How it all got started...

It's been a rough winter. Desperately cut off from what I love most of all - to see and nurture things growing - I fell into a deep sad hole and could no longer enjoy the winter as I had at first. One snowstorm after another made walking difficult (especially with a baby stroller) and driving dangerous. Viruses came followed by others and we spent way too many days as prisoners inside.

A few times I sat down and googled aimlessly for flowers, greens, birds, butterflies, anything not covered in snow. On one of those occasions I ended up on a blog. I kept reading, and I had soon read all the posts, and when I was done, I started reading them again, and some other blogs that were recommended there too. 

I learned a lot from reading the posts and the pictures were beautiful. Woodswalker and most of her friends live in upstate NY, and write and take pictures from walks in the area. I got really inspired.

So last week, when I was feeling worse than ever from this neverending winter, I pulled myself together, and while the kids were in school I went on a hike. Ambitiously I stated that the pictures I took that day would be the starting point for my own blog, but the pics didn't come out that great. But I came out great after that day!

So here it is, my new nature blog. Aside from interests in everything natural and wild, I'm also a gardener by heart, and also by profession since last year. So while I'm not planning to talk much about work here, I will share my love for and delight in gardens as well.

One December day before the snow came to stay I took a walk in the Arnold Arboretum with my camera. I usually take lots of pictures and add them to a huge Flickr file - my visual plant/animal list. Not all of them are pretty, but here are some that are!

 

Buttonbush by an icy pond

 

Red Osier Dogwood

 

Yellow twig Dogwood 

Arnold Arboretum is an amazing park in Jamaica Plain, Boston, where I am fortunate to live. It's run by Harvard University and functions as a botanical garden and educational center. I have really only explored a fraction of it all. During this walk I happened upon the Native shrub section which really are some of my favorites.  They were lining both sides of the path between two small ponds.

 

Carolina Rose

The Ozark Witch hazel seems to have more orange blossoms than the ones I see in the woods here.

 

 

Joe Pyeweed 

 

Now, this is some blueberry bush! 

Moving on from the natives, I found this tree. Look at those thorns! The bigger thorns have smaller thorns growing out of them. This is a Caspian Honey Locust tree. Most trees and shrubs in the Arboretum thankfully have labels on them.

 

And this is called Late Honeysuckle. I'm not sure where it comes from. The berries are less orange-y than Winterberries but shine just as bright.

 

Another amazing berrybush is Beautyberry. There is an American native but I think this might be the Asian one since the American version is not so cold hardy.