In addition to our outdoor decorations of wreaths, greens and berries, our house seems to be covered with winter moths. They are especially visible in the evenings around the front-door light.

According to a recent UMass Extension Landscape message, the invasive species is distributed across Massachusetts. One of their research labs is working on a biological control to attack the moths. We look forward to sharing their findings with our readers.

Other recent visitors include wild turkeys, hawks, and deer. In fact, several deer have been struck by cars on nearby streets. We’re trying to keep the deer away from our shrubs by using Irish Spring soap, something we saw at Tower Hill Botanic Garden several years ago.

The red stems of our shrub dogwood look pretty now that it has dropped all its leaves and the Winterberry holly (Ilex verticillata) is full of berries – a treat for the birds. The hellebores are sporting several white blossoms. In the vegetable garden, we’re still harvesting parsley.

We’ve had record rainfall recently and at this writing it looks like more is headed our way.

Now that we have officially celebrated the Winter Solstice, the days will start to get longer. We like that!