Author: Stan Deatherage | Published: November 13th, 2009

Beginning in Spring, We Stroll Through Winter

   In this second article, we will examine a more familiar world - the one within our everyday reach. The world where I step from sheltering abode, and explore the realm that exists upon my property, whether I am there to witness it or not, it wakes upon the optimism of the rising sun, and feeds upon what it needs to exist.

   When I no longer exist within this this plane of my existence, this environment of revolving color and smaller living beings will continue. Hopefully someone else will be around to record it, because we all need to be reminded of God's bountiful beauty, and search within our own boundaries to discover it.


    One of the earliest flowers to bloom in early spring is from the abundant wisteria vines that wraps around some of my camellia bushes, as this one did.


    The lasting burst of color from a tall camellia bush in early spring reminds me that the azaleas will soon be blooming.


    I love the hearty blossoms of this southern bush - the camellia.


    One of the many varieties camellia bushes, which are rich in color and blossoms, that populate my yard.


    A thin honeybee seeking some pollen from this dogwood blossom.


    Pollen is the delicacy of the day as this pollen laden bumblebee leaves this azalea in search of other blossoms to quench his insatiable appetite for the life sustaining nectar.


    This beautiful white azalea, unraveling its beautiful blossom in early spring, may be the next destination for the ravenous bumblebee.


    It will not be long before this spreading azalea will be pollinated.


    This rain swollen lichen enjoys its host, the outstretched limb of the old dogwood tree near my backdoor, here in mid summer after an all night steady rain.


    After a similar fine summer rain a tree frog comes down to sun himself, as he perches upon a waxy leaf of the flowers that my wife planted in a pot on my rear deck.


    Late summer is even a fine season for this furry beast that we know as Darla, as she searches the shallow edges of our pond for something wild to munch on. Darla, also known as 'Possum Slayer, is our currently 13 year old Samoyad.


    In early winter, the change of the season is signaled by a visit from this pair of female and male mallards in my small pond (when we receive adequate rain) in my front yard. On occasion, mating duck pairs will stay a while before heading farther south, or remaining in the area, to winter, and search for various food sources here in eastern North Carolina.


    Down at the water's edge, we witness the sheen of the red algae blooms, which signals the colder months, of an impending winter season.


     A different cypress tree, and inundated by snow on this rare January snow day, there along the edge of my thinly frozen pond.


    A rare snow in January (the winter season's coldest month) blankets my yard, and the snow swept base of this cypress tree in my lower front yard.


    We finish up with the 'Possum Slayer in her innate element, and surely tonight, or whenever she flops down in the warming sun, Darla will have in instinctive dreams of her breed's native north country. It is tough living summers in the sweltering South, and we do have her shaved in late spring, but at least she is not pulling a sleigh until her paws bleed.

    This article is provided courtesy of our sister site: Beaufort County Now.

North Carolina's Coastal Region: Beaufort County >>