Category Archives: Garden & Yard

Weather Forecast Folklore

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It’s been cloudy and rainy these first 3 days of 2017, the temperature has been between the 40’s and mid-60’s (Fahrenheit). It’s a nice 64° today, the sun even peeked out for a few scattered random minutes. I raced outside with my camera to try to get a photo of the sunshine. Unfortunately, everything is so tan, brown and gray winter colors that the sunshine didn’t show up. However, I managed to get a photo of the sun making shadows of our fence by my rainchain garden. And then the sun saw my camera and raced behind the clouds and the rains came again. No rainbow though.1-3-2017-sunspotDepending on what folklore one is exposed too, supposedly there’s certain days of the year that forecast the weather for other times of the year.
One of them I’ve heard is that the weather during the first 12 days of January is supposed to predict the weather for the 12 months of the year. So, based on that, it could be moderately cool and wet the next three months.1-3-2017-rainI guess, I should mention that in the lore the precipitation can be interchangeable: rain for snow, fog for rain. I guess wet and dampness equals any form of rain, snow, fog, ice or dew. Folklore is very flexible that way. 😉

Just for fun, I hope I can remember to make a note of the weather for all 12 days, to see how they compare to the rest of the months of the year.

How’s the weather been in your region so far this year?
Do you know any folklore about the first 12 days of a year and weather?

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Acorns in a PineCone Tree

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I made a ‘Acorns in a PineCone Tree’ holiday tree.p1100235

I painted the pinecone green and then painted white on the tips of its seed scales.
The acorns were left on the ground by squirrels so I didn’t feel bad about using them. I painted the acorns with sparkly red fingernail polish and painted their caps with mod-podge. I hot-glued the acorns to the pinecone.acrnpncnI sculpted the bag base from homemade bakeable bread clay. I painted it with ‘Apple Barrel’ paint and a coat of mod-podge. I hot-glued the pinecone tree to the bread-clay bag base. I tied a piece of red yarn around the bag for a bow.brdbgs

Wishing you all a happy week!

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2016 WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge – Relax

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2016 WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge
~Relax~

“This week, share a photo that relaxes you.”0051-yard

 Wishing you all fun with the WP photo challenge!

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November Tomato Update – a few left

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p1100253Every week there’s a few more of the tomatoes ripening in the bag. When I see they’re almost ripe, I set them on the window sill so I can keep an eye on them.
Putting an  apple in the bag  with the tomatoes trick does work, but you need to keep checking them every couple days.
I can’t get over how pretty they are. I’ve only a few more November tomatoes left. It certainly has been fun having these volunteer tomatoes this late in the season.

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Mystery Nest or Not – mystery solved

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p1100264We were out for a walk and saw a strange looking object in a tree. We first surmised that it was a nest. It looks as if the limbs and pinecones were woven or piled to make it somewhat of a dome shape and the new growth is a healthy green.
However, It’s awfully far out on limb for such a large nest and it’s quite late in the year for a new nest.

I surfed the internet and can’t find any critter that builds a nest like this.
We’ve finally loosely decided that possibly during a wind gust that the twigs and pinecones got trapped in the Y of the limb forming a platform of sorts and the new growth sprouted out of it and made the dome shape.

Do you recognize this and what it may be?
I’d love to hear your thoughts.
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edited in 11-29-2016:
I’m happy to report that Jane Tims has solved the mystery nest; it’s called a “Witch’s Broom”
It’s an over-growth that can be caused by various things. Jane Tims has an interesting post that explains about it called “Witch’s Broom”  If you get a chance pop over and read it.
Thanks so very much Jane for solving my mystery. 🙂

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