December 13, 2011

Two fun things today. #1: Early this morning, I thought I'd go out and pick something green. The greenest thing I saw was privet with its leaves still on. Cut a stem off a big shrub, then spotted a tiny seedling with prettier, smaller leaves. I pulled it straight out of the ground, which shows you how wet the soil is. It came up with every inch of its root intact. I'm hoping, hoping you can see the root in the photo below, because that's the most interesting part of this conglomeration. Also in the bottle are a couple of Virginia pine cones and pyracantha berries.

Fun thing #2: I went to the Virginia Historical Society in Richmond today, and on my way up those very imposing steps in front, I spotted a ragged shrub with pomegranates on it! There is a hardy pomegranate that grows well in Richmond, and but it was sort of an odd shrub to find growing in front of the Virginia Historical Society. It had almost completely lost its leaves, but a few tiny pomegranates (this ornamental shrub has only tiny pomegranates) were hanging on the bare branches; others were rotting on the ground. I picked one from the shrub, others from the ground and brought them home. Here they are in vanilla bottles.