Tuesday, March 6, 2012

H IS FOR....

...HEATHER
Probably not a very exciting topic for many who visit my blog.  But we don't have any around here and I grew up quite near to the Yorkshire Moors.  So when my husband  brought this very beautiful plant home one day recently, I was thrilled.

There are even daffodils to contrast the color.  In fact, I placed the pot in the center of a Christmas table decoration that had held roses and other flowers two months ago.  The daffodils I bought from the store.  Sadly if we want a taste of dear old England and Wales (and Scotland too)... we have to buy it  The puzzling thing is that I don't think the heather should be blooming at this time of the year.  Yorkshire heather blooms in July and August.  But I'm not complaining.  I'll take it whenever I can and whenever it is blooming.  I'm posting two pictures of the heather  because I wanted to include the daffodils, but this next one really shows its color well.

Perhaps you're wondering why we have our flowers out on the patio table instead of indoors, 'though heather is not an indoor plant.  There are two reasons:  first, because in our mild climate they thrive longer outside. Even with our weather we have the heat on in the house during the winter months; second because I have allergies and better to enjoy the flowers outside than sneeze in the house.  Our kitchen/dining room table is right by the large patio windows and looks out onto the patio. So we enjoy the plants and flowers as long as possible.

H IS FOR HAIL
What?....hail...?  So uninteresting.  Yes, but not for us.  We never see snow except sometimes on the nearby mountains.  Maybe once a year we get frost.  But hail?  I think I have only seen hail four or five times since we moved here 39 years ago.  It comes when a cold 'storm' blows down from the northwest and swirls into our coast line clashing with the warmth that is usually ours, dumping snow on the lower mountains nearby and bringing us squirrelly  winds, that bring down palm branches and sometimes trees with shallow root systems.  To us it is exciting but it has two drawbacks.  Other places in the States are being buried under snow and being frozen  by extreme cold temperatures.  The other problem is that, as I have observed but don't have any meteorological proof for, these storms pass over us in a day and make their way in a curve north-eastwards, picking up power as they go and spawning horrible tornadoes across the central states as they did last week.
Look at these photos:



A few handfuls of hail brings excitement to us and devastation elsewhere.  Nearly 40 people killed last week.  Now they are predicting another feisty storm for us in a day or two.  Will my amateur predictions be confirmed -- more tornadoes to follow?  We shall see.

ABC Wednesday is a project started by Mrs. Nesbitt and is now in its ninth round.  If you click on this link HERE you will be able to visit some of her more than 100 participants and read their interpretations of the letter H.

19 comments:

Jane and Chris said...

We don't see heather here either...it reminds me of when we lived in Scotland...wonder if it will grow here.
Jane x

snafu said...

Hail seems to get bigger as the storms move east. When we were in Kansas last June there were a lot of thunderstorms and grapefruit sized hail damaged some houses nearby.

snafu said...

PS nice heather.

Kay G. said...

Hello!
Nice to find your blog.
Coming over to you from Scriptor Senex!
I am in Georgia, in between the two of you!

Morning's Minion said...

It troubles me that as I feel thankful that the storms worst fury has bypassed us, it means that someone nearby has suffered damage and loss.
I know there are many hybirds of heather--the one in your photo is pinker than I imagine native heather to be.

Angela said...

Thanks for the comment on my blog- now following you. It is important that we non-frumpy Pastors' wives stick together!!

Lenten blessings x

MorningAJ said...

There was an item on teh news this morning about re-planting heather on some of the moorland that's lost it. I only caught the end of it so I'm not sure where. I'll keep an eye out and let you know if it's the NYM.

When I was a kid we always used to stop on the drive over to Whitby to gather a bit of heather when it was in flower. Dad put it behind the mirror and it stayed there until it fell apart!

Oddly - it's the cotton grass that I miss most. Must go back soon!

claude said...

Hi Chris !

Your heather is very beautiful and I like the color. I have some in my garden, white, pink and red.
Beautiful header, Chris.
When we had animals at home our dog and our cats slept together in the doghouse or in a big basket.

Scriptor Senex said...

It's funny what reminds folk of home, isn't it. I can imagine Heather is a major one for a lot of people. Cultivated heathers are in a couple of totally different genus so they manage to get them to flower virtaully all year round in gardens over here now. It's still the late summer / autumn that the moors look so wonderful.

So sorry to hear of the loss of life and property in the recent tornadoes and I hope for everyone's sake that your weather prediction turns out to be wrong for once.

Ann, Chen Jie Xue 陈洁雪 said...

You are so creative, I like the ay you use the pine cones.

By the way, the pine nuts e eat, are they from these cones?

kaybee said...

What a wonderful MOTH he is Chris - to think of picking up heather for you!

We, of course, had the wild winds that came from those tornados, as they fell apart and traveled north. We also have had the phenomenon of snow falling while the sun is shining - actually looks very pretty with the sun shining through the crystals!

photowannabe said...

Lovely Heather Chris. I really don't think of heather and daffodils together but they sure are pretty.
We've had crazy weather here in Northern California too. One day its 70 degrees and the next its rain and barely 50. Now its clear skies and windy. Bring back the 70 thank you...

Roger Owen Green said...

HAIL is definitely interesting. Remember seeing some in July in upstate NY!
ROG, ABC Wednesday team

Unknown said...

Thats a masterpiece...lovely heather.

i have seen hail once in my 5year stay here in the middle east. i was actually surprise to witness this event knowing that oman doesnt have rain that much...

Gill - That British Woman said...

Its ages since I have seen heather also, but I have a bank where it would be ideal to grow, should have a look out for it.

Gill in Canada

Anonymous said...

hail in Honolulu yesterday!

Chubskulit Rose said...

That's gorgeous! I love my heather here in my garden too.

House in the Prairie
Rose, ABC Wednesday Team

Rowan said...

The heather looks lovely, a nice reminder of your roots. There are winter flowering heathers too, I saw some white heather in flower up on the moors a couple of weeks ago, not exactly a blaze of colour but nice to see on a winter day:)

sandy said...

Wow, that makes a beautiful centerpiece..