A Colorful Walk

Don't you just love Spring!  After a dull, grey, rainy winter, it seems the switch has been turned.  Mid-80's in the afternoons, sunshine and bright green growth on most every tree (except pecan trees).  Some days, Tricia and I take a stroll in the yard and just enjoy the beauty of God's creation.

We have a little concrete bench by the big old live oak tree.  We sit here and read the mail when the weather is nice.  The entire area around it is engulfed in wild African violets.  I'll put off mowing until they're finished blooming as they are nice to look at.

In total contrast with the rich green and vibrant violet colors, I was walking through a portion of the garden where I'm saving broccoli seed and waiting for the pods to dry out and turn brown.  The broccoli plants are almost dead and the big brown leaves of the broccoli cover the ground.  In the midst of the drab color, there's a spark of red.  A ladybug!

Ladybugs are beneficial insects in the garden.  I like them in the garden as they eat aphids and other small insects.  As a guy, I feel sorry for the male ladybugs, though.  As a bug that was a dude, it would bother me to be a 'ladybug.'

I have beets growing in the garden at all different stages.  The photo below shows Detroit Red beets in front and Bull's Blood beets in the back.

On the very next row is Rainbow Swiss Chard.  The stalks are brightly colored, as the name suggests - some pink, others white, and others yellow.  We had swiss chard and buckwheat as a tasty side dish tonight.

And speaking of brightly colored things, it's azalea time!  Twenty five years ago we lived in Kinder, LA, in the home that was my grandmother and grandfather's home at one time.  When we moved to our home here, my sister and brother-in-law moved in and took out the azaleas.  We were able to get some of them and replant them in the yard.  One of them survived.  I think they are Formosa Azaleas.

Each year at this time, it fills with beautiful blooms and we get lots of photos of it.  I've often said, it is nice to have plants with a history.  Plants that remind you of people you love and times you cherish.

In addition to being pretty, the plant serves a purpose.  We have one of those ugly telephone markers.  You've seen them.  I think they call them bollards, but they are filled with wires.  It's just not something that you want as the centerpiece of your front yard.  Well, we planted my grandma's azalea in front of it and now... voila!  No more telephone obstacle in the front yard (that you can see, anyway.)

There must be an animal that hides out in the foliage, though.  Everytime Belle passes by the azalea, she sniffs and is real curious.

I hope you are enjoying spring as much as we are!

Enjoying Fall Colors

It was a very nice day last week.  I came home for lunch and we decided to have coffee outside on the front porch in the rocking chairs.  We sipped our coffee, waved at people as they passed by on the road.  I wish that I could have captured the event on video and zoomed in on it, but I didn't.  So, you'll have to use your imagination.  In the photo below, I captured "Fall" in our neck of the woods.

If you had an eagle eye, you could see that leaves were falling out of the pecan trees.  Lots of leaves.  As the wind continued to blow, a lazy stream of leaves fell slowly, but steadily toward the ground.  Those leaves did their duty all spring, photosynthesizing, providing shade, and now their work was done - almost.

I suggested to the wifey that we walk out and check the mail.  I walked out barefooted.  It was nice to feel the cool earth beneath my feet and feel the crunch of fall leaves under me.  I don't know what it is about Fall, but it is as if you can just look out and tell that there is not as much humidity in the air.  The air is crisp.  The sky is blue.  The sunshine is brilliant.  Life is good.

The leaves were beginning to gather on the ground beneath the trees.  Tricia reminded me of when the kids were little and I'd rake up the leaves in great big piles and the kids would run and jump in them.  It was great fun for them.  Simple things like a pile of leaves or an empty cardboard box can sometimes provide more entertainment that costly gifts.

These leaves won't be raked and bagged up.  Instead, I just mow them.  They compost into the lawn.  That's why I said their work was almost done.  The leaves will fertilize the St. Augustine grass under the trees and hopefully provide some fertility that will yield a good pecan crop again next year.

Right outside the back door is another pecan tree.  It yields bigger pecans than the ones in the front and they are easy to shell.  We used to call pecans like this, "paper shell pecans."  While the trees in the front yard have brown leaves that are falling or mostly fallen, this tree has leaves that are still hanging on the tree and are yellow.

I think it is a beautiful color.  We have friends that just got back from a trip to New England for two months.  They went as far north as Maine and said that they hit the Fall colors at their peak in North Carolina.  This pecan tree right here in south Louisiana ain't so bad, though.

I liked the way the sunlight filtered through the leaves, highlighting the yellow against the blue sky.

But alas, my coffee cup was empty and it was time to go back to work.  Glad I got a chance to see Fall take place, because it doesn't take long.  If you aren't paying attention, this is what the tree will look like in just a skinny minute:

Barren and sad until spring.

Fall Foliage

The high temperature here today (December 19th) was 77 degrees Fahrenheit.  It was quite warm.  Hard to imagine we had snow and ice not long ago.  Tricia and I sat on the front porch in rocking chairs and had afternoon coffee.  Quite relaxing.  I'm going to miss this life of leisure once I go back to work! 

As we were watching birds flying from tree to tree, we noticed leaves falling from the trees.  The pecan trees only have a few leaves left, but many of the water oak leaves have yet to fall.  The live oaks, being evergreen, replace all their leaves in the early spring.  They'll hold their green leaves all winter long.  One thing about fall in Louisiana, is that if you want to see beautiful colors of fall foliage, you'd better schedule a trip somewhere.  The changing colors just aren't that striking.  Of course the cypress trees turn a reddish-rust color, and you certainly can't forget the lowly "Chicken Tree" or Chinese Tallow Tree.  Those leaves get real pretty.  Other than that, I'm drawing a blank...

We do have some Japanese Maple trees planted in our landscaping and although my photos don't do it justice, the green leaves turn a beautiful red color around this time each year.  Check it out:

The red leaves contrasted against the bright green leaves of the citrus trees in the background make a nice showing, in my opinion.  If you look closely in the photo above, you can even see satsumas on the tree on the left behind the Japanese maple.

We have six of these trees in all.  Here's a smaller one by the front door with bright red leaves.

Our seasons don't last for long, though.  As soon as the leaves change color, they drop to the ground very quickly.  The red leaves that adorned the trees soon lay on the ground and fade away.

Some of the leaves also fall and get lodged in the bright green juniper leaves that grow at the base of the Japanese maples.

As it turns out, I guess we don't have to venture off the front porch to view fall foliage.