An Unfit Bloom Day

For man or beast.

It started out somewhat tolerable and rapidly deteriorated. The Hamamelis virginiana is still blooming and will have to put up with the oncoming onslaught. What could possibly be out to pollinate the Witch Hazel right now?



The chill winds kept picking up through the course of the day, bringing in spits of rain. As they approached gale force, the rain no longer splashes, it goes splat against the window and slowly oozes down. Not rain, not snow, not sleet, it's slush falling from the sky. A new kind precipitation for me. Oh joy.

Good luck Witch Hazel.



A few Ox-Eye Daisies, Leucanthemum vulgare, in the sunny front bed out by the road escaped the previous killing frosts. The next couple of days will rub them out. This is just the beginning of the cold punch packed in this front.



Random Symphyotrichum cordifolium, the Blue Wood Aster, linger in fewer and fewer spots. They are soon to be history.



Speaking of spots and beasts, the kitties are doing well. Their gaining, combined weight with a dash of moisture from the last rain was collapsing their cardboard cat house. I replaced it with an animal carrier as a way for them to get used to it for their eventual trip to see the anti-reproductive specialist.

The black and white female spotlet has a new name, Collar. She has a collar of white fur running completely around the back of her neck. I like Collar better than Spook. So now we have Spot, Crawford and Collar.



Yesterday while it was still warm and didn't really rain, I planned ahead for Bloom Days to come. Drawing lines in the leaves to begin laying out the shape of garden beds to come and then planting about eight big sacks of Daffodil bulbs.

A gardening service road that will only be used lightly turns right where the leaves begin to cover the bare earth. You can see the parallel lines in the leaves to the right that the road will follow. Mostly this road will be an ample garden path.

Towards the center of the picture on the uphill side of the line in the leaves for the road, you can see two lines marking a path that will connect to another path above that will run parallel to and at the bottom of the slope down from the highway. I planted at least a hundred Daffodil bulbs on the right of this connecting path in the curve formed by the edge of a future bed.



Looking further to the right, the service road will drop down between those trees to a turn around in the bottom of the sunny utility valley. The turn around will be the area on the right hand side of the big brown spot of frozen meadow between the front porch and the trees on the opposite side. Everything between the cozy cabin and the service road will be garden.



The vegetable garden got cleaned up on the last day of warm too. Just in the nick of time. There are actually lettuce, spinich, asian greens and turnips still in there. Maybe they will continue to survive and be harvestable after the onslaught. They haven't minded the snow and cold we've had so far. Maybe I can grow vegetables year round? Ha.



I did harvest the last of the potatoes and some turnips and have been enjoying a nice big vat of warm mashed turnips and taters while writing this post. It was yummy with garlic, plenty butter, pepper and cinnimon.