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. 

Settling Down for the Rest of the Winter

With the holidays past, now its just winter. We moved the front porch holiday tree back to its spot near the creek again. Something will likely find it to be a nice place to live.


It's snowing again, this has got to be the snowiest winter we've had in a LONG time. Yesterday was a beautiful day, and in the late afternoon, while watching the Packers play in what may well come to be known as the snow bowl, I wanted to see if I could capture the atrium with the snow falling outside and the TV screen reflected in the window. Not too bad a result, certainly gives a sense of what it feels like to be in our kitchen in the winter.


The creek is running high and fast, since we have had lots of precipitation and the temps have stayed near freezing. Some winters it freezes up and dries up completely, but not this one yet. I scared up a couple of ducks while taking these pictures. Life goes on.

Spring will Come Soon

This is a photo of the small pond that we built a number of years ago. This spring we hope to add on to it, but we've been having some difficulty deciding exactly how/where to dig. Part of the problem is that there are perennial plants all around , especially on the south side where expansion is most likely. But we'd really like to have more space for marginal and bog plants. So, to help us think without distractions, here is what it originally looked like.

The gargoyle is one of my favorite garden decorations. He watches over the pond, and I think he may make the fish a little bit nervous. Some of the neighbors have garden statues of little bunnies and squirrels, and I suspect that the gargoyle may strike them as strange. Different strokes....

Getting Ready for the Holidays

Some time on the weekend after Thanksgiving, I suspect most of us start thinking about decorating and changing over the house for the winter holidays. We're not big here on decoration, but we do find ourselves sprucing up for the darker days to come.


Out in the yard, along the creek, our winter tree has been sitting all summer, covered at one point with vines and tall weeds. But now it is visible again, and its time to take it out and make it pretty.

We haul it to the front porch and adorn it with lights and cuttings from the persistent fall blooming plants. Over the season, it will pick up additional decorations most likely.


This year we are lucky. Although its windy today it is warm for November. High of 37 degrees, sunny and lovely outside. We did lights on the two shrubs along side of the deck instead of on "Charlie Brown" - the small scraggly but healthy blue spruce (Picea pungens 'Iseli Foxtail') that we bought in a pot 6 or 7 years ago at this time and used for a Christmas tree. We had to heel it in for the rest of that winter, and hoped that it would survive to be planted. Well, survive it did, and now I wonder if we will really want a large spruce just south of the house in another 10 years. Would be very hard to cut it down... More on Charlie Brown later.