Permanent Frost

There have three mornings of frost inducing, much needed, upper twenty degree freezes following the last round of rain. It has been warm enough until now that I have seen daffodils poking up in a few of the gardens I tend. There has been a definite need for a signal that winter has yet to arrive. A lot of plants were getting confused.

The highs have been reaching fifty, which isn't really a good thing, but in the day long shadow of the mountain, the frost and frozen across the byway remains all day. The Posh Estate lives in a cold shadow like this. It makes working there rather chilly at this time of year.

I have been in that chilled to the bone transition phase. My body needs time to adapt as well. It might be fifty degrees, but a penetrating cold hovers, adrift, released from the ground like an invisible fog.

I am lucky that the cold mountain shadow doesn't quite reach the cozy cabin. I still get a solar heating assist for half of the day. Half the garden enjoys a melting sun. The other half chills in the shadow.

My cold bones need to adjust. I have a list of chores that need doing here and at least two more weeks of steady work to get the client's gardens cleaned up for winter and ready for spring. My chilled bones keep finding reasons for abbreviated work days.

I look at my garden from above, enjoying the baby low mounding tapestry of evergreen texture and color of the winter under garden, more than I have wandered through for a closer inspection.

I have been adding grasses to the mix for their winter texture. They are still small, but I am thinking they need the dried carcasses of other herbaceous perennials for the best effect. I will try to remember that next year when the chop and drop begins.