It’s still a little slow, with the exception of the wood duck visits, but spring is threatening to take hold, as evidenced by small factors in various places, and one of those is what we’re featuring this week.
These are the blossoms of the almond tree, which sprouted spontaneously from the compost pile 13 years ago. It’s demonstrating that the move and transplanting did not faze it in the least, and in fact, there are far more blossoms on it than ever before. I did not hesitate to treat it with the deer repellent spray, though I think the deer start paying attention when the young new leaves are out; I want an early start because deer damage in the past certainly stunted its development.
With the exception of what’s in the greenhouse, this is the first of the transplanted trees to show notable development, but the various Japanese maples all seem to be heading in the right direction – their buds are still small, but definitely moving along. In fact, for all of the plants that we brought with us, there was only one fatal casualty: the avocado tree that had reached nearly three meters last year. Because of its size, we were forced to house it in the garage under a UV growth lamp, but the two multi-day runs of sub-freezing temperatures did it in, since the garage wasn’t heated in any way and the cold eventually penetrated the pot to the roots. It’s a shame, but a much smaller one in the greenhouse is doing fine.
The smallest of the butterfly bushes (Buddleja davidii) is also in question right now, not showing any distinct signs of life at the moment, but they develop later than the maples, so we’re monitoring it. There are still two others than maintained some green leaves all winter, surprisingly, so we should still have those. And several cuttings from the oak-leaf hydrangeas (Hydrangea quercifolia) are developing in the greenhouse as well, and will be transplanted as soon as we feel the cold weather is well and truly gone.
The camellia (Theaceae) bushes that came with the property are all blossoming madly, but that’s hardly a sign of spring since they’re winter-bloomers. I noticed this one and went in for the closeup, since it seemed to have a mutation of some kind, with the reproductive organs not fully enclosed by the petals. But then, I realized a lot of them were like that, at least on this one bush, so perhaps this is normal. The European honeybees (Apis mellifera) were not in the least bothered by it.
I just missed out on another thing to feature, however, because I didn’t have the camera in hand. As The Girlfriend and I were leaving for an appointment, we passed the lamp post along the walkway, and one of the Carolina anoles (Anolis carolinensis) was proudly displaying its dewlap in a territorial way, the first I’ve seen of that display this year (or indeed, on this property I believe.) The reason seemed to be both the wonderfully warm weather and the presence of another anole a little further down the pole. Later on, when I did have the camera in hand, it was simply posing lazily.
Even though I was steadily drawing closer in plain sight, this one would do that anole thing of appearing to take little cat naps for a few seconds, and I still don’t know why this is. Yet you can see a hint of pink from the dewlap, perhaps a sign of the first stretching, since I don’t recall ever seeing it this clearly when they weren’t displaying.
An hour later, the coloration had reverted back to the typical olive-brown that I’ve been seeing all winter, but that pink is still vaguely visible. And cheers to this one for letting me draw in this close, though I do suspect it’s getting used to our frequent passages. I have to note that I sat down on the back deck to do a little reading in the fabulous day yesterday, moving the lawn chair over to a new position as I did so. Less than five minutes later, the arm of the chair was surmounted by another anole who did not seem overly concerned with my presence, and for a moment I thought it was going to crawl up my armpit; this was taking place as I was maneuvering the smutphone for a few shots, so it wasn’t like I was holding perfectly still or anything. I get the impression that if I fall asleep out there, I’ll awaken trussed up in tiny ropes, receiving demands that we either leave the property or pay them rent.
So yeah, we’re getting closer and closer to active photography season, and it shows all signs of being a good one. I have to note that both January and February set blog records for photo uploads, with six video clips so far, so perhaps this is a promising trend?