a winter assemblage

a winter assemblage

my son is home from college in nyc. we’ve got ribs slow cooking in the oven. the fire has been burning all day. and it is time for me to sit, and sip, catch up, and cuddle. i hope you all are fining some peace and calm this week. i’m grateful for each and every one of you. xo mary jo

winter assemblage of evergreens, pinecones, and red berries

  • Susan L. says:

    My son, daughter in law, and grandson are with us for the holiday. Can’t ask for more joy.
    Thank you for the beauty you share.
    Peace.

    reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

alien arms

alien arms

ostrich ferns reproduce two ways: through rhizomes that sprout what are called daughter plants, and secondarily, and less often, through fertile fronds that produce spores. these spore fronds are described as having a beaded structure. but i can’t get over how much they look like dried meal worms. we used to buy dried meal worms for our chickens to supplement their winter diet. oh my, how they loved them! anyway, these dried spore fronds look very much alive and wriggling to me–little aliens with hundreds of beaded arms.

ostrich fern spore stems

  • Old Lady Gardener says:

    So much repetition in nature if we just look for it! They definitely do look like meal worms, haha!

    reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

winged victory

winged victory

this winter oak leaf looks perched and ready to take flight. as if it is just waiting for a blast of north wind strong enough to snap its petiole node that is the only thing tethering it to the branch. but it is not. oaks are marcescence trees, which means they don’t necessarily drop their leaves like other deciduous trees. for my nerdier readers, i put a little explanation of this below. for my more visually-dominant readers, you can go back to the image and delight in the winged-victory confidence of this solitary oak leaf.

white oak leaf on winter branch

 

**Evergreens were the first trees on the planet. Populations of those earliest evergreen trees encountered changing growing conditions as they expanded their ranges and as the long march of time proceeded. As if to hedge their bets against future change, trees began to develop different ways of doing what trees do, including new ways of growing and shedding their leaves. Thus our colorfully famous, broad-leafed hardwood was born.

Today in our woods, we still have several evergreens, like pine, spruce, hemlock, and fir. And we’ve also got the relative newcomers with short-lived leaves – birch, maple, cherry, and aspen, for example. But then we have a third class of tree in beech and oak that seems to represent a middle ground of sorts between evergreen and deciduous. Their leaves die, but many don’t fall when they die. Botanists call this retention of dead plant matter marcescence.

We do not know whether marcescence provides a competitive benefit to beech and oak, but we do know that these two species are closely related; they are in the same family (beech). Marcescence may indeed be helpful to trees living in dry, cold, deer-infested environments. But it may also be simply a sign that beech and oak are evolutionarily delayed, still on their way to becoming fully deciduous from their more evergreen past.

  • Old Lady Gardener says:

    This visually dominant nerd did both. Very interesting…
    And I added a new word to my vocab (which I’ll probably forget by next week)!

    reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

thank you

thank you

happy winter solstice to all of you! thank you for all your continued support. truth be told, i would do what i do with or with an audience, but that does not minimize how important your all are to me. it lights me up every day to know that you are out there. and for this i am truly grateful.

tonight, at 9:27 pm the north pole reaches its maximum tilt away from the sun. where i live, the sun sets here at 4:30 pm tonight. we will have only 6 hours and 51 minutes of daylight. here in the north, the return of light is a big deal.

many of the worlds religions celebrate the significance of the winter solstice; christianity, judaism, yule (pagan), zoroastrianism, shintoism, and many secular festivals. these celebrations, each with its unique customs and traditions, reflect the significance of the winter solstice across different cultures and religious traditions. while some emphasize religious aspects, others focus on seasonal changes and the symbolic themes of light and rebirth associated with the solstice.

tell me your winter solstice tradition? if you don’t have one..may i suggest simply lighting of candle tonight at 9:27 pm? it’s important to mark these seasonal events in our year.  without them, the days blend into weeks into months into years without sign-posts for us us to hold onto. it’s good for our collective mental health.

with stillness and light, mary jo

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

a legacy of beauty

a legacy of beauty

this dried dahlia has been sitting on my specimen table since autumn. it’s a bit dusty, but still magnificent. more, and more, and more i am attracted to the spent, dying, past-their-prime, dried  flowers. it’s not so much an existential fascination with impermanence and aging, as it is an aesthetic attraction. i simply find them more pleasing–the color more muted, and the details more visible and interesting. a dahlia is a dahlia is a dahlia.

dried dahlia flower

  • Carol says:

    Shiboui – aging faded beauty

    reply
  • Susan L. says:

    As I age I like to believe I’m becoming a different kind of beautiful. A more natural, unapologetic kind of beautiful, like a dried Dahlia.

    reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

"/> "/>