Mother Nature Decorates The Bayou

    Mother Nature is putting on a show for us here on the Bayou.  While I pretty much allow her decorate with wild abandon, I have to admit that most of the time, she is spot on with her decor choices.  It is my nature to allow brush and bramble to overrule the need for a prim and proper lawn.  Lawns need mowing and trimming and do nothing in return for me.  Letting Mother Nature have her way with the bulk of the property has proved beneficial in so many ways.  Near the creek, there is a spot that has wild water hyssop growing.  Down near the pier, there is a palmetto that produces mass amounts of dates.  Beyond the old oak trees and near the marsh edge, a grove of wild persimmon trees brighten my day with their easy snack of tiny fruit.  Wild blackberries, dewberries, huckleberries abound in the woods beyond the canebrake. 

 With all of this natural goodness, there are a few things that perhaps are better left to fill the bellies of the critters.  One of the most beautiful shrubs that grows wild here is the yaupon holly.  It has some of the brightest red berries ever to be on display by a plant.  The berries are not only candy-apple red, they have a translucent quality that almost makes them glow!  When the sunlight hits them just so, the berries have the appearance of tiny red lights.  While these berries are not actually toxic enough to kill you, they can make you get a really BAD tummy ache.  Their name Ilex Vomitoria should be warning enough!  However, birds adore them!  Each year, I enjoy the berries during the Christmas Season but then the Cedar Waxwings fly in to make short work of our berries.

  The yaupon, being a native plant, is a great shrub to add to the yard if you do not already have one. Kept trimmed, the bush makes a showy addition to the landscaping if that is your thing.  Personally, (like I said earlier), I leave mine to grow with wild abandon.  The long willow-like branches are perfect to twine into garlands and wreathes. Tomorrow, such a garland will be created and added to the decorations on the Little Bayou House.  A simple grapevine wreath or garland with a few twigs of yaupon will add a festive touch to the place....and the birds will love me!

Mother Nature is decorating the Bayou!

There is definitely a chill in the air!  I am one of those people that likes the winter and hopes that this cool weather is a forerunner of an early and cold winter.  For the past several years, it has been too warm for my taste!  I need some good old-fashioned-woodstove-burning weather!  I like the weather that other folks deem to be dreary.  It makes me happy..perhaps because it is more or less a rare occurrence on the Bayou. This far south, we seem to hang in the forties during the winter and hardly ever get a "good" freeze.  This mild weather is nice on plants but the following spring is rampant with bugs and other critters that make gardening hard during the summer months.  So....give me winter!

Out and about the hillside today, I came across the brightest red berries!  Michael has been clearing more of the underbrush down by the persimmon trees and was kind enough to leave the Yaupon Trees.    He knows that I am partial to these small shrub-like trees.  They bring such a bit of brightness to the hillside each winter and lure many birds in to feast upon their berries.  So far, the birds have not touched the fruit as it is usually the Cedar Waxwings that strip every branch.  Cedar Waxwings will migrate in when the harsh cold of winter settles in on the more northern states.  They will stay just as long as there is a food supply then move on their merry way. I am glad that the Yaupons are loaded if not for anything but the birds. The Yaupon Trees seem to like the sandy soil that washed in with recent hurricanes.  I rarely see any back in the thick, mulched soil behind the house and when I do come across one, the berries are never heavily laden.   I did notice that there were dozens of tiny saplings coming up beneath the larger trees.  It appears that the birds are "reseeding" as they feast!  There are also dozens of tiny persimmon trees mingled in among the Yaupons. This, too, makes me happy as I am pondering planting a hedgerow of the two types of trees all along the marsh edge.  This could be a feasting ground for birds and animals of all sorts!

These red berries also made me realize that it is coming up on Christmas! I would love to decorate with these and the wild holly but the birds always seem to beat me to them.  Today..I got smart!  Instead of waiting, I bought some artificial berries that look so similar to the real things.  This way, I can leave the others for the critters and still have some long lasting beauty inside!  Mark patiently reached up to the top shelf at the store and handed me branch after branch.  Each was inspected and only the best were chosen to come home with me!  Now a question...since Mother Nature is already decorating with red berries, is it too early for me to string garlands of them on the stair railing?  hehe...Christmas decorating might just begin early...cool weather...red berries...hmmmm?

Great Blue Herons and Bright Red Nandinas!

This morning's hike to the pier started out in the dark. It was easy to see the board path that leads to the Bay simply because of lights on the other side at Keesler Air Base are strong enough to give me a bit of illumination. I love ambling around at this time of morning as no one else is out and about. The world is mine! My animal friends have little fear of me and seem to have even less of Ezzy, the dog. When I reached the edge of the pier, the sun was just casting a reddish glow to the sky but had not shown its face yet. On the opposite end of the pier (Bay side), I notice a large black figure on top of one of the pier posts. It stood out quite distinctly against the faintly lit sky. A Great Blue Heron! So that is what has been leaving me..ummm.. for lack of a nice term.. fish entrails. Every morning, I have been assigned the nasty duty of cleaning what this bird has been leaving strung on posts and dropped on the pier itself. As much as I usually do not like to disturb my marsh friends..this one had it coming! I stopped about half way down the pier.."Go get him, Ez!" I knew she could never reach him on top of the pole and he would definitely fly as soon as she neared him, but I also knew that she loved to hear that term. This time however, she had no clue as to what she was "going" to get. She raced to the end of the pier..the bird sat..she ran around the bench sniffing the boards..the bird sat. Now this is not how I intended this to play out! The bird was supposed to be frightened and fly away..all the while getting the message that I did not want him to mess up my pier! I walked closer..the bird sat. Dumb bird! You are supposed to be flying away in fear! Ezzy, totally confused by this time, raced back up the pier to me. That scared me! Seeing a large dog running toward you on a narrow pier in the middle of winter is not exactly comforting even if that large dog is your own. I knelt on the frosty pier to hold my balance and not be knocked clean off the pier and into the mud below. Ms. Ez took this to mean that I was pleased with her actions and she started to bounce around and lick my face. Oh, my goodness..dog slobber! Ick!!! I looked at the bird. My heron seemed to be glaring at us for our disturbance..it stretched and then flew away as if it was exasperated. Exasperated but not frightened..not at all what I had intended!

After this crazy episode, I took a few pictures of the sunrise and then headed to the house. Ezzy still thinking she had done well, took off after the squirrels. Well, at least she got that right! I wandered around the yard as the sun was shooting beams through the trees. The angle of the rays hit the Nandina bush just right to make the red berries gleam like beacons. I love the brightness.. the cheeriness that the nandinas give the yard in the cold of the winter. While all else seems drab, these add a splash of loveliness to the garden. Nandina is also called Heavenly Bamboo. I really do not think it is a bamboo at all so this label is rather misleading.. perhaps it comes from the habit of the plant to "sucker" outward growing into ever larger clumps. It is an evergreen that produces large clusters of white flowers in Spring. These flowers lead to green berries that ripen in late Fall. The bright red berries will stay all winter or until some hungry bird takes a liking to them. This morning these berries were gorgeous..I love them..then I remembered seeing these on that invasive species plant list for some states. Keep invading Nandina..when you look this lovely, you can have my yard!