Perpetual Nature Journal

Posted on May 7, 2019 by glenalmus

Here is a photo of my perpetual nature journal. The apple is there to hold the page down while I photographed it. In the journal, each double page spread covers a week of the year. You can make one entry a week a more or even skip a week. The idea is to record nature in a specific area and notice how things change from year to year. It’s also a way to learn about nature and to improve your drawing skills.

Found a land snail on my pot of marjoram yesterday.

We thought the pinxter azalea we planted last year was dead. It’s not!

This is green and gold – a native spring ephemeral. I probably incorrectly identified lesser celandine as green and gold in years past. What a mistake! The lesser celandine is an aggressive non native that we actually planted back into our native garden not realizing our incorrect id. I’ve been weeding it out all spring and I’m sure I’ll have to do the same for years to come. The photo above is the real thing. I planted two last year and only one survived. It is doing well and spreading so I’m happy about that.

A close up of the bullfrog entry in my nature journal.

Snowy Walks

Posted on January 13, 2019 by glenalmus

It snowed yesterday and today – just a few inches.

I took a quiet walk down to my black willow tree.

Later, Len joined me on another jaunt.

Heavy Rains, Heavy Creek

Posted on September 28, 2018 by glenalmus

We got more rain on Saturday, September 22 and into the following day than we did from Hurricane Florence. I don’t remember the total but it was a few to several inches.

The fence in the foreground is the property line. The bridge is on our neighbors property. See the stream of water through the fence? That usually isn’t there.

The stream of water going by our neighbors house and into the creek comes from the stream that forms during heavy rains on our property along the road. It doesn’t form on our property – it comes up hill from the northwest.

Afternoon of Pruning

Posted on February 20, 2018 by glenalmus

Our daughters boyfriend, Luca, finished pruning this apple tree for us.

Luca, Samantha, Dave and I spent a couple hours yesterday afternoon hacking away at the honeysuckle between the pasture and the creek.

Forgot a before photo. This tree on the left was covered with honeysuckle.

We have so much more to do.

Above is the pile we created for the honeysuckle and the big tooth aspen we cut down some time ago. We are taking down the aspen because it is spreading into our meadow and most of it dies once it reaches a certain size anyway.

Once we clear, oh, another 20 feet or so of honeysuckle we will reach this tree. I can’t wait to get closer to identify it. It looks like it has an aspen growing through the middle of its many trunks.

I took all of the above photos this morning.

Took this photo this afternoon after I finished taking all this honeysuckle in the foreground away from the tree, top center. We’ll just keep chipping away at this invasive weed. Some of it is vines and some the bush variety. Many places on our property have both type. I also cut some out around the pines in the backyard and the maples along the road. I’ll need some help getting the roots out. Luca is coming back out later this week to help and Damian will help too once he recovers from a head cold.

Walk in the Pines

Posted on February 15, 2018 by glenalmus

We crossed our creek to our pine forest today to plant some pignut hickory nuts, willow oak acorns and beech nuts. The pignut hickory nuts came from a walk we took on Christmas day at Betsy Bell Park here in Staunton. The acorns came from downtown Richmond and the beech nuts from my mom’s in Maryland.

Notice this ridiculously large vine wrapped around this tree. It’s probably japanese honeysuckle. We’ve started trying to rid our property of this invasive species. It totally covers the trees and kills them. Total eradication might be impossible. We will do our best.

Dave sees a bitty crayfish in the creek.

Spring Showers

Posted on May 1, 2016 by glenalmus

Two months of winds, three weeks of dryness and then a week of rain and more to come. Spring has sprung!

sweet woodruff

Less than a month old and the chicks are down by the spring house foraging with the rest of the flock.

Leo

A proud and dutiful protector and provider. I saw him give a little crawly thing to one of the chicks.

I believe this is the youngest chick.

See all the marvelous watercress in the spring. I must remember to harvest some for lunch.

Dave can’t resist and the chick soon settles down.

Afternoon Walk

Posted on March 3, 2016 by glenalmus

It’s been a very wet winter and I noticed an abundance of moss on the trees and rocks near the house.

These mosses are down by the spring.

I found a new book in the library – The magical world of Moss Gardening. I’m having a difficult time identifying the type of moss. I guess I need to bring the book with me on my walk. My photos are not detailed enough.

So I will just enjoy them unnamed.

I’m listening to On Being on public radio. Krista Tippett is interviewing Robin Wall Kimmerer – a bryologist – who described mosses as “the coral reefs of the forests.”