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Our Hiawassee home and yard Various Images - 2023 |
All Text & Images: Copyright (2023) |
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Our Hiawassee home and yard Various Images - 2023 |
All Text & Images: Copyright (2023) |
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| A light snow on a January evening. It got our hopes up but was gone by the next day... |
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| View down on our house |
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| This bunch of daffodils never fails to bloom in late January. |
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| Brussels Sprouts I planted these in early 2022, but they didn't do much, and then did nothing during the warm summer months. When it got cool again in fall of 2022, they finally took off and I picked these in January. |
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| Bell Knob |
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| Foggy morning... |
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| First Hyacinth bloom in the garden |
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| Spiraea |
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| Lenten Rose (Helleborus species) |
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| Flame Azalea (Rhododendron calendulaceum) |
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| Fothergilla flowers (Or "Father Guido {Sarducci}" as we jokingly call it...) |
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| Things were greening up in April |
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| Sassafras albidum flowers |
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| Our three potted amaryllises. |
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| Alternate Leaf Dogwood (Cornus alternifolia) |
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| Columbine |
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| Thistle |
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| The -4 F degree temperatures of Christmas 2022 killed our fig tree back to the ground. I thought it was gone but new shoots emerged in mid May. |
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| One of our Beauty Berries was even worse. I had really given it up for dead, but new shoots finally showed up in late May. |
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| Berry Plume Moth, aka Himmelman's Plume Moth (Geina tenuidactyla), feeding on Poke Milkweed (Asclepias exaltata). One of the stranger insects that I have seen... |
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| Poke Milkweed (Asclepias exaltata) with Bumble Bee (Bombus sp.) |
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| Monarch (Danaus plexippus) caterpillar chewing on Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa). |
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| Eastern Copperhead (Agkistrodon contortrix) First one of the year (June 11); I relocated it from under our deck. |
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| Another Copperhead! 2nd one of the year relocated (just 3 days after the first one!). |
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| Eastern Rat Snake (Pantherophis alleghaniensis) A beneficial snake, allowed to stay! |
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| I love these "heirloom" gladioli. The blooms last more than twice as long as the modern hybrid glads that we have. I originally dug 3-4 bulbs from an old homesite, and they have multiplied quite nicely. |
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| Spotted Apatelodes Moth (Apatelodes torrefacta), on our front door. |
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| Third Copperhead of the year! I relocated this one on July 1. We had noticed that a lot of voles were living around our birdfeeders, and decided they were attracting the snakes. I decided to remove the feeders in non-winter months. |
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| Fresh picked tomatoes |
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| Timber Rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus) crossing the driveway. I relocated it that day, July 13 |
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| Sons of Sons - Jimmy Buffett tribute concert DDA benefit, July 15, 2023 |
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| Leaving to attend the concert, we saw another(!) Timber Rattler. I placed it in a trash can and relocated it the next morning. I had read that snakes can find their way back from fairly long distances, and thought this might be the same one from two days prior. This time I moved it a longer distance away. |
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| One of the many tomato pies that I make each summer. |
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| We did our annual pontoon boat rental with friends, and stopped by the Tiki Bar at Margarita Jack's. |
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| We got cocktails at the Tiki Bar |
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| Joro spider (Trichonephila clavata) This invasive non-native spider has moved north into the mountains in recent years. |
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| Some of our Cardinal Flowers (Lobelia cardinalis) |
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| Sasanqua Camellia Most of the flowers were full of small bees, but I photographed this one because of the little crab spider with raised legs. The leg of another spider is visible in the lower part of the blossom. |
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| Christmas lights on the house |
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| View to our east, from high above the ridge. Pine Knob is the prominence to the right of center, and Round Top Mtn is the lower smoother hill to its left. |