baby, it’s cold outside!
oh, and it’s national AUDREY day! 😉
hehe 😉
and the holly tree sure looks pretty in the snow!
happy new year!
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{also – happy full moon!}
29 Sep
it’s been too rainy here to see the moon lately, so i’m sharing a picture i captured with my iPhone from the blue moon last month. 🙂
{HBD, J}
29 Sepi love this picture so much! i also love calendula flower so much! {that’s why i grew some this year!} 🙂
celebrating the birthday of a loved one today! ❤
and also celebrating the practice of letting go…
“the end” of something isn’t alway a bad thing… some things need to “die” in order for new growth to occur… i am pretty confident that we can all relate to that in some way…
not to say that loss is easy… but letting go is different.
plants are the best teachers that offer us the chance to channel the connection within the cyclical nature and patterns of life! they remind us that impermanence is part of essentially everything… they also remind us to be present in each now moment… to embrace and enjoy and relish in that which is before us, as we do our best to dance the dance we experience each passing day on this earth.
love those you love with all you have! but also remember – to love yourself first and foremost!
❤
{praying mantis hatching}
20 Juni thought this would be a good post to celebrate the summer solstice! 😀
i have always been somewhat obsessed with the praying mantis. for as long as i can remember, i just thought they were so cool, and when i was a kid i used to look for them everywhere i would go! i saw one giving itself a bath one time and it was just about the most amazing thing ever. until i saw THIS! something i have had on my “bucket list” for a while…
backtrack a bit – when i lived in north carolina, a friend of mine found a praying mantis pod {aka ootheca} and saved it for me. i, of course, totally freaked out about it and immediately went to read about how to care for it… then i took a bunch of photos of it and eventually put in my garden…
i did not get to see that one hatch at that time, but this year… i totally made up for it. i found at least a dozen of these in my garden earlier this year. and in late spring, they all began to hatch… and all of these baby praying mantids started to emerge!
IT WAS SO COOL!!!
fun facts :
baby praying mantids are called nymphs. they hatch by the dozens {or sometimes hundreds} a while after the mama creates her ootheca pod {which tranlates to “a place to keep.”} praying mantids are so good for the garden! they are beneficial predatory insects… which basically means they prey the harmful insects which would otherwise harm or eat plants! and i just totally adore them!
{garden update – volume 2}
7 Junthis update is a little late… so much has been going on at the garden! we had a lot of rain here, and so the plants are growing and thriving so well!
i typically plant seasonally. so i started with my cool season crops like radishes, peas, beets, spinach, kale, arugula, and lettuce… most of which i have harvested lately. i also harvested the garlic and onions that i adopted from last year. the peas are starting to produce fruit which is exciting, and the lettuce is still thriving and i planted more this week. i started planting my summer crops – cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, squash, and more lettuce. i also planted flowers this year, which is kind of new for me – nasturtiums, calendula, and coneflower.
here is a progress report on what my overall garden plot looks like. i currently have a lot of seeds in the ground, and i take some pride in having beautiful soil and very little to no weeds. i am so excited to continue to watch the growth and progress! 🙂
do you have a garden? what are you growing?
{garden update}
30 Aprthe weather here in Maryland has been so confusing for the last two months. i think we even had a frost last week! however, i do believe we are finally hitting that spring stride… and i’m so ready!
i’ve been steadily getting my garden ready, also! currently, i have lots of sprouts coming up, hooray! i also have a lot of weeds, boo! but i’m holding off on doing too much weeding just yet so i make sure not to pull any sprouts. typically i don’t have any weeds and i take pride in that… but i’ll just have to be patient for now. 😉
here are some pics to show the progress. {if you follow me on instagram, you’ve probably already seen these… and if you don’t, please do – here.}
{nature hike}
30 Marnothing like a stroll in nature to clear the mind, connect with the earth, and welcome the new season!
it’s been a little chilly here lately {boo!} but just recently, i took a little walk with my cousin through a beautiful trail nearby and we both had our cameras in hand.
here are a few of my favourite images from the day.
happy spring, y’all – hope it’s springing where you are!
stumbled onto this along the way!
had a little fun taking pics of it…
these trees kind of remind of me aspens…
nothing like sunset over the water…
how’s the weather where you live?
{belated full moon post}
19 Febi took some pretty pictures of the moon a while back and never got around to posting them. since we recently experienced a full moon, i thought i would share some of those images here with you.
also – my favourite quote :
“to be nobody but yourself in a world that is doing its best to make you something else, is to fight the hardest battle you are going to fight… never stop fighting.” – ee cummings
{new garden season!}
15 Febhey y’all!
it’s a bit early in the year for such things, but this area in the northeast offered some nice weather this past weekend, so i was eager to get outside and get my hands in the dirt! as you know, there isn’t much that makes me feel happier than being in nature – and especially, being in a garden!!!
#farmeraudrey
it pleases me to say – that i finally found a community garden that is only about 15 minutes from where i currently live. i am so excited about it! i was also pleasantly surprised to discover that the plot i adopted is about 3 times the size of the last one i took care of in north carolina! this gives me so many ideas on what to plant, and i am feeling so grateful!!!
please stay tuned… as there will be more updates to come… but for now, here’s a brief overview of the work i did this past saturday when the temperatures were in the high 50s!
before…
during…
after…
the person who took care of this plot last season planted lots of beautiful garlic and onions… which apparently are mine now! and although i am very grateful to have them, i will have to figure out what to do with some of the crops since ultimately i will need to have access to the foundation before it’s time to harvest them…
also – i feel like it doesn’t look like i did much {haha}… and i still have a lot of work to do… but i was there for about 3 hours and i was able to clear out a lot of weeds, etc… i also brought a souvenir home, in the form of a slight rash on my arms from all of the random things i was pulling out of the ground and off the fence line, in my attempt to start prepping the soil {haha!} but fret not, my body and skin are just fine now… that said – next time, i ought to consider and/or be more conscious about wearing longer sleeves… sometimes i just get right into the thick of things, without thinking much… 😉
are you prepping for a garden this year? please comment and share what you plan on growing and any tips you may have! i love to hear from and talk with fellow gardeners! ❤
also – please follow me on instagram for more updates!
{funky fungi}
6 Octspeaking of mushrooms and fungi – check out this fantastic wild funky fungi that was recently gifted to me. apparently it’s edible, but it was just a little passed its prime when i got my hands on it. this amazing thing grows wild on a tree in a friend’s backyard. i wish i could remember the name. perhaps she will remind me before i decide to post this blog. another good friend of mine said it looked like a brain – haha. {he’s constantly saying silly things like that}
i love the golden colour! it reminds me of {yummy!} chanterelle mushrooms, but i was informed that this is technically a fungi. so now i’m curious about which is which… how to distinguish the difference, if there is one?! i think it may have something to do with the underside – the gills?! i’m going to do more research, and i welcome any insight from my amazing readers and/or forager friends!
so without further ado, here are some artistic fotos i took of this fascinating creation from our incredible earth.
update 03/17/22 : i am pretty confident that this is a “chicken of the woods” mushroom”…
it does kind of look like a brain in this foto
{fantastic fungi – local edition}
30 Sepy’all – i LOVE mushrooms! i always have. they fascinate me. i recently watched a super cool documentary that i highly recommend you check out – fantastic fungi. in discovering that film, i learned that mushrooms aren’t really a plant and they aren’t really an animal… they are like their own category. understanding that made me love them even more! i wish i could articulate just how amazing mushrooms really are. essentially they have an entire underground system in which they are all interconnected… and in some ways, mushrooms connect all of us, too! it’s just mind-blowing to learn and think about!
the weather has been just gorgeous here in maryland as of late. simply and purely perfectly autumn – warm sun, cool breeze, crisp air… the best! which means i want to get outside as much as possible! and so i went on a beautiful nature walk the other day and i must’ve seen at least 30 different kinds of mushrooms! i was constantly stopping and marveling at them. i snapped some pics with my phone and so i wanted to share what i saw.
i hope you enjoy and i truly encourage you to watch that film. i think i’ll watch it again and again!
{always look for the silver lining}
1 Juljust a lil’ reminder 😉
and also, i had the best intentions of updating this blog more…
and i still do…
and i will again…
and i thank you all for your patience and for showing up, even when my presence is a little more vague and sporadic than usual as of late…
and it truly means so much to me that you continue to choose to follow along in my journey, and read my blog, and engage…
and i’m thinking of my sweet cousin tony today… ❤
and that is all… for now…
{i heart lighthouses}
15 Marhey y’all.
is anyone else experiencing spring fever?!! my goodness, i’m SO ready for warmer weather!! and getting a small taste it this past week has me feeling the excitement of new beginnings and gardening season and all of the other wonderful things that spring has to offer!
in the spirit of daylight savings time, i took a short drive and a short hike to a little area close by to where i live. which reminds me… i have much to update on. your fellow gypsy queen has moved… again. i’m living back in maryland, where i spent many of my years as a youth. lots of reasons brought about this decision, and i am happy to be back and i love being so close to the water again.
all that said, i can walk to the river in 15 minutes, and i can drive to this amazing place in that same time. i feel most alive when i’m close to a body of water {preferably the ocean – which is still pretty close!}, and so i am loving living in this space again! given the 60 degree temps this past weekend, i felt inspired to get out of the house and take a drive to watch the sunset over the water. i brought my camera, so i’m sharing some of my favourite images… mostly it was me playing around with a bunch of filters and edits. i really love lighthouses!
i have so missed blogging and i look forward to getting back into a more consistent rhythm with it!
thank you to my loyal readers and those of you that engage with my posts, send me messages, and truly care about what i’m doing, and my life, and my art, and all the things. it means the world to me and i am so thankful to be back doing what i love so much! i hope you enjoy these fotos.
xxoo
signs of spring
signs of spring
mushrooms?!
sunset through the trees
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{praying mantis egg case : part 2}
3 Maygarden season is finally here! which means my happiness meter just skyrocketed! 🙂
i recently gave my praying mantis egg case an apartment upgrade by relocating it to the community garden. i {safely} tied it to a trellis in my plot.
the praying mantis serves as a wonderful addition to any garden, since they are a beneficial insect. they prey on other insects that may otherwise be harmful to crops and soil.
plus, they are totally fascinating to admire and watch! and i am hoping i am able to witness the case hatch and capture it on film!
i will be checking on it regularly, so stay tuned for more updates!
#farmeraudrey
{praying mantis egg case : part 1}
29 Apra good friend of mine recently gifted me with this very unique and beautiful creation from nature.
have you ever seen such a thing?! do you have any idea what it is?!
i suppose the title of this blogpost gives it away 🙂
this is a praying mantis egg case!!!
as many of you may know about me, i am somewhat obsessed with the praying mantis. i had never seen an egg case before, but i was completely thrilled when this showed up in my life! {i think i even cried a little}
and so of course, i had to take some {perhaps too many?!} pictures!
i think the details are just so mesmerizing and are something to behold and appreciate! Continue reading
{stargazer stages}
3 Mar
stargazer lilies are one of my favourite flowers! they are not only stunning to look at, but the scent is simply intoxicating!
i appreciate the intricate details within every flower blossom of the stargazer lily. i love to watch each one go through every stage as it blooms and opens. it makes me think of the phases and stages we as human beings go through in life. it’s like a flower blossoming… our journey may start by feeling closed off to the space around us… unsure of ourselves or “hiding” from the world… then in a divine way, we slowly start to open up and reveal our true inner beauty… and ideally as we grow and blossom, the world accepts and appreciates that beauty and all that we uniquely are, and we are ultimately embraced in all of our glory.
but just like a flower, it doesn’t really matter if anyone notices or appreciates or embraces. the essence of a flowers purpose is to simply be. it is beautiful with or without the recognition it deserves. and if we are lucky enough to be in the presence of such beauty, it serves us well to pause, notice, admire, appreciate, and absorb all that which IS.
and we are given that opportunity every single day.
{bodacious blood oranges}
14 Deci think it is so incredible how nature provides us with the right types of food for each season.
for example – blood oranges are in season from december to march. which is the perfect time to consume them for that extra vitamin c punch during the winter months!
and aren’t they just so magical?!
{an autumn stroll through historic yates mill county park}
22 Octin the mid-morning hours of a brisk and blissful sunday, in the glory of a charming and colourful mid-october, in a pleasant little nook of north carolina, i took myself {and my camera} on a spontaneous date with nature…
… and we both needed it.
i am audrey michelle
i am a minimalist
food & foto 