Some People Like Snow

I've got plenty to show. I got way more snow than suggested yesterday. There may be another dusting tonight.

It's winter.

There has been some major progress happening in the Turnip Fields.

And there is a loose starving hound about. In the snow. In the cold. In the winter. It ran off when I got close. I have to catch me a dog. With food of course.

The variegated Yucca filamentosa have been making green babies. There looks to be some genetic variability in them. You never know what may come up.

It's winter.

With snow.

Snowpack Bloom Day

The snow from last Friday is still here. It has been a few years since snow has stayed on the ground this long. 

There was more snow last Monday, a spit of snow this morning and a fresh layer of it is planned for tomorrow.

It is a for real winter. It is Bloom Day under a snowpack. You won't get much from me. Best go visit Bloom Day headquarters if you need lots of flowers.

It has been cold enough for the ground to freeze. That slows the melt even with a number of sunny days in the mid-forties. The ground is hard to thaw. The new warm is currently 45.

There is hope. Snowdrops are popping out of the ground all over the place.

Just not for next week. Next week is starting off real cold. Too cold for the ground to thaw. Forty degrees could be the new warm.

There is hope. 'Jelena' the witch hazel is showing some petal. Once this snowpack part of winter has passed there will be flowers for Bloom Day.

Until then; the tax forms got printed today. Some cipherin could happen.

While It Was Fresh

It started Thursday evening. The sun reappeared Sunday morning. I was expecting more snow. I was not expecting snowboarders and a whole lot of snow peepers. Traffic was stopping in front of my house. I do live in a very scenic spot in the snow with a groomed slope right across the street.

Wanna go for a walk in the snow? Snow and cold without wind is quite doable, rather refreshing in fact. I wasn't even super winterized for the walk. To help keep you warm.

The interior loft window trim boards are drying. I had to open some windows in the cold to vent the fumes.

Sunday morning at 10am the frozen fog lifted and the sun came out. It all began to melt.

Will The Turnip Fields Be Ready

It has been an interesting week. A weary paralysis took hold along with winter. This is last Tuesday's snow. The gardens I tend are all closed and the weather has been largely below my minimum operating temperature with intermittent snows. I mostly stopped moving in a dazed and confused world.

Snow is the only thing that slows the traffic, but the road to nowhere has been far to busy of late as the world goes into hiding. Can you even find refuge in a wholly broken world?

And will the Turnips Fields be ready in time? My wood burning deer hunter has been chopping and gathering large loads of wood post hunting season. I watch in a body pained by the view of the physical exertion involved. I dread the very idea of having to burn wood to stay warm.

A sunny, cleaned up opening in the forest continues to expand. I look forward to growing more fine produce in soft fertile ground. That, this old body can do.

The plan is to have more good healthy food to supplement meager incomes closer to the Sister's house when they retire and spend more time here. There will be more mouths to feed and one hopes more of a willingness to cook it. I will be inviting myself to dinner.

I need full sunshine for that, so the forest has to go. It is good that it can be used to keep a man's family warm. Even better, I don't have to pay to have it done or do it myself.

This land has nurtured humans since before recorded time. Previous inhabitants move on. The land retains its powers of sustenance.

I wander slowly, half paralyzed in cold before the next snow arrives to cover the land, lucky to have the time and a place to hide in a deadly and infectious world.

I was ready for the snow. The interior trim boards for the reset fixed loft windows were cut and are ready for staining.

The books are done. The receipts are organized. When I put in a new ink cartridge the tax forms can be printed.

Slowly, with weary heart and bones, I look to a future with bountiful Turnip Fields, that they may bring sustenance to my people well after I am gone.

Afternoon Walkabout

Yesterday when it was sunny and warm

I went to the ridgetop garden next door and sprayed roundup on a whole lot of Lamium galeobdolon.

I was surprised by the faint green blush and diversity of the winter adapted wild things awake and growing on the forest floor among all the lamium.

It made my Lamium killing more difficult and painful. It had to be done and there would be some collateral damage.

And a Lot of Sticks. Good Lord! There wasn't that much wind. I picked up some but wasn't really in the mood after spaying and went back home.

Thinking about gardens and how to maintain them.

That faint green blush and diversity of the winter adapted wild things was only there because I have been killing off the lamium that had been smothering the forest floor. The wild is coming home. 

And I saw snowdrops. May have sprayed a few too. 

I'm having a craving for a few dabs of a new conifer. The plotting is underway. Whether you like it or not, it's one of a kind.

On A Warm New Year's Eve

The snow finished melting.

I did contemplate beginning the process of the new interior loft window trim. I bought the boards more than a week ago. Power lounging seemed more doable. So I did that.

There was a short bout of some chop and drop. No need to go crazy though. There is a full winter of meadow remnant squashing ahead.

The black Liriope sprigs I planted a few seasons ago seems to be doing well enough. I detect some spreading.

After a nap I went for a stroll.

It was 60 degrees out there. Last week it was 6.

Tomorrow for New Year's Day there will be wave of tropical waters. I may have to power lounge some more.

I love my garden. It has reached a point where the maintenance input is minimal and the Under Garden is a place of substance in the Barren Time.

It was warm enough for a cat to go out.

On the mountain top where the yucca grows.

Happy New Year.