Frosty Mornings

 

Recently we have had pretty chilly nights and frosty mornings. The frost is painting its beautiful pictures in the garden, decorating the leaves of some plants.

There was even some frost on my cow and when the sun hit it, it started to"steam". Oh those beautiful surprises!

Just a couple days before, I had gathered the fallen leaves of the Japanese Maple in my front garden and brought them to the back to mulch some parts in the garden there. Those leaves had beautiful icy edges and when backlit by the morning sun, started to glow. I was in photographer's heaven!

Even a single leaf on the bare ground looked amazing.

Nature's art...

And now to the dinner part for Rain's Thursday Art and Dinner Date - with the colder weather we're eating more hearty food. Last week I made Italian sausage with penne, peppers and broccoli. I've really fallen in love with sweet Italian sausage, mainly because of the fennel in it. It gives it such a great flavor.

Many people eat soup in the colder season, but somehow I have never found my love for it. Sometimes I make soup, but it certainly is not a favorite. What about you? Are you cooking a lot of soup in the winter?

Leaves and Branches

 

This is the first time that I'm joining Rain's Thursday Art Date because the prompt - leaves and branches - spoke to me. Any kind of  creativity is welcome on Rain's blog, and mine, of course, is photography (and you don't have to follow the prompt if you don't want to).

Let's start with branches. Those of you who have read my blog for some time know that I love crooked trees, and they of course have - crooked branches.

Most of these branches pictures were taken over the years in Yosemite National Park, some still on film. We call Yosemite the national park in our backyard and it certainly is the park that we have visited the most often.

During our first or second visit 20 years ago we climbed Sentinel Dome, a ganite dome on the south wall of Yosemite Valley. From the top you have a gorgeous view over the valley, but it is not half as crowded as Glacier Point. There used to be a lone Jeffrey Pine that became iconic through the photograph by Ansel Adams (among others). It died during the drought of 1976, but remained standing until August 2003 when it finally collapsed. This photo just shows one branch of it; I was drawn to it because it framed famous Half Dome - can you see it?

I also love dead branches on the ground that still offer "housing" to all kinds of insects and tiny critters.

I hope you don't think I only like dead or crooked branches - no, I also love them when they're full of life, like this California Buckeye (but then the buckeye can be a rather crooked tree as well...).

Low hanging branches with leaves on them like this gingko last fall - and that brings us to leaves.

I will concentrate here on leaves in regards to wildlife - what would a caterpillar do without leaves?

The grasshopper is soaking up the sun on the sedum "Autumn Joy".

A snail is taking a liking to the leaves of Salvia nemorosa.

The ladybugs love to hide in and crawl along the delicate leaves of yarrow.

And look here - a cicada sitting on a peony leaf.