Sideways Snow Changes Things


By and large, I look forward to winter. The cold and the snow are a welcome change from sweating continually in July and August. A week ago the thermometer struggled to climb into the single digits after nights below zero. Earlier this week felt downright balmy. The thermometer had climbed to nearly 30°F which meant we could walk outside in just a fleece and feel the sun's warmth. 

Woke up yesterday morning to the wind howling. Bits of ice pelted the windows and bounced off the metal roof. Every now and then, a gust would push the house enough to feel it flex and bow. With the heat being drawn from the house with every blast of wind, I figured it was a perfect morning to pull the covers tighter and catch just a tiny bit more sleep. 

After the winds relented and the snow settled, I took a quick walk outside. In some areas, there was snow only on one vertical face. The other side of trees and shrubs were completed blasted clean.

 

Iris bed, tucked in for the winter

This afternoon when I went out, things had settled. The sun came out briefly... well, that's what my app for the solar panels said. Apparently at noon there was enough of a break in the grey sky that the panels made some power. Yay!

 


 Looking at my potted trees and irises in this bed, it is hard to believe that in just a few more months there will be bits of green poking out of the mulch. For now, I content myself tracking field mice across the top of the windblown snow. I chase vole trails as they tunnel between beds. And every now and then, I find the wing prints of a hawk or owl, having made a meal of one of these little varmints. 

For now though, it is enough to climb into a warm bed with a book filled with photos of irises and other plants to keep my spirits high.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Saying Goodbye to Frank

Image
  I lost a family friend last night. Frank Camps was a part of my life since I was a very young child. He was something between a godparent and an uncle. He came to nearly every birthday party I had in Miami. He and his son Frankie, and his wife Carmen came to every Thanksgiving and Christmas of my childhood. Frank was a chef. He cooked in more places than I could count. One of the places he cooked was a cafeteria for a pantyhose factory in Little Havana. He was a traditional Cuban cook, with a repertoire that ranged from plantains to Eye Round roast pork stuffed with carrots and ham. His black beans and rice changed my life. He taught me to love bread pudding and rice pudding. And without arroz con pollo, I probably would never have made it through college.  When I was probably five or six, he invited us over for Nocha Buena (a Christmas eve holiday, celebrated by Cubans with family and lots of food). Frank's feast involved a huge pig, roasted in the ground, lots of people...
Read more

Cold. January.

Image
  We're heading into the deep freeze next week. Life near zero is weird. I don't want to know the inside of my house this well. I can't really blame the cold though. I always get stir crazy after surgery. Something about surviving the surgical event makes me want to run off into the distance and just keep running. It might be escaping the hospital or being able to get up from the surgical table... I don't know. But once I am up and under my own power, I want OUT! This week I had a piece of skin cancer removed from below my eyelid. My face looks like I tried to hail a bus with my cheek. Not pretty. I thought going to a plastic surgeon would make me look cute. It said that in the brochure. And now it is wicked cold.  Years ago, we would relish time like this. Snow on the ground. No snowmobiles on the trail. Nights cold and black like ice. You can hear the trees creak. The snow is still fluffy, but after the weekend chill drops, I expect the snow to squeak. Warm sun over t...
Read more

Waking the Garden

Image
  hydrangea paniculata (not sure which variety) Walking through the garden this year, there are no bulbs up. Everything is still asleep. Last year was a very early spring after a very warm winter. We had iris reticulata blooming around this week. Not this year.  This year, all the plants have been asleep under thick blankets of snow. But there have also been plants that want to be awake early, like children on Christmas morning who refuse to sleep in. There have been plants who pulled the covers over their heads, refusing to admit that the sun has risen for the first time in four months.   comfrey leaves, melted into a thick mulch over the winter There are some plants that have chronic bed-head... like this gaillardia. It was stunning in the summertime, and all through the autumn it kept blooming until snow put an end to the show. Now its long stems are tangled up like tumbleweed. At this rate it's hard to imagine it will ever wake up.   gaillardia stems from last su...
Read more