Seedy?

We celebrated the Thanksgiving Day weekend enjoying the beautiful sunny, warm Fall weather and hosting dinner for friends. A belated Happy Thanksgiving to my Canadian readers.

Maple samaras

Seedy has a few meanings.

To paraphrase Merriam Webster (Merriam Webster.com):

Seedy is an adjective, pronounced sē-dē, meaning

1) containing or full of seeds <a seedy fruit>

2) inferior in condition or quality: as (shabby, run-down <seedy clothes>), somewhat disreputable (<a seedy district> <a seedy lawyer>)

3) slightly unwell (debilitated <felt seedy and went home early>)

The "Online Etymology Dictionary" (© 2010 Douglas Harper) has this to say about the origin of "seedy":

"1440, "fruitful, abundant," from seed (n.). Meaning "shabby" is attested from 1739, probably in allusion to the appearance of a flowering plant that has run to seed."

But being "seedy" is the end of a successful cycle in the plant world. I find it interesting that something so positive botanically can come to mean almost the opposite in the non-plant world.

So today I am celebrating in pictures, a seedy and wonderful end for these plants:

Virginia Creeper with berries

Fuchsia with "berries"

?

Tomatillo

Clematis 

Berries, seeds, nuts, hips and samaras are the start and the end of the plant life cycle. Every year in my garden I have a number of plant "volunteers", plants that appear and which I have not seeded. They are seeds from a previous season or seeds that grow from the compost layer that I add to the soil. Among this years "volunteers" or "surprises" was a tomatillo plant.

Rose hips

"The rose hip, also known as rose haw or rose hep, is the fruit of the rose plant, that typically is red-to-orange, but ranges from dark purple to black in some species. Rose hips begin to form after successful pollination of flowers in spring or early summer, and ripen in late summer through autumn.

Rose hips are used for herbal tea, jam, jelly, syrup, soup, beverages, pies, bread, wine, and marmalade.  They can also be eaten raw, like a berry, if care is used to avoid the hairs inside the fruit." (Wikipedia)

One single late bloom on my clematis and seed heads.

Wispy clematis seeds

Late season strawberries

Hover fly visiting strawberries

Echinacea seed head

Asparagus "berries"

Not "seedy" yet but I couldn't resist this Tansy

Sweet peas and pea pod

Mature pods containing sweet pea seeds

I don't know what the small berries or seeds below are, similar to but much smaller than a horse chestnut pod.

Thistle down or thistle seeds

Lupin seeds

Lady bug on Echinacea seed head

Underside of fern showing seeds or spores

Blackberries

Thistles kissed by dew

Almonds

Seed head on Vicar's Mead

Salal Berries

Acorn

I thought this grass looked a lot like "sparklers" partly burned down.

Laitrus seeds

One thing is certain though, these creatures think "seedy" is a really good thing - it's their Thanksgiving feast.

I hope you have enjoyed my quirky look at "seedy".

Here is a painting that I finished this week, it is titled "Putting on a Show". It is a watercolour of a Hollyhock that I saw in rural France and photographed.

I had a bit of difficulty getting my husband to stop so that I could take some pictures of this flower, but I'm glad he did stop, I am really pleased with the painting.

Lastly, I apologize for being largely absent from blogland this past week, but I have been busy updating my website. I changed the content, the order, some of the names and the prices and I added a "New items and Specials" page to the gallery:
http://pswhimsy.myshopify.com/collections/new-items-and-specials/

I am glad you stopped by, I love your comments and feedback.

Happy Whimsy Wednesday, until next week ..............

Bye bye blackbirds

The Red winged blackbirds are gone from the pond and I haven't seen a robin for some time. Since I am not quite ready for fall (or winter) I thought I would share these Red winged blackbird pictures that earlier in the summer.

I took the first few pictures in May.

As you probably already know:

"The Red-winged Blackbird is sexually dimorphic; the male is all black with a red shoulder and yellow wing bar, while the female is a nondescript dark brown." (Wikipedia)

First there is the male, watchful but not very involved in the raising of the chicks.

 

Here is the female gathering food: seeds and insects make up the bulk of their diet.



Sometimes I take a picture and don't realize until later that I have something special. This next picture is of the female glaring at me from the reeds in the pond at Jericho Park. Later when I looked more carefully at the picture I realized that I had managed to get a picture not only of her nest but also the young in the nest (bottom right of the picture).

 

Red winged blackbird females build a nest in the reeds, over the water, and are rather secretive about its location. Had I known that I had caught sight of her nest I would surely have taken more pictures, but I am more than happy with just one.

 

The next series of pictures was taken in July, perhaps (probably not) the same pair of birds, but this time the young are fledged and fending for themselves.

 

It was raining lightly but I met a man who comes each day to feed the birds, and they come and eat from his hand. Naturally I had to stop and take a few pictures. Some of these birds are young, some immature males judging by the markings.

Notice how slim the one below is, and striking a very elegant pose for the camera.

 

Here is the "old guy" again, I loved the range of expressions.

As the title of my post suggests, the blackbirds are gone now, they left in September, migrating south for the winter.

The blackbirds, swallows and robins are all gone, but they'll return next Spring and I'll be waiting.

""Bye, Bye, Blackbird" is a song published in 1926 by the American composer Ray Henderson and lyricist Mort Dixon. It is considered a popular standard and was first recorded by Gene Austin in 1926." (Wikipedia)

Here is that first recording thanks to You Tube:

 Well this week I have some paintings to share with you. The first one is of Red winged Blackbirds, it is one that I have been working on for more than a month. I "lost" it somewhere along the way and I have done all I can to save it but I am still not happy with the result, I like parts of it very much, and I have spent so much time on it that I am sad to say enough is enough. It is called "Triangles" and is a watercolour:



"Triangles"

 

I also finished another painting this week, on last week's theme of Dahlias. Is is a poured watercolour that I have called "White Lightning" and I am very happy with this one. Here it is:

 

 

Well that is about all for this week, except to say that I have been having some trouble with my computer and with blogger freezing up on me, very frustrating, and so the last two posts have ended up "published" when they are not supposed to be and I have sent them back to draft. Anyone who is following the blog by email feed will have gotten an email when such post available, so I apologize if  this has happened to you.

Happy Whimsy Wednesday, until next week.......