Winter light

Winter is the season of mud here. It's also a season of golden light, which lights up the world and transforms bare branches into intricate patterns of beauty. If I try to take a picture the branches just look like a pile of sticks, but in person it's a dance of light and shadows.

A tangle of swamp sunflower, rugosas, prairie rose and winter honeysuckle near the top of the hill on our property.

To be honest, I kind of regret planting prairie rose (R. setigera) next to the driveway. It's a thorny BEAST and absolutely gigantic. Not only that, there's more than one of them and they can spread to a length of 50'. I never thought something with prairie in the name would do so well here, but it has. I grew 2 of them from seed acquired in a trade. On the plus side, they form a wall of pink flowers in June,

the hips provide food for birds in the fall, and the leaves turn a bright pumpkin orange late in the year.

During the summer I'm not so fond of the tall goldenrod that grows rampant here, but it provides for bees and other pollinators in the fall, provides good cover for the birds in winter, and the seedheads are beautiful lit up by the late afternoon sun.

The rugosas are turning now, and look like they've been dipped in sugar when encrusted with ice crystals.

Scarlet leaves still remain at the top of Fothergilla 'Mt. Airy'

Last year a black cat started showing up on the farm, a feral tom. He was very thin so I started feeding him and now he's far less feral, although the best I can do is pet him a little bit while he's eating. Any name suggestions?

He rolls around vigorously on the ground, trying to get me to play with him as he would another cat.

He has a baby voice.

He looks like a black panther in the above picture but he doesn't cat very well, or he wouldn't have been struggling so much in the middle of summer. I want to get him to the vet to get neutered, vaccinated, etc, but am worried the experience will be very traumatizing for him. He'll have to be trapped since I can't pick him up and put him in a carrier. He will go eventually (I had an appointment for him earlier this month but backed out). I plan on keeping him on the back porch for a few days afterward. If he runs away he likely won't have a good outcome.

I was thinking perhaps Dexter as a name because he always seems hollow inside (he's a bottomless pit).