"The color of springtime is in the flowers, the color of winter is in the imagination." ~Ward Elliot Hour

Who knew rosemary blooms in February

 

 I know it is odd to not post a lovely, snowy scene.  I am always amazed at  the hardiness of plants.  To have green and blooming plants in February and now March is a miracle. 

This has been a "different" winter for North Texas.   Our difficulties pale compared to the northern states. Emails have been flying with pictures of frozen Lake Superior and a Lake Michigan lighthouse covered in impressive ice.

That said, it still has been odd for me and my garden.  There have been three California Poppy starts and sad finishes. The weather was extremely cold most of December and off and on in January and February.  Just when I think the sprouting plants are now going to take off, we get hit with another 2 or 3 days of weather in the teens and twenties.  Then, frustratingly, 2 days of temperatures in the 80's.  What's a poor plant to do?

I am not sure if this last freeze hasn't finished off the surviving California poppies. Will just have to wait and see at this point.

I have spent a very few days in the garden. Even got so bold as to transplant some Salvias.  Today, after another 48+ hours of twenty degree weather and wind, I took a walk to check survivors.  They are out there, some I didn't expect to be bothered have been nipped and leaves are dying and some I expected to curl up and die haven't. I don't know if the blackened plants were hit hard  enough to kill the plants.

I had a surprise that if I hadn't been out digging compost into the bed, would not have seen. After a bit of a search,( I LOVE THE INTERNET!! ) I found the name: White-lined Sphinx (Hawkmoth)  The description says this is a common moth that ranges from Central America to Mexico.  Central America? Maybe this guy was blown off his flight path?

This is how I found it on day one.  I did find a few pictures of the wings like this.

Day 2 it was still there.

 In thinking about the first picture, I think the moth was wet from dew and cold and had spread its wings to dry them. It was a sunny morning. The moth hadn't moved the next morning.  Today, after 2 bitterly cold days, I checked to see if it was still there.  It was gone and it surely was too cold to fly off...... that means then, that a hungry critter got an easy meal. Nature is hard to take sometimes, but what dies keeps another critter alive.

Yesterday, I went to my feeder watching window and was surprised to see a large hawk sitting on the bar that supports the feeders. It saw me and flew off.  No chance to get a picture.

"There is a privacy about it which no other season gives you ..... In spring, summer and fall people sort of have an open season on each other; only in the winter, in the country, can you have longer, quiet stretches when you can savor belonging to yourself."
-  Ruth Stout

Penta with dew

The bee, my obsession all summer