still life

Eek!  It's been so busy with holidays and seeing friends and work that we've barely had any free time in the past week.  It's been cold, with some flurries, which Tabitha loves watching from her perch.  I think she has forgotten snow.

We only made it outside once last week.  We had a beautiful frost...

...and all the puddles from a recent rain were frozen over.

I can't believe how much bittersweet I saw growing wild in the woods.

Bittersweet is considered an invasive vine, although there's now an American cultivar that's much more tame.  The oriental version, seen here, spreads by underground runners.  Anyone who's done much gardening knows how impossible it is to eradicate plants which propagate that way.  They choke out native vegetation and can even topple trees by their weight.  Be careful, if you clip any to take home, that you don't spread any of the seeds!

It's amazing how much difference a few weeks makes in the late fall.  At the beginning of November, I was seeing a lot of another invasive plant, the bush honeysuckle.

The berries are gorgeous, but we couldn't help but notice that these small shrubs were absolutely everywhere in the woods.  They're another Asian import that was originally used for erosion control, like kudzu.  We've seen how that idea turned out!  Their shallow root system makes them much easier to control than bittersweet, at least.

Hopefully we can stop and take a break here in the next week.

This is such a busy time for us and I hate to miss outdoor time.

Have a great week!