First Snow . . . Day

Just as expected, the morning brought beautiful whiteness to Our Little Acre. Chilliness, too, as it was somewhere around 20° F with a brisk wind. Light flurries were still falling and I went out and snapped photos until I could barely feel my fingers anymore. It's to be even colder tonight (single digits!), so I'm glad for the snow cover that will insulate the plants.






From the looks of the snow piled on the top of the stone benches on the patio, we got about three inches overnight.



One look at Max's Garden at the back of Our Little Acre tells me we aren't going to see much plant life going on there, if any, until spring. This is its second winter and it's still very much in a state of evolution. It may always be, but never more than in its youth.

The tiny Japanese Maple (Acer palmatum 'Mikawa yatsubusa') gets
a new winter coat to help it through its first season in our garden.

The white pine is a natural beauty in winter.


Gaillardia 'Golden Goblin' hangs its head,
its bloom literally frozen in time.

Stonecrop sedum (Sedum sp.), a pass-along from my mom, who has always called it "Live-Forever," in previous years has grown so tall that it got floppy. This year, I cut it by half about mid-summer and it made all the difference between being gangly and unattractive and staying strong and pretty.

For all the brown and drab that occupies space in the garden now, the honeysuckle (Lonicera x brownii 'Dropmore Scarlet') is hanging on to the frozen unfulfilled promise of the blooms that the hummingbirds loved so much during the summer.

The Fountain Grass (Pennisetum alopecuroides 'Hameln') presents
an artistic puff in the middle of the garden.

The Gnome™ Pyracantha (Pyracantha angustifolia 'Gnozam') that we started espaliering a year ago looks as pretty with snow on it as it did last winter.

The Asparagus Fern (Asparagus densiflorus 'Sprengeri')

held its color well, up until the last week or so.

Today, the helleborus hangs heavy with snow, when just yesterday it was vibrant and green, with new shoots emerging from the ground. It's a tough plant though, and survives and thrives in spite of the cold and snow. If winter plays it straight, we'll see blooms in February or March.



Wednesday afternoons require me to make a trip west to my place of employment. I always take my camera with me and today I didn't get half a mile down the road before I had to stop. I put the window down and snapped this image of the south side of the woods that we know is home to deer and wild turkeys. The evidence of the wind's direction shows on the trees. Ironically, it indicates it was from the south.


Back home again, the day's end brings yet more wintery beauty as the sun sets with a pinky glow . . .