Snow Day

There was no chop and drop to expose the Under Garden today. The NW flow was to strong. The wind was brisk. The temperature hovered just below freezing all day. The snow didn't melt.

Instead there was work on a low maintenance planting design to be installed next week and a nap.

When it snows ..... Creation has become more of a seasonal interactive installation. The stones aren't rolling. They have been gathering moss and blend into the greenery more these days. Warm rocks and cold snow make it pop.

I'm not sure a snow day on my only day off is the most suitable state of affairs, but then I don't have a choice in such matters.

I have enough work to take me through the winter. One new client's garden is being readied for next year's garden tour. At some point I will feel caught up. Soon I hope. And there will be more snow days with naps.

Cat Fight

Living on the top of a mountain in the middle of no where is no escape. I blame it on the scenic byway. My driveway needs to be ten miles long.

Every where I turn there is all manner of decay demanding my attention, much of it not my own. My attention wearies.

Almost a month ago a wild kitty showed up. Again, and always before the start of winter. I was alerted to the situation by the howling. Two cats were in a pissing match on the back service entrance stairs. Oh dear Lord! Which one of them is mine? They were duplicates.

Button has been defending his mountain. The howling continues. multiple times in the last twenty four hours.

One wild kitty is bad enough. They are a lot harder to catch than dumped dogs. This week I discovered there are two. Two perfectly healthy looking cats have appeared on the top of a mountain in the middle of no where.

I blame it on the scenic byway and assholes.

I decided I needed a bench in the shade with a nice view for the next open garden day whenever that might be. The doctor decided I needed pills for my slightly elevated blood pressure, another form of decay.

There was a lull in the howling. Miss Dinah and I went for a stroll to look at decay. She won't go alone.

This is not your average drive by garden scene in these parts or any other. I wonder if it attracts pet dumpers. Why, why, why must they make their problems mine?

One small scratch on his nose is all Button has suffered so far. I hope they can confine it to moaning and howling.

It is supposed to be cold on Sunday. I won't be surprised to wake up to snow even though I am not seeing it in the diagnosis. If the sun is out and the wind is calm, I'll be doing some chop and drop to uncover more of the Under Garden. I'm ready.

The Beauty Berries hang on to a frozen shrub.

How does stuff accumulate? Ten years ago I arrived here with one four by four box. Now the stuff is piling up. I promised myself there will be a purge at some point this winter when I am done dealing with all this decay. I better put it on my winter list.

Twisted metal spikes, bleached bones and a caltrop, just things I pick up as I go about my days. Decay is a constant.

Bloon Day Rush

I'm still working six days a week in the middle of November which just seems wrong. Seven if you count puttering in my own garden on Sunday as work. I have only managed to declare one garden done, see you next spring, so far. Then I have a new garden install for after Thanksgiving. It will get the bone structure of trees and shrubs before winter sets in.

By the time I get home these days it is near dark. That isn't right either. I had to rush out this evening to get Bloom Day recorded before it was too late.

Looking out at frozen shades of brown and barren trees, one might wonder what could possibly be blooming out there. Not much that is for sure. I have plenty Objets de junk to help entertain me through the winter.

But there are indeed fresh flowers in November.

The native Witch Hazel, Hamamelis virginiana, is the last flower of the season in the forest. There is a nice grouping of this small tree, large open shrub on the forest edge. I have found more deeper in the forest.

I have been editing around them to give them more light and elbow room. I like to think they have responded by giving me more flowers in November. This Witch Hazel is my reliable contribution to Bloom Day in November.

Head over to Bloom Day Headquarters if that isn't enough to satisfy you. Bloom Day is an international event. There is an entire planet packed full of flowers in bloom.

I have Witch Hazel.

I have an old chimney too. I bet it is the only one you will see barring a google search.

It is about time for a good winter storm with wicked winds and crushing snow. I could use a little help knocking this meadow down. That isn't how things work in the gardens I tend. I have to cut everything down and pick it all up. I'm still working on it.

Gardey don't do that in these parts. Round about February I will chop and drop whatever is left standing.

I have variegated evergreen foliage for Bloom Day. How about that? Comes with dried bloom stalks.

Then I saw a rose, a slightly frozen rose, but a blooming rose none the less.

The rose hips from the real bloom are more awesome though.

I hope you enjoyed my Bloom Day. I got home just in time.

Exposing The Under Garden

It started because I was not in the mood to do what needed doing or anything else on my winter list of chores. I'll just go chop down the Lush of the garden's backdrop and check on the red and yellow twig dogwoods.

I may be finally achieving success after numerous failed attempts. The dogwoods were alive and still there. I have come to think that even as small transplants they will need to get cut to the ground come spring. That seems to stimulate the vigorous growth I have been waiting ever so patiently for and never seeing.

Then I kept chopping. I'll just do this little piece along the Great Lawn as a warm up for exposing the Under Garden. Then I kept chopping. I'll just do this one section of the Under Garden.

Exposing the Under Garden was exciting. I have not seen it since June. I was tempted to keep going. I really do need to empty the refrigerator next door and turn it off. So I stopped chopping. A small taste will have to suffice for now.

Everything was looking good.

There is a lot more slope to chop. It isn't that big a deal since I do chop and drop. No cleanup, only decomposition.

The Under Garden is ready to come out of hiding, a low mounding tapestry of evergreen texture and color, the garden of winter interest.

The longer I live here the more impressive and dramatic the changing seasons have become. My long time reference points of Florida and Maui were exercises in seasonal subtlety.

Initially I was afraid of the barren time. How do you have a garden in winter? By planting one of course.

A decade later it has come to the point where I get most of my garden chores done over the winter. While it is green and growing is when I let things be.

Enter The Barren Time

My painting has turned to grey and brown with bits of green scattered about.

The forest is so very near naked. The meadow is thoroughly frozen brown. The green belly of the Great Lawn and green tentacles of pathways remain.

There is a suggestion of frozen rain in the night. The Tall Flower Meadow will continue to decompose.

The 'aina is in full view.

Soon enough the Under Garden on the slope below the cabin will be set free.

I will need something else to ponder when the barren time reaches its peak.

Travelers on the scenic byway can now look in and ponder what was hidden during the time of vegetation. What has he done now?

It is officially over when the oaks have dropped their heavy load. The barren time is here.

Living Inside A Painting

The phone has been dead for a week.

It rained hard in the night and through the morning and a miracle happened. The phone came back to a life of static.

But there was no electric power when I woke up and I stayed home in the thunder and rain.

The view from the front porch would have to do.

And it did.

I am living inside a painting.

That shifted character with the passing storm and changing light.

My attachment is frayed on numerous levels. AT+T has decided it is my house phone wires, not theirs, an out of the blue sudden collapse of my wires that coincided with my FCC complaint.

I checked days ago. They were fine. I did nothing. Then it rained hard and a miracle happened. The phone came back to sputtering life.

I sat inside a painting with no power.

Untethered, entering the Twilight Zone.

Until the sun came out and the phone went dead again.