Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Survivors

A wicked snow and cold snuck in during the middle of the night. It was not precipitous. The gray days and rain had cooled things considerably the two days before. I was caught unprepared. For others, after millenia of adjustments, it was just another day on the mountain, with a cool drink.

The Stonecrop, Sedum ternatum looks best in more sun and spare conditions, forming a more compact and denser plant. The bloom is quite large for such a small plant.














Now what is this? It has four petals like the Dames Rocket, Hesperis matronalis, the flowers are more purple, the leaves are more linear, without the serrated edges and more pubescent than glossy. It was bowed under the coat of snow and ice this morning. By late this afternoon it had perked up as if nothing unusual had happened.
















My first ever Japanese Maple seems unscathed. The resident gardeners JM still recovering from last years Great Easter Freeze had put out a vigorous flush of new growth. It is not looking so well. The next couple of days will tell more.















After the snow melted and the sun came out, we managed to finish the front windows on the last section of wall framing and redo one window frame that wasn't quite right. Other details were attended to and some figuring for the next steps of construction were discussed.













Through downpours and ice laden arctic blasts the cozy little cabin and stone walls are still there, inching ever closer to becoming a home.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Christopher,

Maybe the 4-petaled purple flower is Lunaria, also known as money plant?

Annie
[browsing for a few anonymous minutes on a borrowed computer]

Christopher C. NC said...

You are on to something Annie with the Lunaria. What I find on the web is a bit confusing because Lunaria is easily mistaken for Dames Rocket, the Hesperis. Sometimes user generated plant info on the web is wrong.

What I thought was the Dames Rocket might be the Lunaria and vice versa. The seed pods will tell the truth.