Simple Gifts

There's something so wonderful about an afternoon to yourself at the end of a very busy week. And it's even nicer when that afternoon is warm and sunny (while the weather reports are full of the winter storm up north!), and you have a few new plants needing homes, like the kalanchoe and sedum you found that are just perfect for the rock planters, and the marigolds you rescued from the clearance rack for half price.

Nothing fancy, nothing crazy... just some simple garden tasks in the backyard that you've finally taken back from the weeds of last summer. Remember this nightmare from last fall?

You can't help but pleased to know you're finally in charge again, and your favorite bench is available for basking in the winter sun once more.

Once you're done getting your hands in the dirt, you can wander around and see what's new in the garden. Winter is a wonderful time for native Coral Honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens), and in a few weeks the hummingbirds will pass through on migration and stop to enjoy it. This afternoon, the pleasure was all mine.

I've not been alone all afternoon, of course. The tufted titmice and cardinals are visiting the feeder, and a Great Egret is stalking its dinner in the pond nearby. Even more interesting, a pair of Blue-Winged Teal are floating past, the first time we've documented this species in My Florida Backyard.

And now, as the song goes, "the purple dusk of twilight time steals across the meadows of my heart..." as well as across My Florida Backyard. 

It's not as calm and peaceful as the pictures might suggest - our neighbors are racing a dirt bike around the block, children are playing a noisy game across the lake, and it's our time of night to be in the flight path for Tampa International Airport. But the frogs are singing too, and a mockingbird in a nearby tree is trying out every tune in his repertoire. A limpkin calls in the distance, and the flapping of wings on the ponds suggests not all the ducks have settled down for the night. Nature fights for dominance in the suburbs, and rarely wins. But we do our best to focus on the simple gifts of My Florida Backyard, and let the rest slide by - at least today.

Winter Moon

It's been nearly 400 years since a total lunar eclipse took place on the night of the winter solstice (the last one was 1638), so we just couldn't imagine sleeping through it in My Florida Backyard. Mother Nature cooperated with perfectly clear skies, and although the temperatures dropped into the mid-40s, the absence of any wind made the night pleasant if chilly.

Although you can enjoy an eclipse without any special equipment, taking pictures of it is a lot harder. Our camera isn't really fancy enough for any fantastic shots. However, by using a tripod and taking some long exposures, we captured a few pictures we thought were worth sharing. This one is really the best, taken not long after the moon was fully eclipsed by the earth's shadow. As anticipated, the moon took on an amazing orange-red hue.

Here's a collage of a series of shots taken as the eclipse began (first shot around 2 a.m. EST) and proceeded to almost fully eclipsed (last shot in this series around 3:15 am EST). For a really great explanation of the stages of an eclipse, visit this page on Space.com.

It was astonishing how dark the night grew as the eclipse took place. We stepped out earlier in the evening to enjoy the full moon itself, and it was so bright out one could read a newspaper in the moonlight alone. Stars in the sky near the moon seemed to disappear in the bright moonlight. When the eclipse was total, though, the darkness returned and stars in the sky seemed vivid in contrast. The fully-eclipsed moon is in the upper right of this long-exposure photo, showing as a bright disc with an orange tint. Orion stands in the bottom-center, almost seeming to reach toward the glow the moon leaves behind.

Another long-exposure shot of the fully-eclipsed moon and nearby stars:

Pictures from our puny camera can't do the eclipse justice, and neither can words. Last night's event was an experience worth losing a night's sleep for, and the perfect way to welcome Winter to My Florid Backyard.

Right Here, Right Now

The first glorious days of fall have arrived in My Florida Backyard. The morning and evening temperatures have begun dropping into the low 70s and upper 60s, and sitting outside is once again a pleasure. This evening is a delightful one to be spending on the back porch, and we thought we'd try to share a little of it with you.

The picture really doesn't express the peacefulness of the scene, or the amount of nature and wildlife that's present. Every few minutes, a splash on the lake indicates a duck or two coming in for a landing. Two tri-colored herons are fishing along the shore, and occasionally the hoarse cry of one informs the other one that he's getting a little too close for comfort. A mother Muscovy duck herded ten ducklings down the lake a few minutes ago, and overhead a flock of ibis flew south, no doubt headed for their rookery for the night.

The breeze is soft and cool at last, and the air smells fresh. The sky is cloudless, slowly deepening from cream to the color of ashes-of-rose, and the sound of cicadas in the distance has just begun. Moths are beginning to nectar on the white pentas and lantana in the garden, which seem to take on a glow along with the sky. Soon the evening star will appear, and the great blue heron standing still as a statue on the far end of the lake will take to the sky, off to bed along with the sun.

There's nothing particularly exciting, nothing new, nothing unexpected. It's just the peace of one of the first cool evenings after a long hot summer, and the promise of many more evenings like this one to come. Every moment is different, and every moment is the same. Right here, right now, there is no other place we'd rather be than My Florida Backyard.

P.S. The cat agrees.

What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?

In My Florida Backyard, New Year's Eve is all about the fireworks. We don't set off any ourselves, but we don't need to. Folks all around the lake start setting them off in the afternoon, and by evening there are brilliant bursts of light in every direction every few minutes.

And of course, at midnight, the show is pretty spectacular. Fireworks are terribly hard to take amateur pictures of, but once in a blue moon you can get a few decent shots!

Happy New Year 2010
from My Florida Backyard
(and its residents)!

Winter Wonderland

Today is the Winter Solstice, and we ushered in the first official day of winter with below-average temperatures. In My Florida Backyard, it topped out around 62 this afternoon, but the sun was wonderfully warm and made the day pretty comfortable. The shortest day of the year ended with a wonderful watercolor sunset, followed by the first moon of winter, a frosted crescent in a silver sky.

Florida's Winter Wonderland may not have snowmen dressed as circus clowns or snow glistening in the lane, but our winter nights still bring beautiful sights... and sometimes it's even cool enough to give your nose a bit of a chillin'!

O Tannenbaum

We've had an artificial Christmas tree for a number of years. We lived in a third floor apartment for a long time, and carrying a live tree up the stairs, and then carrying an almost dead tree dripping needles back down the stairs a month later, and then having to go vacuum up all the needles from the stairs so the neighbors didn't complain... well, it all just got to be a bit too much. So, we made the investment in a pre-lit fake tree, and it serves our purposes just fine.

I do miss the smell of a real tree though, and today I gave in and bought a cute little one from Lowe's. It came with its own little temporary tree stand, and smells just like Christmas. I didn't want to spend a whole lot to decorate it, since it's going on the back porch, so I went simple - just lights, bows, and some gold stars. I have to say that I'm extremely pleased with how it turned out.

Rather than a star on top, I used a couple of wooden ornaments from Pier One (also where I got the gold stars) that indicate exactly the emotions the Great Outdoors generally evokes for me. It looks nice at night, but I think I actually like it even better during the day. It's really nice when something you envision turns out exactly like you planned!

How often has the Christmas tree
Afforded me the greatest glee?
O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
Much pleasure thou can'st give me.

Deck the Halls

Well, we finally found the extension cords, so here are some pictures of the front of the house all decorated for the holidays. Sorry for the picture quality - you need a much better camera than ours to take good night pics.

(Note the incredibly straight placement of the lights along the gutter.
I have an unnatural abhorrence of "droopy lights".)

A close-up (those red blobby things are actually very cute cardinals):

A note about our lights: My Florida Backyard believes strongly in conservation and the responsible use of resources. In keeping with those ideals, we know we probably shouldn't be "wasting" electricity by putting up several hundred Christmas lights.

We looked into replacing our current lights with energy-saving LEDs, but quite frankly, the cost was prohibitive. I'm really not quite sure why LEDs are so expensive - a string of 100 regular mini-lights costs less than $2, while a string of 100 LEDs costs between $15 and $20. What's the deal?

We often choose the better environmental option in My Florida Backyard, regardless of cost, but we haven't been able to make that commitment yet with our holiday decorations. It's certainly something we'll consider as finances make it possible in the future, and we urge others to research their options and make educated and responsible choices.

P.S. I'm not sure why we bother with lights when Mother Nature puts on such an amazing show in the sky!

What Child is This?

Although the milkweed in My Florida Backyard is a bit past its prime, it's still pretty easy to find caterpillars out there. In fact, today, for only the second time this year, I turned over a leaf to find one of my favorites - a Queen:

There's something so wonderful to me as a native of the cold north to be out tending a butterfly garden surrounded by Christmas lights - I never get tired of it. On the same day I put up the Christmas tree, I planted some new milkweed plants and transplanted a passionvine - it really is the most wonderful time of the year!



P.S. Our Cuban Treefrog made another appearance tonight... check out that camouflage!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

After a couple of chilly days, today was a glorious sunny one in My Florida Backyard. We spent the last few days more or less lying around in a Thanksgiving food coma, so it was good to get outside, do some yard work, and start rigging up those Christmas lights.

People up north ask if we don't miss the snow around the holidays. The answer is always a resounding "No"! We like hanging Christmas lights while long-tailed skippers and dainty sulphurs visit the plumbago bushes nearby*. We'd much rather sweat than fight frostbite as we figure out where the extension cords need to go. ("Is this how we did it last year?" "How should I know!?") We'll take sunburn over windburn any day - including the holidays.

At any rate, here's a shot of some of today's progress:

We'll post some more once we find the rest of the $@&#% extension cords!

*OK, one of us was hanging lights, while one of us was running around with the camera trying to snap pictures of those butterflies. Needless to say, the one hanging lights was more successful, or there'd be pictures of those butterflies in this post.

Twilight Time

I came outside in the twilight a few moments ago to water some newly planted lantana and pull a few weeds. For a few brief moments, there were no sounds save those of the quietly murmuring ducks feeding nearby and the tree frogs and cicadas awakening for the night in the trees. On the soft April breeze, the smell of the blooming Confederate Jasmine wafted by, and I simply stood for a moment to drink in my favorite time of day.

And then some kids whizzed past on a motorbike, a plane flew overhead, the dog next door started yipping and the neighbor kids raised their voices to join in. So much for solitude.

Still, I snapped a few pictures of the Confederate Jasmine blooming on the latticework on the north side of the house, and was reminded of what a great idea it was to install that to give us a bit more privacy when we sit out on the porch. Our neighbors to the south have a fence, but we are literally 10 feet away from the neighbors to the north, with nothing but a thin screen to separate us. And the kids next door, bless their irritating little hearts, are very nosy. They liked to peek into the porch, and announce, "Mommy, these people are eating dinner!" Clearly, we needed to do something, but we didn't want to lose the view or the breezes.


So, we installed dark green latticework and planted Confederate Jasmine. After a year's worth of growth, it has climbed its way to the top, although it's not as thick as I hope it will be some day. And now, in early April, it's in bloom, and the sweet but not overpowering scent adds the perfect cherry on the top of my evening.



And now the purple dusk of twilight time/Steals across the meadows of my heart...* It's nighttime here in My Florida Backyard now. Near silence returns, although a pair of cardinals still chirp in a nearby tree, stopping by our feeder for an evening snack. A curious wood stork lands amongst the ducks, peering into the gloom of the back porch to see the crazy humans who peer back out at him. There are many wonderful times in My Florida Backyard, but I know I'll always love evenings best.

*From Stardust by Hoagy Carmichael

Fly Me To The Moon

Space shuttle Discovery lifted off from Kennedy Space Center today at 7:43 p.m. ET, after several days of delay. Discovery is bound for the International Space Station to deliver a large solar array, among other mission objectives.

We checked out the launch from our backyard, 135 miles west of Cape Canaveral. It's pretty amazing how well you can see the launch from this far away. These pics are real-time - no time lapse or anything.



Comparing these pictures with those from the satellite launch last weekend, you can really see how much pure power is needed to launch the shuttle into space. Here's hoping things go well for the crew of Discovery, and that we'll see them back home safely in a couple of weeks!

Skyrockets in Flight...

Last night, the Kepler spacecraft took off on a Delta 2 rocket from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Cape Canaveral is almost due east across the peninsula from our house, and about 135 miles away. We went outside around 10:50 to see the launch.

(Note: The pictures below are time-exposure; in "real life", the launch looks more like a very very bright orange star heading very quickly up into the sky.)

There's a night shuttle launch next week on March 11; if the skies are clear, we plan to head outside to see that one too. Just one more interesting thing to see in My Florida Backyard!