gray, spelled g r a y

@grayherndon.bsky.social

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Conservation Gardening | Ecological Restoration | Rewilding Training as a Virginia Master Naturalist Ecoregion 67a - Northern Limestone/Dolomite Valleys Part Sun - Full Shade (Me, not the plants…) Speaking for myself only, here. (She/Her)

A white cat with stripey patches of orange and gray/black sleeps on a soft gray pad laid on the seat of a brown velvet chair with a pink blanket draped over the back. Sunlight slants across the cat’s face.
A cat with patches of orange, gray/black, and white lies on a gray mat that sits on a brown velvet chair. She is facing away from the camera and the black tip of her tail is visible from under her body, along with stripes of white and orange. A pale pink fuzzy blanket is draped over the back of the chair.
Rough-textured leaves shaped like narrow, elongated diamonds extend outward at alternating right angles, centered on a sturdy stem that is covered in fine white hairs. At the top of the stem is a cluster of unopened flower buds, and under one upper leaf a small insect is visible. In the background, out of focus, is a light blue house.
A black and white night vision video clip of an opossum approaching a house by the sidewalk, finding a snail, and crunching it.
An exceptionally small snail crawls from right to left upside down under the large leaf of a common milkweed plant.
A single slender stem with equally slender leaves almost resembling curved pine needles radiating from it rises from a grassy area, with small clusters of flower buds near its top, a couple of which have opened into white flowers that are being visited by tiny black ants.
Soft pink milkweed blooms have started to open at the top of a single slender stem, with narrow leaves pointing out at right angles. Tiny ants are here and there among the flowers.
A rattlesnake master plant shows flowers in whitish-green with a pincushion-like appearance for the most mature/central bloom and more if an artichoke shape on the symmetrical flowerheads on either side.
A closeup of potting soil inside a gallon milk jug with its top half cut off, and a single tiny green seedling appearing from the soil.
A rain gauge consisting of inner and outer tubes of clear plastic, with the inner having black measurement marks, is full of water to the 0.32 inches mark. Raindrops hang from the bottom of the outer tube.
A variety of different plants including grasses, sedges, forbs, and a couple of seedling trees, all in plastic nursery pots, sit in a blue plastic kiddie pool with water in the bottom. Around them is a patchy lawn and a pair of boxwood shrubs stand behind them.
Many stems of nodding onion rise straight up from a flowerbed before arching back down. Flower bulbs on most have not yet opened, but the nearest one has opened into a ring of little flowers. In the background are a grassy area and trees.
A spray of small, white, rounded, waxy-looking blooms with slightly flattened green berries growing in their centers reaches out from a bright, light green stem and leaves at left. In the background, out of focus, is a tall patch of goldenrod, not yet blooming and thus all green.
Three very pale green, bulbous, knobbly seed pods grow from the drying remains of a common milkweed flower, with the plant’s large green leaves with magenta midveins spread out behind them.
A set of pale gray plastic shelves holds trays of seedlings of various species in nursery pots, as well as cut down milk cartons and soda bottles full of soil. A little more than half of the shelf space remains empty. The shelves sit on a screened porch with a weathered brown wooden floor. The screen is behind them, with a wall of white siding & windows extending away on the right. Part of a light blue house is in the background.
Tiny whitish purple flowers with purple spots are arranged on round green flowerheads, on branching stems of a mountain mint with broad leaves. The leaves nearest the top are a cloudy gray-green, and those lower down are a darker green.
Several heart-shaped redbud leaves are shown. The newest, smallest leaves are deep red, while the older leaves are light green and have semicircular notches cut from their edges by leaf cutter bees. Under them is a bed of violets, also with heart-shaped leaves.
A small iridescent beetle showing primarily magenta and green metallic colors is on a leaf of a pale green, stiff-leaved dogbane plant. Behind it is a grassy hillside.
Several narrow stems lean across the picture from the left, with narrow pointed leaves hanging down. The stems are slightly purple and the leaves also have a slight purple tint. From each stem extend several long flower clusters, mostly made up of spent blooms but with open, light purple flowers near their tips. The flower clusters look like the arms of candelabras.
6 black plastic nursery pots with several tiny plants in each, mostly bare stems with a few leaves left after being eaten by insects. White plastic labels stuck in each pot read “O. RIGIDUM.”
Several tiny brownish-black caterpillars or cutworms are seen on a plastic lid sitting on a rusty black metal chair seat. One is curled up in a circle, the others are stretched out or exploring.
Grass grows thickly on a small mound where it has received a chunky mowing job. A pale brown 4x4” square post rises from the mound, and in the background are a row of boxwood shrubs and the second floor of a light blue house at left.
A brilliant dark pink trumpet-shaped flower with five flaring petals appears facing the camera at the end of a vine, with unopened flowers appearing as orange and pink tubes behind it, and other branches of the vine covered in leaves in the background.
A jumble of 24 roughly 4-inch square plastic nursery pots, mostly black but one being dark green, lies on an area of patchy grass. A green garden hose snakes across the upper left corner of the image.
A small white flower with a deep cup of pale green leaves around it tilts downward with a tiny drop of rain hanging from it. A very small insect of some type is on one petal. Farther up its stem another flower is almost ready to open, and it is surrounded by the leaves and stems of other plants.
A firefly with an orangey red area behind its head and blackish wings edged in a light color is seed from the side resting on a tall blade of grass. Behind it are more grasses and the stems of a perennial.
Stems of a perennial extend upward with further stems branching off in an opposite arrangement, the leaves also being opposite and each pair being at right angles to the previous pair. At the top, sets of leaves fold around what may be a flower bud, and one set of leaves bends in a way that suggests shrugging shoulders and arms. In the background are a tree in sunlight and a vivid blue sky.
A spiky brown flower cluster appears on the narrow stem of a bulrush, with wide grasslike blades beneath it. In the background are a grassy area and a couple of houses, out of focus.
The tall stems of a species of violets, not currently fully in bloom, twist upward from the ground with roughly heart-shaped leaves climbing the stems, in front of a wire fence and among the long grassy leaves of spiderwort.
A dark-colored Allegheny blackberry cane covered in pinkish red ripening berries reaches into the picture from the right. A length of twine tied around it stretches to the left with the other end tied to a small tree. Dark orange daylilies appear underneath, amid a jumble of other greenery.
A closeup of the chestnut-brown flowers/fruits of a common dish, with its round green stems rising around it. They’re inconspicuous maybe plant is in a black plastic pot surrounded by young grass.
A pale bluish-green grass spike has opened out at the top into the shape of a bottle brush as it goes to seed. Behind it is a slope covered in brighter green grass, and in the distance is part of a red brick house.
Tall slender green stems with opposite, pointed leaves reach upward and then curve slightly at the top, holding unopened greenish flower heads. In the background is assorted greenery and one side of a brick house lit by the sun.
A view of a train overpass from a walking path framed by trees shows a black, bullet-nosed streamlined steam locomotive with a red stripe on its side pulling an assortment of vintage passenger cars.
A tiny shrub seedling pokes up through bright green young grass, its leaves darker green and tinged with dark red. Behind it is the leaf-filled bottom of a pond basin with water standing in it among decaying logs.
An evening-primrose plant is shown, consisting of a tall stalk with leaves beginning large at the base and decreasing in size up the stalk, a cluster of flower buds at the top, and wilted yellow flowers just below. Several branches also have clusters of buds at their tips. In the background are tall perennials, young grass, and dark green shrubbery.
A ring of bright yellow flowers surrounds the tall stalk of an evening primrose plant, with numerous flower buds above the open blooms. It is shown in the dark, with the stems of other plants barely visible behind it.
A small bunch of bright green sedge with long thin blades stands in the middle of a basin lined with dry leaves and containing several decaying logs. The rim on the far side is covered in young grass that is also bright green.
A closeup of the fingers of a pale pinkish hand, palm up, fingers curled toward the camera to show very short bitten fingernails and a line of dirt in broken skin. Behind it is a bright yellow-green sedge.
The blooms of a common milkweed plant are opening, clustered together in a ball reminiscent of a satellite or a germ of some kind. Shares of light pink, darker pink, and very pale green show in its flowers, and the plant’s wide leaves spread out under and behind the flowers. Above, another flower cluster has not yet started to open.
The tiny compound leaves of a very small native rose plant open in front of a black plastic nursery pot, surrounded by wide heart-shaped violet leaves. Some of the thorns on the rose’s stem can be seen against the black pot.
An image of a great number of plastic nursery pots in various shapes and sizes, mostly black, stacked and jumbled together in wire shelves, with white text at the top reading, “And to my children, I leave my collection of nursery pots, stored inside other nursery pots”.
A small, slender beetle with tan wings and a dark brown or black oval toward the back of each wing wanders through the tiny, clustered, pale green flowers of a staghorn sumac. Around the flower cluster darker green leaves with serrated edges spread out from purplish-red, fuzzy stems.
Rattlesnake-master prepares to bloom, its flower head looking a bit like a small white artichoke and bristling with many points. Below it, pale green blade-like leaves with small hooks along their edges unwrap from around the stem.
Common milkweed is almost ready to bloom, it’s pale pinkish buds round themselves and clustered together in a larger ball. The plant’s stem is thick and its leaves are large and stiff. In the background a large area is filled with the thinner stems of goldenrod.
The four-petalled, lemon-yellow blooms of an evening-primrose have opened for the night near the top of its stalk. Below them are the blooms of previous days, shriveled and pinkish. In the background the evening sky shows soft shades of lavender and pink.
A small hickory tree stands in a mulched area inside a low wire fence, with iris-like spiderwort plants ringed around the fence to the left. Chunks of sod sit in front of the spiderwort and the bed has been added with light colored stones. To the right the bed looks more unkempt as it has not yet been weeded or edged.
Seed pods like very fat light-green pea pods with a dark seam up the middle are clustered on the stem of a plant, with darker green leaves fanned out around them.
A black streamlined J-Class steam locomotive with a bullet nose, Norfolk & Western 611, passes through a grade crossing showing her new temporary livery with a bright red stripe & white trim for the 250th celebrations. The auxiliary tender shows the traditional livery with Tuscan red & gold, and a black & white Norfolk Southern diesel engine leads. Several people are gathered to watch and wave.
Bright orange blooms of butterfly-weed are clustered together, among buds that have not yet opened and are a slightly darker and more muted reddish pink. Around the plant and its own narrow leaves, the triple leaves of strawberry plants can be seen.
Many bright yellow daisy-like flowers top the stems of a bushy plant made up of many fine stems and leaves that create a mist of green.
An extremely slender, bright green stem rises out of the leaves of creeping charlie and plantain plants, with equally slender leaves spreading out from it on all sides.
An extraordinarily round and glossy black widow spider is shown at a 3/4 angle, the bright red hourglass on her abdomen clearly visible. She occupies a very three-dimensional web attached to a weathered board and a large black battery with white text on its side.
A rough circle of mulch with a small sassafras seedling in the middle is ringed with small green plants, but at back right the plants are buried under a pile of tarps. Large pieces of metal at left are printed with a partial phone number and partial company name reading “HOLLOW.”
A small flowerbed by a sidewalk is edged with light-colored stones. In it are many rich green violet leaves and the leaves of onion plants that would be tall, but have been knocked over and crushed.
A small smooth sumac tree lies on its side, its leaves flopped to the left and its crushed black plastic pot to the right. Around it are grass and Virginia creeper.
A concrete sidewalk climbs a hill straight ahead, with a strip of grass and a paved street to the left and a large amount of greenery leaning over the sidewalk at right. There is a white truck parked at the side of the street.
A bright yellow four-petaled flower with darker lines radiating out on each petal blooms from the tops of two stems. The leaves and surrounding plants are wet with rain.
Small, daisy-like yellow flowers are just beginning to open up atop very slender stems with very slender leaves. The growth is so thick the picture seems to show a cloud of bright grassy green, dotted with yellow.