Plants
Waiting for spring
The ground’s littered with those prickly seed pods from the sweetgum trees, but the magnolia buds are swelling, and today we spotted our first crocus!
Willowmere Park
Below is another shot of this tree taken 4/4/2018, this time from the opposite direction and looking uphill rather than down. No geese this time.
Running past the weeds
On a morning run at Willowmere Park I passed a stunning display of thistles. I walked back for a closer look and found more to see than just weeds. The hummingbird moth was a bonus but the bindweed so entranced me I failed to focus on the last of the pokeweed berries, although they’re a favorite sight for me since Harold S told me about them. Don’t know what the puffballs are.
Eastern redbud
New on the forest floor
Bradford Pears
Hadn’t realized the Bradford Pear would get this big. Nor did the city. The cafe is the Recreation Center (opposite Bike Works), where Erin says you get the best chili dog in Fredericksburg. Friend Morgan of Tree Fredericksburg says they are not good trees (despite their beauty); they tend to split and are very messy. “Bradford Pears are a disaster… grow way too tall to be planted under power lines!”
Entering Fredericksburg after crossing the Rappahannock River by the Chatham Bridge. That’s Saint George’s on the left, behind the Old Stone Warehouse, then Bike Works in the middle, and William Street as the avenue of Bradford Pears. Below, having turned right onto Sophia Street then looking back over the river into Stafford County, see Chatham Manor up on the hill, where Lincoln addressed the troops and Walt Whitman served as a Civil War hospital volunteer.
Japanese Honeysuckle
Japanese Honeysuckle on our back fence
Magnolias
Owen’s prickly
After the blizzard, the American sweetgum trees dropped a lot of these seed pods on top of the snow. Owen called my attention to one of them as we walked down the driveway to the mailbox the other day. The holly was the start of his tree identification career, and he shows a keen interest in the other pricklies, as he calls them. These trees are quite common to us, noticeable for their gorgeous autumn colors, but I don’t think they grow in Pennsylvania.