Brightside Acres
West Virginia Wildgrown®

Winter 2011

March 21-28

Old fence below the Spring Road Hail, March 21 Cosmo supervising orchard work, March 22 Installing new fence around gooseberry bushes Snow! March 27 Junco Nuthatch Looks like...uhm...January March 28 Young orchard View from the orchard up to the Pike Lichen A blue-sky afternoon, March 28 Happy Puppy! Bluebirds ahoy! Silence Garden enclosure Moss Grandmother apple tree

St. Patrick's Day

Cosmo loves the sun-warmed dirt Curtis and Ernie hard at work cutting sod New potato patch Dawn in the vineyard A vine before pruning The same vine after pruning Sometimes it's hard to cut so much plant material Gotta think like a vine A healthy haircut will produce much more and better fruit New raised beds Jake mulching the blueberries Next up, a low tunnel over the whole patch

Early March

Will bluebirds or tree swallows get here first Tasting the sap from a sugar maple Kestrel nestbox near Wiley Way Adding saw dust Installing a Screech Owl nest box in the Sumac Sanctuary Screech Owl nest box Bluebird house on the front fence Bluebird house on the front fence Wren house Another snow. Is it the last one? Trimmed witch hazel twigs, ready for boiling Queen Anne's Lace Evidence of a Pileated Woodpecker

Every Kind of Weather: February

After the Storm: January 27

Road Trip: January 26

Jake with camera

Late Afternoon: January 24

Cosmo wondering why I'm so slow Looking toward the garden Cosmo scenting something good The Grandmother Apple Tree Lichen glow in winter Vineyard Spring road View toward Virginia from the Spring road Hawthorn Young apple tree Young apple tree Young apple tree View uphill from the young orchard

Snow Drifts: January 12

Old Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike at the Brightside gate The Rhino addresses drifts on the Old Pike The plow blade creates a snow wake Wind creates snow spirits

Plowing Can Be Fun!