went out on the deck to take more photos, but by this time the snow had tapered off and our street was being plowed.

 

The Seven Son Flower tree and Redbud tree in back.

The Kousa dogwood and the Badlands.

The nylon netting to protect my plants from the deer was drooping in curious shapes with its snowy drapery, and the clump of lilacs looked particularly lovely. The snowy covering makes the back yard beds stand out, making me realize how much everything I've planted has grown in the last few years. A few years before, there was very little there in the way of plants to be sculpted by the snow.

 

My lilacs in the snow.

Snowy back yard beds.

I still miss the big oak tree in back that came down last year; I'm sure the woodpeckers and other birds miss it too. Just yesterday when it was so unseasonably warm, quite a number of birds, including one red-bellied woodpecker, actually came to perch on the deck railing, as if to say, "Where did our former home go?" I'll have to put out some birdseed for them. Thus far they'd been enjoying the dogwood and viburnum berries, but all of those have been stripped.

I usually wait until late winter to prune back the previous year's growth of  herbaceous perennials but the warm spell during the Christmas season was so deceptive, I actually pruned back my cone flowers and some of the swamp sunflowers, so there is less vegetation on the ground to shelter woodland creatures, but still enough to help them out. It's hard to believe that just a few days ago my blueberry bush had some blossoms open!

 

The Zelkova.

The Little Indians.

I love the way snow transforms everything it touches in my garden Later on, I'll try to get out into the yard to get closer shots of the plants before it all blows away or melts. And the best part, it's not enough snow to have to shovel!

Cherry tree in front.

My potted blueberry 'Top Hat'

Hinoki cypress 'Filicoides' in east garden.

Christmas 2021

Christmas lights at our house.

 

The front walk.

Our Christmas decorations are a bit more subdued this year, but I like to think they look elegant. It doesn't appear that we will get any snow at this time of the year, but we may get some rain (which we desperately) need on Christmas Eve.

 

Our neighborhood at Christmas.

Herb on the porch.

And here's my sweetheart, greeting me at the door. May all your your Christmases be bright, even though here they won't be white!