wordsfromanneli

Thoughts, ideas, photos, and stories.

Category Archives: Seasons


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Flowers at the Beach

Today we spent a few hours on a nearby island beach that sees little use because it is only accessible by boat.

I was surprised to see the sandy fields blooming with tiny wildflowers.

I don’t know the names of all these flowers but the blue ones (below) look like tiny violas. I’m sure they have a proper name but I don’t know what it is. The little white flowers on the reddish stems might be saxifraga.

 

But this one I know. It is Oregon grape (berberis aquifolium, or holly-leaved barberry). Those yellow flowers turn into blue berries that look like a cluster of tiny grapes. I’ve read that the berries also have many health benefits, but they should be washed before eating. I’ve never enjoyed eating them raw. They are very tarty, but they make an excellent Oregon grape jelly.

Notice the dry moss all around the flowers. Even the moss has tiny blooms. The island has a rather dry climate so it makes its own unique, messy, but very pretty, flower garden.

More flowers will bloom here in the next weeks. I recognized leaves of lupins, and many other new shoots from various plants coming up from last year’s stock that has gone to seed.

Tiny but precious and ever so frail,

Bravely we bloom though the chill may prevail,

Few eyes will see us, and fewer admire,

We’ll  stand courageously ’til we expire.

 


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Learning English is not Easy

As I’ve mentioned before, my mother had trouble learning the English name for daffodils when we first came to Canada a very long time ago. She had heard of Daffy Duck because we children used to listen to a Saturday radio show called Kiddies’ Corner and they often played stories about Daffy Duck.

She also knew what dolls were, of course, because my little sisters had to have their dolls.

So the best she could do to get her tongue around the word “daffodils” was “daffy dolls.” My mother has been gone for 43 years already, but I can’t help thinking of her every year when my “daffydolls” bloom, usually in the same month when she died so long ago.

These flowers bring me happy thoughts of her wonderful sense of humour and her sunny disposition. She loved gardening and would be pleased to see daffydolls in my yard. I wish she could see them. But who knows? Maybe she can.

 

cheerful daffodils

welcoming another spring

bittersweet flowers

 


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Snowy Hills

Way up high on the hills, the rain turned into snow.

Why is it that white snow comes out of black clouds?

How did that sunshine get through to the hills when the whole valley is in shade?

Can you guess where the deer are that used to live up in the hills? Where are the birds? Bears? Cougars? Squirrels?

I can only hope that those who didn’t wander down to lower elevations are hibernating in some cozy den. Probably even those who might hibernate would have come down from the highest parts of the hills, if they were able.

 

Meanwhile, I’m in my cozy den at home, not hibernating, but also waiting for winter to pass.

A new year is coming. That gives me hope that spring won’t be too far away.

Have a happy year ahead, everyone.

All the best in 2025.

 


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Y is for Yule

Yule is a celebration of the winter solstice as well as the Christian holiday we usually call Christmas.

Often you may hear about yule logs being placed on the fire in the fireplace. Basically that’s just a big piece of firewood, usually oak, burned around Christmas time. In days of old, people saved a piece of the previous year’s yule log to start the new fire.

My favourite yule logs are the kind I can eat. They have dates and coconut in them.

If you’d like to get the recipe for them, please check my post from a few years ago.

 

Yule Love Yule Logs

Y is for yule.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

 


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W is for Winter

“First it rained and then it blew;
Then it friz and then it snew;
Then it fogged and then it thew;
And very shortly after then
It blew and snew and thew again.”

I don’t know who wrote that poem, but I think it has been around a very long time.

Also, I should mention that these photos are from six years ago and are not a true reflection of the weather here today.

 

W is for winter.


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The Lost Dress

My lovely dress of golden leaves 

Is tattered now, and worn,

The wind has warned – no more reprieves,

This time the leaves get shorn.

 

I hold on tight with all my might,

While gusts and gales rip past,

They tear my dress, and though I fight,

 I’m nearly bare at last.

 

I shiver and the last leaves quiver,

Hanging by a thread,

Until they loosen, blowing whither

They know not, and spread.

 

My golden dress is on the ground,

For all to trod upon,

And scuffing feet will swish it ’round,

While gusts blow ’til it’s gone.

 

 

 


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Polly the Bore

This fungus is called phaeolus schweinitzii, or more commonly, Dyer’s polybore. It is also called velvet-top fungus, or pine dye polybore, or Polly, as I call it.

In my yard, it seems to come back every year in this same location, near the roots of a large fir tree that was felled several decades ago, and usually Polly has a “baby” nearby. It’s not a good fungus to have near your trees, as it will rot the roots and do a lot of damage to the tree.

The redeeming quality about Polly is that this fungus was used for making a dye to colour wool or other materials, hence the name Dyer’s polybore.

But definitely, do not try to eat it. Polly will make you very sick.

 

You can see the size of the fungus by comparing it to the fir cones nearby.

 

The photo above was taken a few days ago, but the ones below were taken last year in the same location. I thought it was interesting that it grew around blades of grass – or maybe the grass grew through the fungus. I’m not sure what the process was.

Last year, just like this year, a baby polybore was growing nearby.

Notice that the baby Polly in each case looks like its mother.

I wonder if Polly will show up again next fall.