fruit

spring is getting on ( it's already meteorological summer ) and the grandfatherly concord grape has an irruption of new growth...

which i am quietly directing towards the fir trees using tomato stakes and sisal twine...

while over on the sunnier side of the firs and in the catalpa tree clusters of nascent grapes are beginning to bloom...

drupes are forming across the mulberry tree...

and all along the beds the native berries...

while the new york imports are ripening...the birds will have supplies now and later...

meanwhile stolons are escaping the beds everywhere you look...the jerusalemn artichokes have no exclusive right to relentlessness.

shapes change

change is constant...stasis is death...that is valid for people and for weather...and, at least in my back yard, climate as well...two days and the "sternest" had retreated from winter hereabouts...there is considerable standing water...

the winter rye has begun to emerge from the snow cover...no sign of wheat or ramps just yet...

while the egyptian walking onions...

the native berries...

and new york imports have remained stubbornly green through it all...

in defiance of the weather and the rabbits that have been criss crossing my back yard in search of something to browse...it is the second half of february and i would probably profoundly mistaken in thinking winter nearing its end...still...we remain on the lookout for crocuses.

out back solstice plus one

the first full day of winter is unseasonably warm here...something like thirty six degrees ( farenheit ) above "the average for this day" ( i know, averages lie )...whatever the averages say there is no real possibility of snow for christmas...and, while this may not trouble some, it aint natural...( or, nature isn't what it used to be and there is a "new normal" afoot )...

the berries in the bed of my truck are not complaining and are basking in the sunshine...

as are the native berries on the east side...

and the new york imports and the egyptian walking onions in the south bed...

"cold hardy" is a fine designation for all these plants as i discovered when i made an effort to dig up a jerusalem artichoke and found the ground frozen solid a couple of inches down...no tuber retrieval without a pick-axe...it is warm today however there has been snow and a week of below freezing temperatures in the recent past...late autumn was colder than early winter...

the winter wheat and rye are soaking up the rays today as well...fine for now...we will see if the snow cover is deep enough to get them through the real cold ( one presumes it will arrive )

beyond that all is quiet in the ramp bed ( undisturbed mulch is fine with me )...

there are still a few seeds hanging around the mostly shattered teocintli ears...

and the dryad's saddle that has been quietly consuming a dead portion of an elm back there has seem better days...

about the only other color in the yard is the berries in the hawthorn tree...with the berries, onions, and grains they are in tune with the season...and the birds will be spreading a source of winter food as they move the seeds about.

friday the thirteenth...so what's green?

it is somewhat on the warm side for december thirteenth...not that the lows haven't gotten down to near single digits so far this season...that did not preclude a warm-up...so i decided to see what was still green outside...

the new york imports in the beds...

and the daughters and granddaughters in the bed of my truck are greening away...

so are their native berry cousins...

the lichens growing on the rocks and the nurse logs from the old wild cherry tree seem ignorant of the season...or, perhaps, indifferent...

there is still a hint of green in the asparagus...

both the winter wheat and rye have produced a third ( at least ) leaf which means they are sufficiently rooted for the onset of winter...if the snow cover is sufficient enough they should be fine come spring...

the second year egyptian walking onions...

and those taking root form this past season's crop of aerial bulbs are verdant...and will continue to be so even in the snow ( should there be much )...

finally, back down in the basement those basadre spuds i planted eight days ago are beginning to show some hints of greening up and producing leaves...the basement is at a good temperature for winter keeping potatoes which may be inhibiting them a bit...given the forecast the heat may be on down there soon enough...we will see where we are at a few days before the holiday.

colors

it is november nineteenth and some nighttime lows have already been some twenty degrees below freezing...so any reasonable person would expect the tomatoes to be long gone...and they would be correct...an autumn brown is the hue today...

the teocintli is done as well...

some ears are empty...

some are in the process of shattering...

and some are splitting open in preparation...

i brought in a few late season ears that had not split open yet ( i am letting the shattered and split ones go in their natural cycle to see if it will reseed itself in this climate )...

they rendered some plausibly mature seed and some fairly green ones as well...brown and green in microcosm...and while we are talking green...

the winter wheat has lost no chlorophyll...there are cold hardy folks out there

neither have the egyptian walking onions that are headed into their second season...

nor have the aerial bulbs which have "walked" and are sprouting, rooting, and doing their best to burrow into the soil for winter...

the leaves on the new york import strawberries are still verdant...they will not be intimidated by winter...and while beries are the focus...

even at this late date the native berries have still been trying to produce berries...i am skeptical that there is anything to pollinate these lonely blossoms who are admittedly looking rough...still...don't tell me dna isn't relentless...

we should not think ourselves burdened with the limited pallet of green and brown though...there are other blooms holding on to vestiges of more vibrant days...

and the hawthorn berries are inviting the birds.