Change is a Comin'

It is 42 degrees out right now, and rain is falling.  The snow, which had covered everything and was weighing down the evergreens already, has receded significantly.  I did go out today to get it off of things that were being badly bent by the weight.  Just wanted to make sure that it was gone before the massive drop in temperatures that is predicted for tonight.  The prediction is for a low of single digits tonight, and a high of single digits tomorrow.  That will surely freeze in place everything the way it is tonight, and many things will be stuck to the ground or whatever surface they are touching.  I've been trying to make sure that nothing is caught in a bad position, which could well last for the rest of the winter.  Or we could hope for a January thaw.

Photo at left is  one Bill took with his faster speed camera the on Friday evening before the warm front came in.  The snow was blanketing everything, and it was COLD.  On Saturday, later in the day, it warmed up, and things started melting.  Tonight it is wet, and raining. 

The snow has probably been reduced by half, and what is left will turn into a hard, dense layer at the bottom of the pile that will last for the rest of the winter.  I spent a bit of the afternoon today walking the path to the compost pile so that it would be level and not a bunch of holes that would be tripping us up for the rest of the winter.  We have had so much light, fluffy snow so far, and the temps had been so cold.  Now everything is compacted, and plants are exposed a bit more, and I hope I've been able to get the heavy weight off of the plants that could be damaged by it.  Time will tell. 

Late Fall Cleaning

This was the weekend to finally finish all of the winter preparations. Now, we are ready!

Cut the grass one last time to grind up the last of the leaves before snow covers the lawn. Moved the patio furniture up to the garage and brought the winter birdbath down. Put the plastic liner pots from the deck down on the garden below so the deck will be easy to shovel. Seems twice as big this time of year with nothing on it.

I gathered all of the screens to store in the garage so that the light can shine in without obstruction. We finally got the storms on the front and back doors - I guess that is the final concession to winter - no screens providing even the slightest hope of a balmy day.

This year I cut back the heuchera along the front walkway to the edge of the walk. It will be easier to sweep or shovel this winter. also cut back the plants around the mailbox and the peony that I had somehow forgotten. Bill walked the roof to check the gutters and look for any problems. We blew the leaves out of the garage one more time.

After the cleanup work we had a little time to get ready for the holiday season. Some lights on a few of the evergreens will make the back yard nice to look at in the dark evenings. We put up the wreaths in front, and got the wiring ready for the porch tree lights.

Lights at Christmas

This year we didn't think we could get lights up on Charlie Brown, so we chose to do the bushes at the corner of the deck instead. They are nice -- we can see them better from the living room windows.

But I feel that we have let Charlie down. He has been the Christmas tree since we bought him five or six years ago. That year my sisters and I and our husbands had Christmas together without Mom and Dad.
We didn't name the tree Charlie Brown. In fact it was several years later, after we had planted it out in the yard in a place visible to the neighbors, that we heard them refer to it that way. I think they called it that because this is not a standard blue spruce, and it grows a bit asymetrically and is smaller and less full - you could probably call it awkward.
But those qualities are exactly why I love it - I would never plant a blue spruce 30 feet away from the house on the south side unless is was a type that would never get to be huge and full. In our climate spruce is a great tree for the northwest side of the house, to block the winter winds.