Pretty soon the days will begin growing longer again. In this Pacific Northwest winter land of soaking gray days and long nights (we’re further north than Quebec City…. though south of Paris and substantially south of London), where heavy clouds rest low on the tops of dark conifers, solstice is a welcome point in the circle of seasons.
Neither my fumbling attempts as a photographer nor my miniature camera can do western Washington winters justice, but here are some recent photos from the garden.
Rosin weed (Silphium integrifolium)
Downy sunflower (Helianthus mollis)
Bai shou wu (Cynanchum auriculatum)
Apache plume (Fallugia paradoxa)
Evening primrose (Oenothera biennis)
Wild yam (Dioscorea villosa)
Yi mu cao or Siberian motherwort (Leonurus sibericus)
Hawthorn (Crataegus sp.)
Ironweed (Vernonia fasciculata)
Sword fern (Polystychum munitum) growing through cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon) plants on a frosty morning in Section C. There is still some color left in winter. Look closely and you can see cranberries hidden in the foliage.
Honk if you love gray skies! Humans rarely accept the winter weather with the grace of birds. It helps to have feathers that shed water. This is one of our many resident Canada geese (Branta canadensis) strutting its stuff on campus the other day. Grass grows all winter here so the geese are well fed. They also eat all of the windfall crab apples from nearby trees, an amusing spectacle if you’re lucky enough to witness it. Along with crows, geese are one of Seattle’s natural treasures.
Well, if you can call that news, that’s the news.
cry of glaucous gulls
soaring over stormy surf
winter on this coast
See you next year in the garden.
Those black and white photos are a little spooky. I’m glad that you found time for another post. It’s been a while.