Growing...Icicles

I am seeing the first daffodils and leucojum, or spring snowflakes as they are commonly called, on blogs from other parts of the country. My friend, Leslie from Growing a Garden in Davis, has her first along with hellebore flowers, camellias and ladybugs. You can see those by clicking on the highlighted text above. Here the only things growing are the icicles hanging from the roof. They seem to get longer and thicker every day even on these days when the temperatures stay well below freezing. The trellis supports a few while casting an interesting shadow. The west side of the house has the biggest spears. It gets the afternoon sun here and the icicles are almost touching the ground. They really are pretty although I would rather see crocus or snowdrops. Thank goodness for the blog world. The long border currently has only the orange globe for major winter interest. February always seems to drag by for me but there are things to do. Today I ordered raspberry plants for spring delivery along with tomato seeds for starting in late March. Someone here was bored enough to shovel a long path to the barn. I, on the other hand, strapped on the cross country skiis and headed out for some fresh air. I do hope you are surviving this long winter. It won't be long now. In a month the calendar says it will be spring and I sure hope Mother Nature is paying attention.

Happy Valentine's Day - 2014

 

If Ever I Would Leave You - Winter

 

January 16, 2014

Leaving one's New England garden in the winter is very different from leaving it for a few days, a week or more during the other seasons. I am reminded of this Robert Goulet song which, I know, dates me but Camelot is still one of my favorite plays. Listen here if you wish. Ten days is an eternity in spring, summer or fall but in winter the frozen mass of a garden resists change. There might be more snow or less in the winter when one leaves and then returns but the garden is either covered with snow or uncovered and dormant. I visited Titusville, Florida recently. They were having a cold spell. Frost even appeared one morning in Florida but cold spells are relative and the 57F high one day seemed fine to me. It was 10F here at home. There were exciting adventures. I did play golf with my Mom. She is 90. She trounced me. Short and straight. That is how she hits them and while a long drive is showy, one always putts for the dough. There are obstacles on the golf course which one never sees here in RI. It was warm on this golf day, in the 70's. While I was visiting,  NASA launched a communications rocket which was a thrill. Titusville is a shadow of its former self since the elimination of the shuttle program. The cost to this part of the country was high. Jobs were lost and many tourist related businesses are closed. You can read about the losses here. There still are launches and they are very exciting.   I just had my small hand held camera and little time for careful composition but I did step out the front door of the house to see the rocket light the night sky. If you have never seen this sight, it is impressive. Mom and I also went to see the manatees but the manatees had left for warmer waters. The birds were still around though. I have left Florida and I have returned to the garden. I can never really leave it for long - even in winter. When I left, there was little snow on the ground. I returned to bits and pieces of snow which has now been replaced by a full layer with more due today. But in my absence it seems there has been a change. The snowdrops are showing a little bit of promise.  I also noticed that the sun was quite warm on my face yesterday. Today we are back to winter. It is, once again, snowing here. This seems to be the never ending white winter. I will just have to remember the sight of the green shoots of snowdrops. They are covered once again.