The Beauty in Your Own Backyard ...

This is my first time to participate in "Outdoor Wednesday," graciously hosted by Susan at A Southern Daydreamer. I invite you to visit Susan's lovely blog to see more posts featuring the great outdoors.

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I spent yesterday morning driving around Vicksburg, taking pictures for a future post. When I got home, it occurred to me that I could probably just walk around my yard and find interesting things to capture with my camera (you can click on the pictures to enlarge them, if you'd like).

I started my tour in our courtyard and took this shot of "Henry," our blue heron. My parents gave him to us for Christmas, and he seems to be quite happy there by the waterfall ...

And my little girl statue looks pretty, even though the plants around her are in their "winter drab" mode ...

I quickly discovered that "winter drab" has a beauty all its own, as shown in these Crepe Myrtle pods ...

The Crepe Myrtle shadows seem to creep along this wall ...

Even this "Corkscrew" plant growing in our pond is interesting ...

I love the way the water mingles the colors of the rocks in the bottom of the little stream that connects the waterfall to the pond ...

Last summer my mint plant got out of hand and I had to cut it back two or three times. It's very hardy and continues to pop up in the flower bed, even in freezing temperatures. Isn't it pretty ... and so green!

One of my favorite evergreen shrubs is Sweet Olive, and we have several planted in the front and back yards. It has delicate little flower clusters which give off the most heavenly scent ...

I discovered this beautiful little Yuletide Sasanqua hidden under some leaves. If you click on it, you can see a single drop of dew ...

I see my sun wind chime has "weathered" to a nice rusty patina ...

This is my favorite picture ... it's a knothole in the fence behind our house.

I tried to get a photo through the knothole of the trees behind the house, but I needed to be a little taller (oh, okay ... a lot taller) to get the camera to focus properly.

I forgot to show you my yellow pansies planted in urns in the courtyard. If you look closely at the first picture, you can see some kind of bug on one of the blooms, which I didn't see until I was editing the pictures ...

This is a little clump of wildflowers growing beside the fence (some people would call them "weeds," but there's no way those delicate little blue flowers could be weeds!) ...

I was happy to see my Louisiana Irises poking through the pine straw and leaves ...

Here is a picture I took of one in bloom last year ... doesn't it look like a miniature Fleur-de-Lis?

I hope you enjoyed my walk around my yard. I had fun discovering (and uncovering) its winter beauty, and was amazed that it was right there all the time ... in my own backyard.

I would love to see the beauty in your backyard -- even if it's covered with snow.