Tag Archives: nature

Seventy Five Degrees

Posted on December 4, 2012 by AnnieRie

That’s what the thermometer said when I returned to my car after a meeting at the Conservancy today. It is December 4th, for Pete’s sake! Really weird weather.

There were people flying radio controlled airplanes on the field. People jogging up the road to head off into the grasslands for a run. A lone motorcyclist cruising slowly through checking out the place. It was a weird sight, though, as yesterday when I was there, they were hammering in the poles along the road to show where the gravel ends and the grass begins. That “snow lane”.

Yes, it will rain and get cooler, but these lovely days are such a treat. A drink on the chairs watching the world go by on the road, and enjoying the last gasp of the mums and the lace maple.

And, my garlic keeps growing. Hope it does OK over the winter since it is already so tall. This is what it looked like a while back, it is even taller today.

I have been watching the long term forecast and we know it will be getting colder and damp for a few days. If you want to do something awesome next week, on Thursday the 13th of December, the Conservancy is hosting a meteor watch from 9:30 until you can’t take it anymore or 2 am. Dr. Joel Goodman and Dr. Alex Storrs will be there. The long term forecast calls for clear and freezing. Bring your woolies, your lounge chair, a blanket and a thermal cup, since one of our board members will be making hot chocolate for the attendees.

Put it on your calendar. Cross your fingers the weather cooperates. We had a great party for the Transit of Venus. Hope the Geminids give us another one.

hocoblogs@@@

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Posted in Adventures, Community, Howard County, Nature, Weather and tagged community, hoco loco, Howard County, howard county conservancy, nature, weather. Bookmark the permalink.

A Foggy Sunday Morning

Posted on December 2, 2012 by AnnieRie

Warm and foggy. Weather that changes by the hour. It is fairly warm out, and the fog is heavy in the yard and meadow.

I have been spending a lazy morning, finishing sealing the envelopes to send the Christmas cards, cleaning out the kitchen freezer to make room for the venison we are getting Tuesday, and checking out the Christmas lights to see if any strings need new bulbs. I also had to rearrange things in the basement freezer, which is pretty full again. Last week I just added three containers of turkey stock. Time to make some soups.

I did pop outside to feed the birds and to watch the red breasted nuthatch ignore me while he got breakfast from the feeder, letting me stand there and take his picture.

Back to putting out the Christmas decorations, like my bed post people I found years ago at a crafts fair at the county fairgrounds. I think finding special items made by local artists is my favorite source for decorations.

If the fog burns off, I will be putting up my lights on the trees outside. Otherwise, a lazy afternoon of watching football and eating steamed shrimp and flatbread pizza. Gotta make more room for that 50-60 pounds of deer meat. Oh well, whatever doesn’t fit will just have to become a large pot of chili sometime this week.

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Posted in Birds, Food, Locavore, Nature, Weather, West HoCo and tagged birds, cooking, Food, foodie, Locavore, nature, photography, weather, West HoCo. Bookmark the permalink.

Say What?

Posted on November 29, 2012 by AnnieRie

Sometimes you look out the window and do a double take. Do you really see that? We have a stare down.

A young hawk and a squirrel. Doing that staring thing. But, I did divert the hawk by coming outside to take closer pictures. He swiveled that head around immediately when the door clicked shut. He did stay there long enough for me to get a few more pics, then took off.

I’m sure the squirrel was relieved.

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Final Fall Clean Up

Posted on November 26, 2012 by AnnieRie

We are in the home stretch of cleaning up the yard, the garden and the trees. Once all this work is done, we have a four month respite from outdoor work, other than cleaning up after any snowmageddon. Here’s hoping we don’t see any more winters like 2010.

We spend time now doing preventive maintenance so we don’t have problems if we get ice or snow, or both. That picture above was from before we replaced our roof and put in wider gutters to handle the runoff. We were lucky we didn’t have leaks, but we do try and fix things before they become an issue.

This year the derecho in June did more damage to our trees than we originally could tell. Now that all the leaves have fallen, we see evidence of major tree limbs suspended above and hanging onto other trees south of our house. Those limbs could weigh down with ice and snow, and take out trees threatening the south side, and the heat pumps. We have to decide how to safely get them out, and we need to crown clean our huge maples and oaks, to keep them from losing any more branches.

During the ice storm a few years back, we lost quite a few of our conifers. They couldn’t handle the weight of the wet heavy snow. Our trees provide us shade, privacy and are a noise block from the distant highway. Taking care of them is a priority.

Walking around I found many dead branches caught in other trees. They need to come out. I also saw many trees leaning over from the sustained winds of the storms last year and this year. We went through two hurricanes, a tropical storm and a derecho in a fourteen month period, from August 2011 until October 2012. As they say, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Those three branches are just hanging on the other trees, no longer attached to anything. We have at least four places where this occurred. Plus, there is a huge dead limb up in my bird feeder tree, my maple. One of the two that cracked during the derecho came down, but this one didn’t.

The trees that shade our home, and provide nesting areas for the birds, and allow us the privacy on our patio are a very important part of our property. That little bit of attention, pruning, crown cleaning, fertilizing and caring for them, keeps them healthy. We will spend some time this week and next getting them ready for winter. After all, they are worth the effort.

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Day Trippin’

Posted on November 23, 2012 by AnnieRie

One of the pleasures of retirement. Going places during the week. Today, though, being Black Friday, it seems everyone took the holiday or didn’t have to work. That’s why we decided to head off down the back roads and have lunch at Linden, with a visit to Glen Manor as well.

We decided that heading down an old alternate route through the scenic byways was a perfect way to spend time. We hadn’t been on Blueridge Mountain Road past FEMA’s Emergency Operations Center since the GPS years ago took us on that road.

At 1800 on top the mountain it gets pretty windy and the road can be quite treacherous. But, once the leaves fall, like now, the views can be tremendous. We remembered those views and enjoyed the vistas down into the Shenandoah Valley while carefully negotiating the twists and turns, back down to US 50. If you want to see a map of how crazy the roads are, here is a bike loop that shows on the left the route we took.

We then took the scenic route down Leeds Manor Lane, seeing all the hunters parked along the road to the state wildlife management areas. Passed one of the many crossings of the Appalachian Trail which follows the mountain ridge in the same general direction we took to get to the wineries. We encountered a few hardy bicyclists, climbing that second major hill on Leeds Manor, one walking his bike up it, two resting at the summit, and a straggler far behind. These are hidden gems of scenic routes, for drivers and cyclists.

This AT crossing is right near the Avenius vineyards, which contain plantings used to make one of the single vineyard designations for Linden. You can park just up from the crossing and hike up to look across the ridge. One day, when we decide we are adventurous, we will climb that trail to take photos from the top. We went to Linden first, to sit and enjoy a bottle of Chardonnay with some local cheeses and one of their crusty warm baguettes.

2009 Linden Avenius Chardonnay

They are already all decorated for the holidays and the winter arrangement of the screen porch has replaced the extra tables and chairs out there the other seasons. This is one of my favorite places to sit when it is cold, to savor the fire in the wood stove and take in the view.

When we arrived at noon, there were about 10 of us in the winery. By the time we left the lot was full and they were two deep at the tasting set ups. Obviously lots of people decided wine tasting was way better than shopping malls on Black Friday. The deck and porch were empty when we arrived, but hopping when we walked out. The Christmas decorations are really beautiful. This is a great place to visit.

After our stop there, we headed into Front Royal to our original destination today, Glen Manor. We haven’t been there since April, and we wanted to pick up some Sauvignon Blanc. We tasted some other new releases, their Vin Rouge and Cabernet Franc. Since our last visit, they have added an extension to the building to increase working space. It is still lovely as always, and there were people out on the patio while we went through a tasting.

This is one stellar site to sit and absorb the beauty of the Shenandoah while drinking a glass of some of Virginia’s best wines. Even though the trees are mostly bare, the surroundings are bursting with fall foliage at the ground level.

No wonder we keep returning to these hidden gems in Virginia. Brought home a few white wines as well. What better gifts for Christmas from a locavore and locapour than dessert wines from Linden and Glen Manor. They both are offering a Late Harvest Petite Manseng. They will make someone very happy you bought them these lovely wines as a gift.

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Posted in Adventures, Day Trips, Locavore, Retirement, Travel, Weather, Wine and tagged day trips, fall foliage, Locavore, nature, retirement, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

Shirt Sleeve Weather

Posted on November 12, 2012 by AnnieRie

aka Indian Summer

This weekend and today certainly have been those types of days. The high today is supposed to hit 70 degrees. It was a beautiful morning. The maple finally peaked, and I had to record it before the rains come tomorrow and bring down most of the leaves. It is amazing how it turns from green to yellow to red within the span of a week.

the maple today

This morning it was just spectacular, as seen from the driveway coming into the property. And below, this is the closer look from last Tuesday, as it was just really beginning to change.

the maple beginning to turn

We finally got the garage doors cleaned. We were out there in jeans and T shirts. Can not believe how nice it has been.

no more dirt and grime left from Sandy

With how nice it was, we considered lunch outdoors. After all, the patio was sunny and we were repositioning the furniture back where it belongs and returning the place to its pre-storm condition. We could not believe how much trash and junk was blown under and around all the plant beds, but now it is cleaned up. Finally. The bird feeders are all hung. The branches and most of the leaves cleaned up. The only thing left is cutting back the spirea and the spice bush, once we have a few more freeze warnings and they all lose their leaves.

I made us salads using CSA veggies, and we wandered outside to enjoy the warmth of the sun. The salads include one of my favorite ways to serve chicken and swiss. Getting one thick slice of each at Boarman’s. This time I got some honey BBQ chicken breast. Cut it in cubes and serve on top of greens with an apple diced on top.

chef’s salad, my way

Loving the Hakurei turnips and the French breakfast radishes on this salad. Can’t wait to see what goodies the CSA brings this week.

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Milkweed in the Meadow

Posted on November 11, 2012 by AnnieRie

It doesn’t take much to make me happy some days. Like wandering out to take pictures and finding this in the newly mowed edge of the meadow out back.

dried split milkweed seed pod

Milkweed. That wonderful host plant for monarch butterflies. The butterflies we rarely see, but they are in our area because I have seen them twice in our meadow. Never when I had my camera though. I did once find one that lost a fight with some predator and was in pieces off the edge of our patio last year.

But, now that I know where we have milkweed, we can watch and look for the larva and the chrysalis. We have rescued, watched, then released many monarchs at the Conservancy. If I get proficient at it, and can safely move the chrysalis to an area where they can be protected, they have a much better chance of making it to adulthood.

Once I found the seed pod in our area, I did a little looking around and found a few dozen pods in an area about 200 square feet.

I harvested the pods to use at the Conservancy for a project. I decided to spread the seeds around even though they weren’t optimum for drying and transplanting. The pods had all been split and the seeds were past their prime.

I did find quite a few milkweed beetles too.

While out looking to see if there were other areas of milkweed, I did have to be careful to avoid the many many piles of deer scat. It looks like the deer have been chowing down on our part of the meadow. My husband gave the meadow the last cutting of the year, so it could regenerate those varieties of ground plants that the deer enjoy. Obviously, they were grazing for a long time.

deer scat all over the meadow

They also like one place in our front yard. We try to watch the ground when walking across the grass to the mailbox. All in all, it was a pleasant day today. The meadow is in its glory, and I love to walk back there, even if I hadn’t found milkweed, it was still a beautiful sight in the fall.

As a bonus, I have a bag of milkweed seed pods to use at the crafts fair in December for the children’s critter craft area.

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Posted in Gardening, Hobbies, Howard County, Nature, Volunteering, Weather, West HoCo and tagged gardening, Howard County, howard county conservancy, nature, photography, weather, West HoCo. Bookmark the permalink.

In Search of Woody Woodpecker

Posted on November 10, 2012 by AnnieRie

It seems to be turning into a birding weekend. And, I am really revealing my age since I remember watching Woody Woodpecker. Is that cartoon still around?

Between today and tomorrow, lots of birding being done. I missed the Howard club walk at Sharp’s this morning as I was working at the Conservancy on a bird feeding program for families. Making fruit kebabs, and having a blast with pine cones, corn cobs, peanut butter, suet, fruit and birdseed.

pine cones covered in peanut butter, seeds and currants

Yep, it was a bit messy but all of the 30+ little ones and about an equal number of parents and grandparents were out having fun making treats for the birds. It was one of the regular wonder walks, which became a short talk and lots of time to make three or four treats to take home for the birds. Treats like coffee lid pizza. Putting string through a lid so you can tie it on a railing on a balcony or deck, and keep birds happy that like to eat on platforms. We spread suet on the lid and decorated the pizza with raisins, currants and seeds.

coffee lid suet pizza

The real artists out there got into making totally covered pine cone treats, too. The good part of today was how easy it was to clean up as we just swept the suet and seeds out into the grass for the birds and, of course, the squirrels to find.

Before and after the event, we were visited by a couple of pileated woodpeckers. I did manage to grab the camera and get pictures. They wouldn’t come around while we were all there, just showed up on the same tree when there were just a few of us left.

pileated woodpecker

He had a compatriot there that I couldn’t identify, and there was a second pileated on a tree farther down the hill. I had to use my step and point method to get pics before they flew off.

I even caught one of them in flight.

And, if I am not all birded out, and can get up early tomorrow, at 8 am the Howard Bird Club Centennial park bird walk meets on the west end of the park. Enter off of Centennial Lane. Two or three hours searching for birds and walking the pathways and into the forested ponds off the trails.

An easy fun way to learn about birds. Last week they saw four great blue heron.

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The View from the Yard

Posted on November 8, 2012 by AnnieRie

No, not Camden. Dayton. Our yard. Where we have spent countless hours the past week, cleaning up and getting ready for winter. We spent lots of time outside, since our house was so cold. I was going to title this post, Heat, Glorious Heat.

When I came home today from dropping off food, cleaning supplies and clothes at the hocorising household for Mrs. hocorising to take to Jersey, I came home finally to a warm house. The heat pump is fixed. All is right in my world. Some mornings the temps on our first floor were in the 50s, and we were wearing fleece sweaters and/or vests all day. Going outside to work was better than shivering in the kitchen or family room.

So, what did we get to see outside. Mostly, since the leaves are falling, we got to see what trees were down, or coming down, since the canopy is gone and you can see the bare branches. It looks like we still have a fair amount of work to clean up the large pieces, so we don’t lose the trees we want to keep on our property line. You see, we moved out here for the privacy and between last year’s hurricane, this June’s derecho, and Superstorm Sandy, we lost quite a bit of deciduous cover.

sheared off trees of heaven

Some of our better older trees were damaged too. The derecho sheared off trees, while the hurricane uprooted them. We now need to decide what to plant to maintain our property line.

What also is amazing is how many pine cones came down. I have been collecting them for the Conservancy to use at the Natural Crafts Fair for Christmas. The first weekend in December as part of the crafts fair, they set up an area for children to make really adorable gifts using pine cones, acorns, wood, sticks and other natural items. I have a boatload of pine cones. The description from the web site. Put it on your calendar.

HC Conservancy — DEC 1 – Saturday 9 am to 3 pm Natural Holiday Sale and Crafts. Enjoy a lovely Saturday. Browse tables of natural gift items, create critters from seed pods and natural gatherings. Enjoy beautiful music with a cup of tea. Our popular holiday sale with talented local craft vendors, delicious refreshments, and nature critter crafts for the children of all ages. FREE.

Now that the ground cover is gone, and you can see the property line, you can find the old fence posts and barbed wire that delineated the horse pasture from other parts of the original farm. Our house is in the middle of what was the horse pasture. That is why our soil is so good, all that lovely horse manure churned into the soil, turning clay into something lovely.

It is interesting living here. We have fruit trees, hickory trees, berry bushes, mulberry trees, all sorts of ground covers and grasses. I love the meadow every season.

Our crab apples got many of their berries knocked off, but my neighbor’s did OK. Hopefully, that means we will have our resident cedar waxwings hanging around gorging on berries. Like they did last year. They love it here, even if it gets a little windy.

Just another fall week in West County.

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A Snow Sky

Posted on November 7, 2012 by AnnieRie

After a lovely day yesterday, today we wake to a prediction of snow. Don’t know how much, but whatever we get, it won’t hang around long if the temperatures rise to the 50s and 60s like they are supposed to reach over the weekend.

I gave the ornamental grasses their fall pruning. I have one left to do. Otherwise, they blow all over the property. We also did a massive leaf cleanup during the lovely weather yesterday. The piles sit waiting for our rake and take compost partner to pick up in her truck sometime soon. She hauled away almost this much yesterday. At least our leaves are turning into compost for gardens. Some of it here. Some of it just down the road from us, at our partner’s home.

If you live out here in west county, and don’t get yard waste removal, like us, consider partnering with the county rake and take program to turn your leaves into compost. Our partner has lots of conifers, but not the deciduous trees needed for that brown component for compost. The yard is getting bare of leaves, with the exception of our maple, which is just turning now.

Besides the leaves and the sky, today I found new residents feasting on the suet. It has been a while since we have seen the red breasted nuthatches. Two of them have been here lately, and one was on the far side of the suet while I was taking leaf pictures. The other, in the tree above, was a little harder to photograph.

red breasted nuthatch

Did you know that the nuthatches are the only birds that can travel head first down the side of a tree? This picture is a little blurry, but you get the action.

Now that I have had a coffee break, and downloaded the morning pictures, it’s time to get back out there and cut back the last of the ornamental grasses. I left the largest one for last. But still, all in all, spending the day outdoors enjoying the fall foliage left on the property, is one of the simple pleasures of living out here.

Here’s to the weekend looking as lovely as yesterday. If you get the chance, head outside this weekend to an outdoor event, or to one of the markets. Here’s the Ellicott City calendar.

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