Shadow Shot Sunday - Art Shadows

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A departure from my usual plants, critters and landscapes, the shadow cast by the frame around this painting captured my fancy at a December art show so I captured it with my camera.

More shadow shots may be seen at Tracy's Shadow Shot Sunday.  While you're there, give a hello to all the fine photographers who put their shadow shots up each week for the world to see.

© Copyright 2006-2010, Raven Ridge Gardens. All rights reserved.

Winter in my Garden - In the Greenhouse and Out

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An impossibly large Meyer lemon in the greenhouse



Susan's orchid getting ready to bloom in the greenhouse (the bathtub will be explained in a future post)



Gertrude Jekyll blooms year-round in the garden albeit a bit worse for the wear after a hailstorm



The passion flower blooms year-round also, up against a south facing window



Sarcococca is in fine form this time of year





Sally Holmes puts out blooms even when it hails. Her delicate pink coloring is enhanced by the winter cold 

I'd love to know what's blooming in your garden this time of year.

© Copyright 2006-2010, Raven Ridge Gardens. All rights reserved.

It's a New Year - Welcome to 2011

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This, I am told, is an icebow:  a rainbow in a cloudless and rainless but none-the-less moisture-filled sky made possible by the sun refracting off ice crystals high in the troposphere.

The icebow sat over our area of northern California (and maybe auspiciously over the Trinidad Bay Bed & Breakfast) for more than 2 hours on Dec. 30th. It didn't move and it was mostly a rather ghostly white except for the few moments when the sun broke through a thin veil of clouds and lit the halo in a beautiful spectrum of colors.

I look for auspicious signs in nature. I delight in them.  Call me silly, I don't care, but even knowing the science of how rainbows occur, I think they're magical. And I think they portend good things to come.

Yesterday the clouds that have been hanging over our collective heads, raining buckets for several weeks, began to part, showing delicious patches of blue.

Today the the clouds are gone, the sky is blue as can be, the sun is bright, water droplets are glistening, making little rainbows everywhere I look.

And the Buddha who graces the pathway to our house is smiling in the sunshine.

All is right in my world.

I hope it is in yours.  Happy New Year.

© Copyright 2006-2011, Raven Ridge Gardens. All rights reserved.

Merry Christmas

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However you celebrate the holidays, may your path be peaceful, loving and kind.

In our house we celebrate Christmas.  As my kids grew up, moved away and married into other families, our celebration here at home became quieter and more introspective.  Presents and all the accompanying hoopla the least important; the love of family and friends the most.

Over the years, living this rural life, I have become more attuned to the changing of the seasons, the cycle of life in the outside world, the marking of days by what grows in the garden when the days are the shortest and what springs from the earth with the tiniest shift of the planet's axis.

Aside from having my family around me, outside in nature is where I'm happiest. Achieving a spectacular macro shot of a tiny salamander renders me speechless and ecstatic - for days.  Simple joys.

Merry Christmas to you all.  May simple joys bring you happiness.

© Copyright 2006-2010, Raven Ridge Gardens. All rights reserved.

Full Moon/Lunar Eclipse/Winter Solstice

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A triumvirate of auspicious occurances begins Monday evening, December 20th at 10:33 (west coast time):  The last full moon of 2010 undergoing a total eclipse which will end around 2:30 AM on the Winter Solstice.
Will I be up all night watching?  You betcha'.  (Please, clouds and fog, go away.)
Will I be hoping for a brighter, more compassionate world in 2011?  That too.  Always.

Happy Winter Solstice!

The sun just came out as I'm typing this; I hope it's a good sign.

Click on the youtube link below for a beautiful video about this special cosmic event.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BGWKyM5MKw

© Copyright 2006-2010, Raven Ridge Gardens. All rights reserved.

Autumn to Winter in my Garden - Salamanders

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 Who dat?

Perched on my index finger, you can imagine how tiny this critter is.



It's pretty easy to find a salamander or two in my garden this time of year.  Turn over a piece of wood, an old flower pot, and chances are there will be one of these critters hanging out underneath.

The little guy on my finger had lost its tail, possibly due to a run-in with one of my chickens, and is in the process of growing a new one (I didn't know they did that).

I do try to keep them out of harm's way and will keep the chickens in their pen if I see salamanders in the yard.

© Copyright 2006-2010, Raven Ridge Gardens. All rights reserved.

Very Late Autumn (Winter Really) in my Garden - Fine Feathered Hens

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Lacy & Ahm, all decked out in their new feathers

My 11 silly hens stopped laying eggs and began to molt in early November just as the unseasonably cold weather set in. These two now have fine sets of new feathers to keep them warm while some of the others are still looking pretty bedraggled (they wouldn't pose for a photo - too embarrassed).

© Copyright 2006-2010, Raven Ridge Gardens. All rights reserved.

Late Autumn in my Garden - Spider Web

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 Can you see it, way out there up there in the branches?

Here's a closeup, taken from the same spot as the photo above.

Playing with my zoom lens ...

Zoom ...   Zoom ...

© Copyright 2006-2010, Raven Ridge Gardens. All rights reserved.

Sunset at Trinidad Beach

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The setting sun and resultant ocean and sky colors were so spectacular this evening that I wasn't the only one at the marine lab overlook taking photos.  I had to position myself just so to keep them out of my camera frame. Sure wish I could see how their photos came out.

© Copyright 2006-2010, Raven Ridge Gardens. All rights reserved.

Late Autumn in my Garden - The Last Maple Leaf

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I took this photo a few days ago when skies were clear for a moment and this last maple leaf was determinedly holding on to the bitter end. It has since fallen to the ground, joining its red, gold, orange and brown brethren, signaling, to me at least, that Autumn is over.

I didn't get as much accomplished in my garden as I would have liked this fall, which means there will be more work in the spring. At least I have the winter to contemplate what I'll do when the rains stop.

I like to think I welcome winter with all her attendant indoor coziness, but the truth is that I like longer, warmer days where I can spend more time outside, whether it's gardening or shooting photos.

I'm working on patience ...

© Copyright 2006-2010, Raven Ridge Gardens. All rights reserved.