willows

Looks like Wisconsin 🥶.
At least the year of January
is finally over. I hope you thaw out quickly, and that white blanket gives your plants some insulation instead of death.

Looking through the in focus, closeup of a Norfolk pines glass icicles into a room filled with out of focus circular, multi colored holiday lights.

#alphabetchallenge #weekDforDramatic
Peeking through the icicles
#earthscape #lights #icicles

Sending 🌞happy thoughts🍹and warm visions 🏝️ that the storm spares you. Gardening can be such a challenge when Mother Nature gets angry.

Double Amaryllis with many red to pink to white striped blooms.

She’s a beauty!
I bought a few dehydrated bulbs on big markdown, and hope I can get them to bloom again next winter.
(if this one ever ends😁)

Green gold foliage in the background, surround one pleated, circular bloom. The white pistil center is a stark contrast to the flowers deep purple which fades outwards to white, with tell tale veining of creamy purple in the depth of each crease.

#alphabetchallenge #weekCforCloseup
Not a morning glory bloom, it’s a flower on a sweet potato vine.
#earthscape #flower #nature

A small, sculpted from snow, sitting cat. It appears to have turned a bit icy. Seen on a hiking trail last winter.

#alphabetchallenge #weekBforbooks
Winter Cats, a children’s book by Janet Lawler.
#earthscape #cat #snowsculpture

Double flower and blooming on two stalks. A red to pinkish to white striped extra large flower head. Planted in a 6” clay pot. A third stalk is emerging between the first two. Info tag said she’s called amaryllis doublet’.

WOW! She’s beautiful! I was lucky to find this amaryllis bulb on sale. It looks even better than the tag showed her to appear. And she’s sending a third stalk😊!

Abstract acrylic painting in shades of green, yellows, burgundy and pale orange, flowing, layered and blended across the canvas. Small circles of contrasting colors appear in the lower, mostly green shaded section. One sweeping burgundy swirl comes down from the top and gently encircles a large faded orange circle.

#alphabetchallenge #weekAforAbstract
Abstracted acrylic painting
#earthscape #art #painting

And a new year greeting to you too 🎉! Not yet sure if it’s ‘happy’ , but I woke up on the green side, so there’s that .

Just a touch😁. And next up?, the year of January!

The word ‘zero’ in balloon lettering, using shades of blue Crayola, with icicles covering letter tops,with the appearance of being set in snow. A play on the word, referencing a temperature of 0°.

#alphabetchallenge #weekZforZero
What do you call a row of Z’s?
A … Z row🤣 (I’m so funny)
#earthscape #winter #crayola

Thank you for appreciating my abstractness.

Are you here though? You don’t ‘like’ or respond to comments, even when you ask a question.

And to you as well 🎄🫶🏝️

🏝️🌴Mele 🌴🏝️
🎄Kalikimaka🎄
#merrychristmas #melekalikimaka

Three decorated trees. On the left, a potted Norfolk, middle; a 4ft fresh cut Fraser fir, then a non sheared, 8ft Fraser fir. Both firs are adorned with 40 years worth of glass ornament collection, and a sparkling of tinsel. All 3 trees have multicolored lights. A few fuzzy snow people are on the ground in front of the trees. A few warm white lighted, in for the winter, palm trees are in the background.

Your tree room is beautiful. And TGIF right back at you.
(I went full 🎄Clark Griswold 🎄in my living room)

The #alphabetchallenge has been a consistent highlight. I live in what used to be the ‘united states’ , so I look forward to others posts, perspectives, interpretations, and of course, your sense of humor 😁.

Living room, (holiday edition). 2 ceiling brushing, lighted Norfolks that need a new home with higher vertical. Lit assorted palms and foreground 25yr old hibiscus tree, along with birds of paradise, succulents, monstera and a few fiddle leaf fig. Also 2 egg chairs with a wicker like coffee table.

The plant room. Over 100 assorted succulents and tropicals, some blooming in yellows and orange. Spanish moss hanging in a banana leaf ficus. Grow lights to make sure they all hang on till moving back outside in the spring .

It’s pretty cozy till they all move back outdoors when spring decides to arrive 😁.

That’s absolutely wonderful!
I would LOVE to have a greenhouse!
Being an apt dweller, my entire inner space transforms into a life size fairy garden instead.

Looking out my patio onto the potted tropical plant bordered path, and into the sunlit garden filled with brightly colored annual and perennial blooms along with foliage of assorted texture, size, and shapes. Ohmmmm…

I gave this much thought.
My final answer?…
…all of them!

I’m in Wisconsin, zone 5. Plants are listed in the alt text.

View from top of stairs looking out onto a circular labyrinth whose cedar mulch path is a tenth of a mile long. Bordering the paths as one winds inward and then unwinds out the the other side are perennials. Golden creeping sedum is abundant and for height along the trail there are daylily and irises. Blooming color scheme is yellow & peach, followed by blues & whites. The perimeter is filled with lilies, iris, rudbeckia, yucca, yarrow, tall sedum, echinacea, ribbon grass, smoke bush, red twig dogwood, forsythia, birch, eastern redbud and in spring, over 3500 bulbs. As this photo was taken during fall, colors of green, gold and bronze are putting on a dazzle of a show. A few benches along the lower side offer a place for sitting and breathing in the zen.

#alphabetchallenge #weekYforYearpast
#labyrinth #earthscape
Actually began this project in 2024.
The Labyrinth.
Photo taken November, 2025.

At first, I felt like I may have gone too full Clark Griswold, but now I’m simply enjoying my personal fight against the 4pm onset of freezing darkness 🥶.

3 multicolor lighted live Christmas trees, on the left, 8ft tall potted Norfolk. (I’ve had her since she was a baby).Center, is a 4ft tall Frazier fir with assorted glass ornaments (mostly mushrooms). On the right, another fir tree with my 40+ years worth of glass ornament collection. Both firs are also embellished with a finishing touch of tinsel. Behind the firs are warm white lights adorning a couple palm trees.A few fuzzy snow people are in the foreground. I guess I got me some holiday spirit!

#alphabetchallenge #weekXforXmas
Current living room situation in my apartment
#earthscape #christmas #holidaydecorations

That’s a beauty!!!

Wish my ceiling was higher. I’ve had the Norfolk since she was in a 4” pot. She’s now 8 ft. tall. Some fiddle leaf figs, several palms, birds of paradise, blooming zygo cactus, and assorted others round out the coziness for my egg chair seating area.

And that’s just one of the winter plant rooms. Here’s part of the ‘living’ 😉room.

A grey car with about three ft. worth of pine tree crown sticking out the open, rear, passenger side window. I’m sure I looked rather silly driving down the road. But she’s now happily rooted in her new home.

#alphabetchallenge #weekWforWindows
My car identifies as a truck.
So when I need to move a 6ft. pine with a really heavy root ball, the windows gotta be open🤪
#earthscape #tree #hondacivic

Photo taken after round 3 of shoveling. I thought the shrub illuminated beautifully against the night and snowy conditions. It looks sort of like an underwater, iridescent blue coral. Nothing like letting the mind wander after shoveling a foot of heavy snow.

#alphabetchallenge #weekVforVowels
Incredibly Intense Indigo
#earthscape #lights
#exteriorillumination

A cluster of 3 lovely purple coneflowers with a backdrop of summer greenery.

#alphabetchallenge #weekVforVowels
Enchantingly Elegant, Echinacea
#earthscape #coneflower

Acrylic painting of an orange toned flower abstraction. Green accents render the illusion of foliage. Background is hues of purples and blues. A circular object in the sky could be a some sort of light source.

#alphabetchallenge #weekVforVowels
Abstract Acrylic Art
#earthscape #painting