a beautiful day

Earlier this week, we had a great rain.  Afterward, it was so nice and fresh outside that I decided to take a walk around the yard.  February has traditionally been my least favorite month.  The fall/winter holiday excitement is over, the cold has lost its novelty and you're ready for spring, but it's at least a month away.  It's a bit different here in South Carolina, though.  It's cold, but there's still so much to look at.

I walked by my mystery vine and noticed that it had finally started to bloom...  

...and proved to be a trumpet vine.  Pretty yellow flowers that are much loved by hummingbirds and bees.

I still marvel at all the Helleborus around.  I never got it to grow successfully in Indianapolis, and I always thought it was so beautiful.  Here, it's everywhere.

Big clumps, all up and down the length of the front of the house...

Up by the mailbox, and all over the back yard.

We must have 20+ clumps of them, and I was gratified to read that they spread easily.

The camillas were blooming...

...and this bush, too.

The clumps of snowflake flowers were putting up long stalks...

...and they make lovely, long-lasting bouquets.

We've had a lot of rain, so we had all sorts of interesting lichen on the ground...

...and on fallen branches around the yard.

I uncovered a squirrel stash with my foot.

Some bushes are heavily laden with berries.  As much as I'd like to pick the bunches and bring them in the house, I want to make sure that the birds get their fair share, so I usually leave them alone.

This grass, which I believe is called monkey grass, has been close-cropped by hungry deer.

They come at night and remain unseen, but I see a lot of wildlife in general here.  On the day of my walk, I saw a female cardinal...

...a hungry squirrel nibbling on seed...

...and a mockingbird, posing.

Geese were swimming in the pond...

...and it was totally peaceful.  I couldn't believe it when later that week, we had some snow!  It wasn't quite freezing, so the snowflakes melted quickly.

Still, it was coming down quickly for about 45 minutes.  The sky cleared, though, and we had a beautiful sunset.

This past week, I baked a massive (for us) cake for Valentine's Day.  I will refer you to Sweetapolita's LINK for the original recipe and step-by-step instructions, but I'll give you a quick rundown.

The cake was a 3 layer red velvet cake with raspberries, chocolate buttercream, marshmallow cream cheese, and another fluffy frosting that I didn't add.  I meant to, but once I spilled an entire panful of hot cream and gelatin down the front of the stove and all over the hardwood floor and spent almost 30 minutes cleaning it up, I'd lost the desire for 4 fillings.  The three I had were enough, especially the marshmallow cream cheese - YUM!  Probably my favorite frosting ever, and I'm not even a marshmallow fan.  You have to have a special occasion for this cake, or a dedicated gym routine, because it involves several cups of sugar and SEVEN sticks of butter.

First I baked and cooled the 3 cakes...

...and spread on the marshmallow cream cheese.

Then the chocolate buttercream...

...then the raspberries.

Then stack...

Repeat...and stack.

Ice the whole cake, and ignore the probable lopsided-ness.

 

It was dark before we cut into it, so the lighting was pretty bad.  Still, hopefully you can see the layers.  You'll notice they aren't red...I can never bring myself to add all of that red dye to red velvet cake, even for effect.

 It was so good.

 Todd and I each had small slices, and then I wrapped it up for him to take into the office.  It was demolished in one afternoon!

Hope you'll give it a try if you've got a special occasion coming up.  Enjoy!

Southern Frost

The weather was unusually warm, and then we had several days of vigorous rain.  That passed, and now winter has come to the South.  Not winter as I know it, with ice and snow and freezing fog, but a kinder, gentler sort of winter with its own sort of beauty.

We had frost.

My car windshield was covered in long, elaborate ice "feathers", which were formed when a strong wind blowing water turned cold, then colder. 

Ice formed in the bird bath for the first time this year.

You'll note that the ice formation is different, based upon the wind on the southern side of the house being a bit more gentle that night that the wind on the northern side.

Water droplets formed in the trees...

...and turned to diamonds in the sunlight.

Frost edged the leaves of the helleborus...

...and all the bushes.

The autumn leaves were frozen.

The pond steamed in the early sun.

In this growth zone there is still a lot of green.  The little white buds that had formed on one of the 10-foot bushes outside opened up...

 

...and proved to be white ruffled camillas.

 

They only live for a few days, and then drop their petals to form a romantic little path along the edge of the yard.

The few Mahonia bushes that I hadn't gotten around to cutting down bloomed briefly before falling to my hedge clippers.

Of course, I've done my best to 'bring the outside in'.  I have cut many fir and pine branches to put in vases around the house.

Holly is *everywhere*.

I bought several hyacinth bulbs from the store and they're sprouting nicely in narrow-necked glass vases.

I've been bringing in near-armfuls of fallen camilla blooms.  I have them in white dishes and egg cups.

Bosewichte heartily approves.

I need all this cheer around me, because making friends in a new place when you work from home hasn't been as easy as I thought it would be.  I tried to volunteer.  I tried to get more information about the local League of Women Voters.  I contacted multiple people in my new town via Ravelry to see if anyone was interested in starting a knitting club, and the same method on Gardenweb to see if anyone wanted to form a gardening club.  I didn't get any response from any of my efforts.  I tried to find other community groups/clubs via meetup.com and through the local library with no luck.  We're looking for a church, and I joined the gym and am taking an upcoming Master Gardeners course, but I'm still alone most of the time.  It's easy to become discouraged, and being out in the yard and enjoying the natural beauty of the area helps.

So does spending more time on my hobbies, like knitting.  I knitted this pillow recently and it was really enjoyable.  The pattern is free on Ravelry.com and I believe it's called Handspun Cushion.

I've also been doing a little baking.  Here's a fun tip:  instead of chocolate chips in your next dessert recipe, try making Nutella chips.

I just filled a piping bag with Nutella and piped out rough chocolate blobs.  Be sure to freeze them overnight...they melt really easily.  Then just mix into your batter like you would chocolate chips.  Yum!

Have a great week!