Winter Flowers

We had an unseasonably warm and humid Thanksgiving Day in Vicksburg yesterday, with the high temperature for the day hovering near 80 degrees.

With rain and cooler temperatures forecast for last night and today, I decided to get a few pictures of some of the flowers blooming in our courtyard before they were battered by the rain.

Christmas Camellia
These pretty red camellias, with bright yellow
centers, bloom until around the end of December.

This colorful "Speedy Sonnet Bronze" Snapdragon should bloom throughout our Mississippi winter months.

Isn't it lovely!

Camellia Sasanqua

These Sasanquas will bloom well into winter, too.

This is a picture I took about a month ago of a blue Pansy that is growing in an urn in our courtyard.

As you can see in this next picture (taken last February after a rare Vicksburg snowfall), Pansies also withstand winter temperatures and should bloom until Spring.

I hope you have some flowers or plants that brighten your winter months. I'm looking forward to enjoying the ones I've shared today.

Summer's End

I recently came across the lyrics to a song on a beautiful blog called, "The House in the Roses," which is written by a lovely lady named Cielo. If you haven't discovered Cielo's enchanting pictures and stories, I hope you will visit her magical House of Roses. I'm sure it will become one of your favorite places.

The song I mentioned is called Summer's Almost Over, and was written by Cheryl Wheeler. I'd like to share these beautiful lines ...

Summer's almost over and I'm crying but I don't know why,
Sentimental old fool, weeping for this blue, blue sky,
And the way the cat is sleeping and the way the garden grew,
Wagging dogs who lick my face and the way I feel for you.

Who could help but welcome autumn and the promise of the winter snow?
Still there's something sweet and wistful as I watch this lovely summer go,
But the sun is sinking sooner and the weeds have won at last,
With the berries on the bushes and the crickets in the grass,
Oh, summer's almost over and I'm crying but I don't know why.

Isn't that lovely! Thank you, Cielo, for letting me share it here at Southern Lagniappe.

I would also like to share a few pictures I took yesterday afternoon while walking around in our yard. I was thinking about the lyrics to that song, and found several signs that mark the passage of summer.

These are the last two lingering blossoms on our Crape Myrtle trees ...

Our Sasanquas are loaded with buds ...

They will look like this when they open:

I love the way this little rosebud's tip looks as if it's been "squashed." It's probably one of the last roses we'll have.

I think the faded rose pods are pretty, too ...

I captured these leaves on a Sycamore tree whose branches hang over our back fence.

They're almost as big as a dinner plate and are so pretty in the tree, but when they start falling in the flower beds, they're not so pretty.

I just happened to look into our cobalt gazing ball and couldn't resist capturing the reflection of an iron arbor in it.

I like this shot of the fleur-de-lis finial on the arbor, too.

I'm not sure what these shiny black berries are. They are growing on a vine in a tree behind our fence, and look like little glass marbles.

My lagniappe for the afternoon came in the form of this little emerald green chameleon who was playing on my glass butterfly feeder (you can click on the pictures to see him up close, if you'd like).

I bent over to photograph a fading Lantana bloom and captured a little bit of serendipity instead.

These little guys will be leaving soon.

Farewell, little hummers — Godspeed!

" ... There's something sweet and wistful
as I watch this lovely summer go."

Photo Potpourri

Just a few "odds and ends" photos for today (you can click on the pictures to enlarge them, if you'd like) ...

I love the dew drops on the petals of this sasanqua blooming in our courtyard.