Happy New Year Everyone!

Well, it’s been cold outside…. Over half the country is below 0 degrees Fahrenheit, and its just miserable. The gardens look dead and leggy and I am hoping that at least some plants will make it through these frosty temps. Most of the plants and shrubs I planted are zone hardy to 8a, which means they will survive if temps dip down to 10 degrees. But there are some that are a little more sensitive that may just be a pile of dead sticks come spring – good only for the compost pile. Also our windchill has gone down to a brisk 5 degrees and I am not too sure about a lot of the plants out there. I guess its just a wait and see kinda thing. And while things are so bleak outside it is hard for me to go out with my camera. But there is a beauty in different forms out here, and as an added bonus I even found some interesting stuff today while snuggly hiding out inside, behind my living room window:

Here is a picture of my sadly wilting Mexican Honeysuckle (Justicia spicigera) with its stems covered in frost flowers. This happens when the plant is exposed to a hard frost, but the ground around it’s roots is still not frozen. As plant sap or water freezes inside the stem, it expands. This creates tiny fissures in the plant stems and as the liquid freezes and expands further, it is forced out of the cracks in the plant stalks. Nature brings so many incredible surprises.

Birds have been swarming our bird feeders, but once the birdbaths froze over my particularly drab and dreary pond (what with all the waterlilies having wilted and hibernating in the deep end of the pond) has become the latest big attraction. Even with temps down into the teens the pond and bog did not freeze, to the delight of all the neighborhood birds. I gleefully welcomed the Pine Siskins coming in from the north today. They landed in huge flocks in the surrounding fields, covering the ground, looking for seeds and playing in the bog and gentle waterfall of the pond. (Click on the picture below to see a bigger image in which one bird is hanging upside down from a reed to take a drink. So resourceful!)I was delighted! Up until now the only birds that used to frequent the pond for late afternoon bathing and thirst quenching were the White Winged doves. I am glad it served a purpose but I had been hoping that some other wildlife (besides all the toads, frogs and dragonflies of course) too would take advantage of the pond.Today it seemed everyone came for a visit!The bluebirds bejeweled my otherwise drab pond and its dead reeds. I was honored to see them gracing me with their presence. I deliberately leave these dead stalks in the pond till February as I have seen the Eastern Phoebe hanging out on them, scoping out the waters and diving in to fish some insects out of the pond. Evidently the bluebirds like them too.

Bluebirds were sharing the space with some bully House Sparrows. I don’t really like House Sparrows too much. They tend to bully the Bluebirds and steal their nest boxes and peck at their defenseless eggs during the spring nesting season. Besides, they are an invasive species, brought to the New World over 200 years ago. I have yet to find a way to get rid of them though. Bluebirds are a gentle species and I try my best to protect them.

Although hard to see in the picture below there’s a bluebird, house finch and lesser gold finch scuttling around the rocks in the picture below.Of course the cardinals had to get in on the action too:The female cardinal so elegantly blending into it’s surounding.Peekaboo! I see youuuu, can you see me?

The weather report says it’s supposed to warm up tomorrow and I am ready! Hopefully more fun things to photograph will appear along with the more seasonable temperatures.