Recently five of us (three people and two dogs) had the good fortune to hike to Stewart Falls on a gorgeous day in early April. The walk to the falls and back was just 3.5 miles, but made a bit more challenging by stretches of not-yet-melted snow. The following photos and videos attempt to capture …
Author Archives: jimr77
A Good Year for Azaleas
This is a gorgeous time of year in SE Louisiana, and the azaleas are blooming vigorously. By my memory, this azalea display in 2021 is much better than last year’s. To bloom their best, azaleas typically need 4-8 weeks of temperatures below 50 degrees Fahrenheit in the preceding winter. So, I wondered whether a mild …
Conifers; Utah’s Wasatch National Forest
A winter trip to Utah offered the opportunity to appreciate conifers in a different part of the country. The photos below show three trees seen along the Mirror Lake Scenic Byway in the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest, east of Salt Lake City. Lodgepole Pine The Rocky Mountain Lodgepole Pine (Pinus contorta subspecies latifolia) is found at middle …
Grandiflora Rose – Queen Elizabeth
Grandiflora roses are crosses between Hybrid Tea and Floribunda roses. They combine desirable characteristics of the two lines. Their well-shaped blooms on long stems are inherited from the Hybrid Teas, while their hardiness and repeat blooming come from the Floribunda side. The Queen Elizabeth rose was the first Grandiflora rose. It was introduced in 1954 …
English Rose – Teasing Georgia
This slideshow has ten images that follow a bud on an English Rose, “Teasing Georgia”, as it developed over the month of January.
Mistletoe
During walks with the dogs through our Louisiana neighborhood in January we noticed irregular balls of green leaves in tall trees that were otherwise barren. We eventually found a clump of this near enough to the ground to take a reasonable picture, and the ‘Picture This’ app identified it as oak mistletoe. Of course we …
Sweetgum Balls
The American Sweetgum tree (Liquidambar styraciflua) is the second most common tree in Louisiana forests (the most common is the Loblolly Pine). Sweetgums are also plentiful in our local suburban landscape despite a significant drawback, the spiny seed-carrying balls that fall from their branches by the hundreds this time of year. The sweetgum is a …
Japanese Camellia
The Japanese camellia (Camellia japonica), is one of two camellias commonly used as ornamental shrubs in the southern United States. The other common camellia is the Sasanqua camellia, which has smaller blooms and leaves. In SE Louisiana the Japanese camellia has recently begun blooming in early January, just as the earlier-blooming Sasanquas are finishing flowering. …
Full Cold Moon
According to the Farmer’s Almanac the full moon in December is known in North America as the Full Cold Moon. Tuesday, December 29 was the day that the Full Cold Moon was at its fullest, but it was still very impressive yesterday (December 30) when these pictures were taken. The weather was unseasonably warm in …
The View from the Deck
This idea came courtesy of Google photos, which arranged these shots showing the lake from our deck as fall transitioned to winter.
North MN Outdoors 