Tag Archives: Honeybun

Burning five acres 2026-01-06

Thanks to Max Barzallo and Mary Clement for helping burn five acres around the house. And of course thanks to Honeybun, Blondie, River, and Sky for helping.

Now if another fire gets loose, it won’t burn to the house.

[Burning five acres, Pine fire forest 2026-01-06, With neighbor help, and dogs]
Burning five acres, Pine fire forest 2026-01-06, With neighbor help, and dogs

Here’s some video:

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1644259806439943/

https://youtu.be/l3fZ-Adr_3I

For those who are not familiar with prescribed burns, we live in a longleaf fire forest. Southern pine trees are fire resistant, so burns don’t affect them much, but the fire does cut back on vines and other undergrowth, as well as competing oaks, sweetgum, and other trees.

Wildlife benefits. Continue reading →

Seepage slope and bog plants 2025-06-15

Twenty one species in a thousand feet down the Not-a-Driveway from piney woods through seepage slope to beaver pond.

Plus Canis familiaris and garden variety human. While we did not see any beaver, Castor canadensis, there was quite a bit of evidence of them.

Species identifications are by Seek by iNaturalist, which is usually pretty reliable. I do doubt a few of them.

For example, what seek identifies as Pineland hibiscus, Hibiscus aculeatus, sure looks to me like halberd-leaf rosemallow, Hibiscus laevis.

Far more species than these live in our subtropical paradise. These are just the plants (and fungi) I happened to focus on today.

BB

[Ten-angled pipewort or bog button, Eriocaulon decangulare, 2025:06:15 09:52:26]
Ten-angled pipewort or bog button, Eriocaulon decangulare, 2025:06:15 09:52:26

Continue reading →

Howling dogs 2025-05-19

Sky and River howled like something horrible was happening.

[Movie: Sky and River howling (30M)]
Movie: Sky and River howling (30M)

Actually, they saw me walk into the woods towards the garden, and they heard me calling them.

Blondie ran back to get them, and explained to them how silly they sounded.

Video:
https://youtu.be/Jyljdi-sHQk

Continue reading →

Wild azaleas and blueberries 2025-03-20

Down the Not A Driveway, over and under the Hurricane Helene deadfalls, following the dog pack, lies an acre of wild azaleas, plus wild blueberries.

[Blondie, Honeybun, Sky, River, over the deadfall into the wild azaleas]
Blondie, Honeybun, Sky, River, over the deadfall into the wild azaleas

Some of these Rhododendron canescens are already blooming. Many more are just budding.

[Wild azaleas, pine deadfall, and dog on Not A Driveway]
Wild azaleas, pine deadfall, and dog on Not A Driveway

[Wild azaleas and loblolly pine cones]
Wild azaleas and loblolly pine cones

[Closeup red wild azaleas]
Closeup red wild azaleas

[Wild Blueberries]
Wild Blueberries

[Pink wild azaleas]
Pink wild azaleas

[Pale wild azaleas]
Pale wild azaleas

[Wild azalea beneath oak deadfall]
Wild azalea beneath oak deadfall

[Closeup wild azalea beneath oak deadfall]
Closeup wild azalea beneath oak deadfall

“Here Spring was already busy about them: fronds pierced moss and mould, … small flowers were opening in the turf, birds were singing. Ithilien, the garden of Gondor now desolate kept still a dishevelled dryad loveliness.”
—Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit, The Two Towers, JRR Tolkien

-jsq

Garter snake and obvlivious dogs 2025-03-18

I almost stepped on it, and the dogs never saw it.

[Garter Snake]
Garter Snake

All four dogs walked right by this harmless (to dogs and humans) eastern garter snake, Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis.

[Oblivious dogs]
Oblivious dogs

-jsq

Frozen cypress swamp with dogs 2025-01-23

Cold enough the dogs did not want to go into the cypress swamp, after the January 22, 2025, sleet and snow storm.

[Gretchen pokes it with a stick as Blondie, River, and Sky stay high and dry]
Gretchen pokes it with a stick as Blondie, River, and Sky stay high and dry

Honeybun did not even come down to the frozen water’s edge. River, Sky, and Blondie stayed out of the water. Continue reading →

Pond flatboat pine rescue with dogs 2025-01-01

After half an hour bushwhacking to get to the pond for the first time since Hurricane Helene, on New Years Day the dogs and I discovered something in a pine tree.

[Something in that tree, says Honeybun]
Something in that tree, says Honeybun

She said she meant to be there. Continue reading →

Pine deadfall, back driveway 2025-01-13

Update 2025-01-18: Removed: pine deadfall in back driveway 2025-01-14.

Could this be a problem?

[Honeybun and deadfall]
Honeybun and deadfall

I’ll get to it either today or tomorrow, so when something else falls on the front driveway we’ll have a way out the back. Continue reading →