gray, spelled g r a y
LightNews LightNews
banner
grayherndon.bsky.social
gray, spelled g r a y
@grayherndon.bsky.social
95 followers 110 following 310 posts
Posts Replies Media Videos
grayherndon.bsky.social
It wasn’t that cold today, but a brisk wind made me want to get back inside quickly, so I went for an easy one for today’s photo: the dried remains of the gray goldenrod (Solidago nemoralis).

For winter, this is my favorite goldenrod.

(1/3)

#2026photos #nativeplants #virginianativeplants
A dried branching stem stretches diagonally from left to right, with the ends of each branch covered in fluffy whitish-gray dried flower heads. Behind the stems are various other dry winter plants, a large tree trunk further off to the right, and neighborhood houses in brick and blue stucco. Behind the houses the afternoon sky is blue, and low-angled sun hits the roof of the far house.
January 20, 2026 at 2:03 AM
grayherndon.bsky.social
We went to Natural Bridge Saturday but the trail underneath was closed for falling icicles. While we lingered nearby to see if the trail would open, we checked out rocks & plants & found this little dude. First time I’ve seen the “endemic” label! Feels special.

#nativeplants #virginianativeplants
Several clumps of a plant grow from a mottled gray-brown rock. The clumps are rounded like pom-poms, with bright, light green leaves in the middle and muted purple-green leaves around the outside. The leaves are variable in shape but many have split or toothed edges similar to dandelion leaves. A screenshot of an identification from the Seek app. On a white background, black text reads “Rocktwist” at the top with “Draba ramosissima” in smaller text just below. Green label rectangles say “ENDEMIC” and “NATIVE” in white text. Beneath that, a line of text with a green check mark reads “You observed it on Jan 17, 2026.” A section labeled “ABOUT” with a green heading reads, “Draba ramosissima (branched draba) is a species of flowering plant in the mustard family. It has a restricted range, being found only on calcareous cliffs of the Appalachian Mountains, the Kentucky River Palisades, and Middle Tennessee. It is a small perennial herb with racemes of white flowers in the spring. (Source: Wikipedia)” At bottom is a green camera icon and 3 green lines indicating a menu.
January 19, 2026 at 5:05 PM
grayherndon.bsky.social
I’ve tried a few times to get this picture, but my camera struggles to focus on small/near things. For today’s photo I gave up and put my hand behind this serviceberry (Amelanchier sp.) seedling to get its distinctive, elongated buds in focus.

(1/2)

#2026photos #nativeplants #virginianativeplants
A slender twig of a seedling with thin, elongated, reddish-pink buds on alternating sides appears in front of a pale pinkish hand held just behind it to aid with camera focus. In the background out of focus are white gravel, the brown remains of the previous season’s shrubby growth, and the corner of a screened porch.
January 19, 2026 at 1:22 AM
grayherndon.bsky.social
OK today’s photo is not at all well-composed, and it’s zoomed in so the focus isn’t great, but you do not KNOW how many raspberry canes I had to reach through to get it.

THIS is ebony spleenwort (Asplenium platyneuron)!

(1/2)

#2026photos #nativeplants #virginianativeplants #ferns
Narrow-leaved green ferns with black stems grow mostly upright from under a mossy and lichen-covered landscaping timber, with scattered dry leaves and the stems of last year’s plants all around.
January 18, 2026 at 1:09 AM
grayherndon.bsky.social
With today’s photo, a confession: I took this photo with the intention of talking about ebony spleenwort (Asplenium platyneuron). I knew that’s what it was, we’ve had it for years. But I decided to ID it in Seek & send the observation to iNaturalist.

It isn’t ebony spleenwort.

(1/3)

#2026photos
Ferns in a muted green grow from under a moss covered, shadowed landscaping timber that crosses the top of the photo. Their leaflets are broad, with a wider section at the base of each, and their edges are serrated. Some sections of the ferns have died back and are brown and curled. Crumbly bare dirt covers a slope below them, and slender sticks are scattered here and there.
January 17, 2026 at 2:04 AM
grayherndon.bsky.social
Pokeweed (Phytolacca americana)! It doesn’t have a lot of fans, but I’m one - for its exotic magenta stems, interesting structure, dramatic flowers, the lovely ink the berries make, and of course the food they provide for birds. (But only birds! Don’t eat them!)

(1/4)

#2026photos #nativeplants
Forked and twisted, the dried whitish stems of pokeweed are laid in a jumble on winter-browned grass, with the cut ends pointing away from the viewer, and a few dried brown oak leaves caught among them.
January 16, 2026 at 4:08 AM
grayherndon.bsky.social
We were under observation when we arrived home. Today’s photo is some (non)native wildlife enjoying the comforts of our brush pile.

We like to keep brush piles both because amazing soil forms underneath them after a few years…

(1/4)

#2026photos #gardeningforwildlife #feralcats
In the foreground a brush pile made of sticks, stems, vines, and grasses appears, and behind it a slope rises covered in leaves, small trees and shrubs, with flat stones laid on it here and there. The whole picture is shades of brown and gray, except for a black cat with white on its nose that can be seen in part, peering at the camera from on top of the pile.
January 14, 2026 at 11:31 PM
grayherndon.bsky.social
Today’s photo is one of the two little staghorn sumacs (Rhus typhina) we planted year before last, showing its fruit and the fuzz in its new growth that gives it its name.

I’d been wanting these for years before we found any to buy!

(1/2)

#2026photos #nativeplants #virginianativeplants
A light brown, fuzzy branch rises from the bottom of the picture, with lighter brown fuzzy buds showing and at the top a dark pink cluster of fuzzy berries, curved at the bottom and tapering to a point at the top. Out of focus in the background are various other plants, houses, mountains, and a bright blue sky with wispy light gray clouds.
January 14, 2026 at 3:46 AM
grayherndon.bsky.social
Today’s photo is last season’s Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) growing up the trunk of our big old silver maple (Acer saccharinum). 2 #nativeplants many people dislike, but they’re beautiful, with loads of wildlife value…

(1/2)

#2026photos #virginianativeplants
Several thin, light brown vines climb upwards from left to right in slightly wandering paths across the grayish, flaked bark of a large tree in close-up.
January 13, 2026 at 3:47 AM
grayherndon.bsky.social
Today’s photo is both an update on my #wintersowing progress and evidence of an unforeseen additional consequence of allowing cats to roam outdoors. “If I fits, I sits,” presumably. 😐

There’s no real damage this time, but if it keeps happening, there might be.

#2026photos
A seed starting tray with soil-filled cells covered in a tall clear plastic dome and wrapped in twine and blue tape sits on the ground, surrounded by moss, bare mud, small patches of grass, stones, and small seedling trees. The dome is partially crushed downward. To the left a similar tray is partly in view. Behind the trays are a capped white pipe emerging from the ground, a white plastic bin lid, and white lattice and brickwork.
January 11, 2026 at 11:42 PM
grayherndon.bsky.social
For today’s photo I wanted to show the rich colors that have been brought out since everything’s wet with rain: the sort of chestnut red of last year’s narrowleaf meadowsweet (Spiraea alba), the honey brown of the sycamore leaves (Platanus occidentalis) caught between its stems.

#2026photos
Deep reddish brown stems, some of them streaked with a lighter brown, rise up in a cluster from ground littered with dry leaves. Among the stems, sycamore leaves in a golden brown are caught. Everything is wet with rain. In front of the stems, a small white plastic sign sticks out of the ground with “SPIRAEA ALBA ‘MEADOWSWEET’” written on it in faded black.
January 10, 2026 at 10:30 PM
grayherndon.bsky.social
Briefly perhaps tonight, I’m so tired - today’s photo is this afternoon’s raindrops hanging from a branch of the black walnut (Juglans nigra) a squirrel planted in our front yard (in just the right place!) probably the year we bought the house.

(1/2)

#2026photos #nativeplants #virginianativeplants
A close-up of a dark gray-brown branch with white flecks here and there, and several raindrops hanging from it reflecting the sky. In the background, out of focus, is mostly dead winter plant growth with a little green here and there.
January 10, 2026 at 3:05 AM
grayherndon.bsky.social
As demonstrated in the excellent “Lights Out: Recovering Our Night Sky” exhibit currently at the Smithsonian, such lighting means our eyes never adjust, and areas just outside the light (or even hidden by its glare) can hide dangers we would otherwise see.

(2/5?)

#darksky
Side by side images hanging on a dark wall show a small yard surrounded by a fence with an open gate at night. In the picture at left, a bright light illuminates the yard. In the picture at right, a hand is held up to block the light and a man is visible standing in the gate. On close inspection, the man is present in the first picture, but almost impossible to see due to the light’s glare.
January 8, 2026 at 11:57 PM
grayherndon.bsky.social
Tonight it really was dark when we got home, so today’s photo is an opportunity to talk about light pollution. This is the “security” light at the back of our garden. Lights like this make us *feel* safe, but they often actually *reduce* our safety.

(1/I think 5?)

#darksky
A light with an amber tone glares from the top of a wooden pole carrying wires that slice across the night sky in the photo. In the foreground is a garden in winter, with dry stems and leaves and small bare trees. A fence comes halfway across the picture from the left to where it meets the pole. Beyond the fence is a paved driveway that intersects a paved alley. Behind them are an assortment of houses, sheds, fences, and bare trees. A large mass of dead vines hangs from the wires near a pole on the far side of the alley.
January 8, 2026 at 11:49 PM
grayherndon.bsky.social
Sorry for posting another silhouette! It was starting to get dark by the time I got home. (Doing this on work days may prove challenging.)

Today’s photo is one of last year’s canes from the Allegheny blackberry (Rubus allegheniensis) that grows along the alley.

(1/3)

#2026photos #nativeplants
A dark reddish-purple blackberry cane with several sharp prickles and bits of other attached plant matter appears in silhouette, arching up from left to right with a blue sky behind.
January 7, 2026 at 11:31 PM
grayherndon.bsky.social
Today’s picture is the dried seedheads of the purple giant hyssop (Agastache scrophulariifolia - there’s a mouthful!) I planted last year, with some of our yard & our house & the mountains & a big beautiful sky behind it.

(1/2)

#2026photos #nativeplants #virginianativeplants
Tall, thin, rough-looking seedheads in varying shades of brown and with most of the seeds gone are arranged on their stems like a candelabra. Behind them, out of focus, are tall grasses and dried stems of plants, a red brick house with a wide white dormer, and part of a blue house to the left. Beyond the houses are a dark blue line of mountains and a sky shading from blue to soft yellow, with gray clouds touched with pink.
January 7, 2026 at 12:13 AM
grayherndon.bsky.social
Listen, the “Grow It Build It” guy *does* say to get the soil really sopping, ok??

#wintersowing
January 6, 2026 at 4:12 AM
grayherndon.bsky.social
Gloves? What are those?

(Fingernails? What are those?)

#wintersowing #nativeplants #virginianativeplants
A left hand with pinkish/yellowish/whitish skin and potting soil stuck to the stubby fingers & under extremely short fingernails is spread out over a set of black plastic seed starting trays filled with dark soil.
January 6, 2026 at 1:32 AM
grayherndon.bsky.social
The thing about the sycamore (Platanus occidentalis) whose branches curve up to the sky in today’s picture is I keep worrying it might actually be instead a London plane (Platanus x acerifolia, a sycamore hybrid).

(1/2)

#2026photos #nativeplants #virginianativeplants #backyardforest
The bare branches of a young tree curve upward silhouetted against a blue sky with wispy white and gray clouds. In the overall picture the branches appear dark, but on close inspection they are a soft brown-toned gray. A very few dried leaves cling to some of the branches. In the background, a church spire topped with a cross appears.
January 5, 2026 at 11:49 PM
grayherndon.bsky.social
Some library books from @waynesborolibrary.bsky.social to get me going for the year! Which one should I read first?

#publiclibraries
Four books are arranged in a sort of diamond shape on a ridged pink blanket, with the edge of a similar blanket in offwhite at left and a red and goldish woven chenille couch cushion behind. The books are hardback and covered in Mylar, and include (clockwise from left), Broken Harbor by Tana French, The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry, The Great When by Alan Moore, and Dark Fire by C.J. Sansom (noted as a signed copy).
January 5, 2026 at 10:19 PM
grayherndon.bsky.social
Today’s photo is the dried seedheads of some of our short-toothed (aka clustered) mountain mint (Pycnanthemum muticum). Not many seeds left! This plant is enormously popular with pollinators in the growing season, & with birds in winter.

(1/2)

#2026photos #nativeplants #virginianativeplants
Vaguely round grayish-brown seedheads, with edges that appear ruffled & displaying numerous empty holes where seeds once attached, top the ends of thin branching stems. Out of focus in the background are more stems, dried leaves on the ground, and a slope lit with dim winter sun.
January 4, 2026 at 11:08 PM
grayherndon.bsky.social
Do you see this? This is the dish I was sorting seeds into when planting the other night, & left out because it was a bit dirty with plant matter & potting soil & I was going to use it again.

Also, it’s the dish I put my popcorn in.

(2/2)

#nativeplants #wintersowing
A clear plastic rectangular food storage dish filled with buttery popcorn sits on a white enamel tabletop, with another clear plastic dish partially visible behind it to the left.
January 4, 2026 at 8:53 PM
grayherndon.bsky.social
Do you see this? This is the dish I got out to put my popcorn in.

(1/2)
A clear plastic rectangular food storage tray with “Ziploc” on the bottom sits on a white enamel tabletop.
January 4, 2026 at 8:51 PM
grayherndon.bsky.social
My intended photo was of a little eastern redcedar (Juniperus virginiana) that I need to transplant soon, & of its lovely purple winter coloring, but I found I couldn’t capture the color. & then I went to look at another redcedar we planted a few years ago, & saw this.

(1/3?)

#2026photos
A close-up of an eastern redcedar shows many tiny brown cones among the green scaly foliage, and twigs in shades of brown and purple-brown.
January 3, 2026 at 9:57 PM
grayherndon.bsky.social
Marcescence. That’s the word for when deciduous trees hold onto their dry leaves through the winter. This might protect the buds, or provide more nutrients - we don’t really know. Today’s photo from our garden is the dried leaves of a shingle oak (Quercus imbricaria), hanging on.

(1/2)

#2026photos
Dried, twisted brown leaves, shaped like thin ovals and perhaps five inches long, cling to the end of a branch. Just visible among them are the buds of next year’s leaves. In the background are large boxwoods surrounded by liriope and dry winter grass, with a small light green garden shed and several neighborhood houses of various types in the distance.
January 3, 2026 at 4:11 AM