Ides of March

 

Blandy's Dogwood Lane, plein air watercolor, 14" h x 11"w.

Julius Caesar was warned, "Beware the Ides of March," in Shakespeare's play... at this time of the year the weather can be treacherous here--one day it snows, the next day it's a sunny sixty degrees! 

 

March 12 snow

 

Just last Saturday it snowed again, only a few inches, but the temperature stayed well below freezing the next day, and the snow stayed on the ground. The following day, the thermometer rose to sixty degrees, and the snow melted quickly.

Just a few days later, on the 16th, the Outdoor Painters of the Shenandoah group had scheduled the first paint-out of the year at Blandy Farm, and I was skeptical about joining them, but the morning dawned bright, sunny, and mild. So I headed out there, and was I glad! The day turned out to be gorgeous, so warm that I shed my three-season jacket halfway through the session. The day was inspiring, and my watercolor worked out so nicely!

The Exploding Sketchbook Challenge

 

Sketches from my exploding sketchbook.

 

One of the artist groups I joined recently, the Chickahominy Colored Pencil Artists, usually inspires us by presenting a challenge to work on each month. Last month's challenge was to create an exploding sketchbook or scrapbook, with links to instructions on how to make one on a couple of different websites.  One of the websites had a video showing the process, thank heaven--it would have been much harder to figure out how to fold and assemble this from only a verbal description. 

The concept was interesting, and the choice of paper as well as the size were up to each artist. I've recently become involved in keeping nature journals in the form of sketchbooks, so I thought it would be fun to create this unusual sketchbook as a challenge.

 

Fully extended sketchbook

 

I cut some old Waterford & Saunders watercolor paper that had been stashed in my studio for ages into three 15" squares, folded and glued them together per the instructions. The covers took longer to finish because I needed to find some decorative papers for the cardboard that would be large enough to cover the two 8" squares. The only decorative papers I could find large enough to allow me to have an extra 3/4" all around to fold over the edges were made in India--I ordered them from Dick Blick.

 

Front Cover of sketchbook.

Back cover of sketchbook.

The assortment of decorative papers had only one sheet of each pattern, so the front and back covers are different, but I think the whole thing looks elegant enough. Putting the ribbons and gluing the covers to the sketchbook was the last step. My sketchbook is now finished but not complete--it needs to be filled with sketches!

I've started filling the book with small watercolors and drawings. In the first section on the left, I've painted some Hellebores, crocuses and early spring flowers from my garden, and one of my orchids in bloom. I'll continue filling those pages as the season progresses. The center section will be devoted to summer flowers, and the last section on the right will have fall-blooming plants. Hopefully, once I've completed my sketches the exploding sketch book will constitute a unique work of art in and of itself, a record of flowers from my garden.

Spring Is Marching In

 

Crocus thomasinianus.

 

Spring is marching in early this year (pardon the pun!) with lots of crocuses blooming in my front yard under the cherry tree. The Crocus thomasinianus continues to spread; this species seems to be the only one that is impervious to squirrels in my yard. I've transplanted a few to other beds where they can continue to spread, and next fall, I'll transplant a few more to the backyard beds. My yard could use some snowdrops too, next fall.

Clumps of Crocus thomasinianus.

Species crocus with feathered veins.

The 'February Gold' daffodils in front are also bursting into bloom. The clump on the other side of our driveway, in a less sheltered spot, is about a week behind this one. The buds of white hyacinths along the front walk are coming up too.

'February Gold' daffodils.

'February Gold'

White hyacinth buds.

 

My hybrid witch hazel 'Diane' is blooming profusely now, along with the native one planted several years earlier.

Witch hazel 'Diane'

Shoots of 'Mount Hood' daffodils.

The new shoots of my "Mount Hood' daffodils are coming up too. Soon, my garden will be filled the flowers of spring bulbs!

My front yard on March 2.

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.