Dear Reader:

It has been the white…(well, white tinged with the lightest of pink) camellias that have called to me on my cold walks this past week. I have gotten in the habit of carrying some small clippers to snip one here and there from bushes that have many. (I justify my “snip” by the quantity and quality.) The freeze really did hurt the blooms…and so many camellia bushes have brown spots on the leaves, buds, and blooms.

When I woke up yesterday morning my pink camellia bush/tree (over twelve feet tall) had blooms at the tip top of it…which will definitely be a challenge to pick. And there scurrying from branch to branch was a little Carolina wren…they are so cute and just as busy as a bee going up and down the camellia “tree.”

The title painting was done by a Dingle ancestor…Edward Von Siebold Dingle of Middleburg Plantation near Huger and Mepkin Abby. I remember attending a family reunion there soon before his death in 1975. He was and is a well respected watercolor artist and naturalist dealing with all kinds of birds…nicknamed “The Audubon of the South.” 

*Edward Von Siebold Dingle grew up on a plantation just outside  the city of Charleston (Summerton) where he was born in 1893. His mother was a noted painter of birds and she helped guide him from an early age. When he proudly produced his first bird drawing at the age of twelve he had started on a path that he would stay on for the rest of his life. From that precocious start ornithology became both his artistic and his scientific passion.

After 1927, when Dingle married Marie G. Ball, they lived at Middleburg Plantation in Huger, South Carolina. He died on April 21, 1975. Indeed, while art collectors know him for his splendid watercolors of hundreds of different birds, in scientific circles he is remembered for discovering and recording five new bird species.

I wish sometimes I didn’t have a screen on this window by the computer so I could take a clear photo of everything going on right outside my window. Because along with the camellia “tree” and the little Carolina Wren on it…guess who else showed up? Sammy, the cardinal, and his wife. Sammy’s wife was kind to the little wren, but Sammy kept chasing him off the grounds around the bottom of the camellia bush…until they returned later in the afternoon all getting along like The Three Musketeers!

Off and on all day the three have returned and it makes me smile watching all the antics between them. I love to hear the little Carolina Wren chirping away….friends with the Cardinal family.Who knew?

Carolina Wren Song – YouTube  (33 seconds)

Here are some interesting facts on the Carolina Wren

Interesting Facts

• The Carolina Wren is the State Bird of the US state of South Carolina.
• A captive male Carolina wren reportedly sang around 3,000 times in a single day.
• These birds often add a piece of snakeskin inside their nest.
• The oldest known Carolina wren lived at least 6 years and 1 month.
• Some populations of these birds have been affected by contamination of mercury.
• Various parasites, including blowfly larvae, ticks, mites, and lice often infest their bodies.
• The size of their range territory size is 0.01 to 0.081 square km.
• Their calls have been identified with familiar names and phrases such as sweet heart-sweet heart, come to me-come to me, tea kettle-tea kettle-tea kettle tea, sweet William, and Richelieu-Richelieu.

*I remember the third or fourth year I taught school all the 8th grade SC History classes  got a Facts About SC pocket handbook (for each individual student) and on the cover was Edward Von Siebold Dingle’s painting of the state bird and flower together.

I was able to do a whole lesson on the famous family Dingle painter…one of the best lessons I taught.

Here are some of my “snippet” camellias (thanks neighbors) *Brooke… some of your flowers you gave me two weeks ago are still alive so I just added two camellias….(Brooke is returning today to take me to the second (and hopefully) last surgical “zap” on my left eye Monday.)

When we say “South” aren’t the first plants one envisions either a magnolia, azalea, or camellia? I so love living in the South!

So until tomorrow…Let us enjoy the first peeks of spring…hope can’t be far behind.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

I have known for quite a while that Lachlan is enamored of Minnie Mouse…he always runs to my refrigerator to grab a “Minnie Mouse” magnet to play with…his favorite toy. And then while Aunt Kaitlyn and Uncle Tommy did some babysitting Lachlan, somehow, managed to squeeze into Eloise’s Minnie Mouse outfit Honey sent. Too hilarious!