Snow and Berries

It snowed some yesterday. 

Those are fake red berries that I put in my summer pots after I yanked out the dead annuals. Well, actually I had to cut the dead annuals down because the dirt was too frozen to pull them out. I waited a little too long to take care of some of the fall chores. I put some evergreen clippings in there too, which I cut from trees and bushes in my yard. Does that count as a fall chore? 

Oh, and I had to use my dandelion digger to punch holes in the frozen soil so I could insert said berries and branches. I'm thinking it looks very Christmas-y. 

On the front porch the snow pretty much buried a red wagon filled with more branches. 

The old washtub fared a bit better. I can at least see that 

big pinecone but others are buried in the wagonful of snow. 

Back on the terrace a snack awaits the arrival of the flock of magpies that will arrive soon. About a dozen of them. They will make short work of this with the help of a few bluejays and the nemesis squirrels. I like how the birds pick up each peanut judging its weight so they get the biggest one. Sort of pointless since they'll eat them all anyway, but the best first, apparently! 

A row of Skyrocket Junipers in their blue pots lined up on the back porch for the winter. It's the only way I'll remember to water them. They're usually in the bottom garden until my grandchildren haul them up here in the fall. Otherwise, out of sight, out of mind! I normally tie them up with twine so snow doesn't ruin their pencil shape, but these are getting a little ragtag anyway so I won't bother this year. 

It's hard to tell this is a reindeer with a metal branch sculpture behind. Looks more like a sheep now. A snow sheep. 

Signs of snow and Christmas

I like to read decorating blogs to see how out of touch I am. Right now they're all showing their winter mantels. Here's mine.

What's different about my mantel is that I don't change it. It's my winter, spring, summer, and fall mantel. It's suitable for all Colorado seasons except summer and then I'm out in the garden anyway. If I should happen to notice it in the summer heat the sight of the snow-tipped branches makes me feel slightly cooler. Once in awhile I dust it, too.

The very summery chaise with its big pink and rose floral design gets a furry shrug for winter. Nice and cozy for TV watching and book reading. Easy to whip off when the warm breezes blow again.

If you've been reading my blog for awhile now you know I have a humongous Christmas village that lives in the basement. One of my Adorable Grandchildren has been helping me put it all away so some work can be done down there. But I couldn't celebrate the season without at least a part of a village so I grabbed a few houses and made them the centerpiece of my dining room table.

Behind that is the hutch with all my seashell stuff. It's year-round too. So I stuck some juniper and spruce branches from my trees into the mix to make it blend in. It will be very ouchy to remove.

Back in the living room, here's a tree. Undecorated by choice. I don't want to have to put all those ornaments away in January. Easy-peasy.

And another snow-tipped tree mirrored by the snowfall outdoors.

I am attracted to shiny. Shiny pillow, shiny pointy tree.

And more shiny next to a minimally decorated tree. With a little leopard thrown in for good measure.

Outside, the Bushtits heard there was snow coming and mobbed the suet feeder. They must have seen the snowbirds arriving (Juncos) as they've been here all week. A sure sign of snow.

 

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The merry, merry, month of May(uary)

This is just wrong. It's May, not January. We're supposed to "bring flowers of the fairest and flowers of the rarest" not whack snow off our fully leafed-out trees.

I left nothing to chance when it came to the alliums that are in their prime. I almost had enough garbage cans but a quick trip to Lowe's netted these blue ones. Colorful, right?

So glad I did.

Happy May! It's supposed to be 80 next weekend in Mary's Garden.

 

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Things in the snow...

...a blue glass tulip light

One of a pair of rufous-sided towhees - I think they're called northern towhees now. They love to scratch around under the suet feeder.

Christmas lights - wonder when I'll take those down?

A white covered sea of honey locust pods

Hello January...

 

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Amur may be "no more"

Remember how disappointed I was the last few years because my Amur Maple wouldn't turn red in the fall? Well, it did this year. Glorious, huh? I was certainly pleased over my late bloomer. And it only took four years.
Even the fallen leaves in the birdbath below the tree were beautiful.

We had 16 inches of snow fall over a couple of days in late October but the tree held up.

But last week we had another snowstorm, only 10 inches this time. But it was a much wetter snow and most of it came in the night while I was asleep and not out there knocking snow off the maple's branches.

Uh-oh. This can't be good. Not sure it will survive this but at least it finally turned red before it ends up dead.

Blue and white

Perhaps the Harmony Blue anemone looks a little more luminous with some frosting on it. The bright yellow daisy behind it is known as a "Crazy Daisy". It's on a stake which you plunk in the ground and attach a hose to. The daisy waves and dips and water flies everywhere. I didn't need the Crazy Daisy to get enough water today. It rained all last night and turned to snow today.

The new tulip bed with the little amur maple just before I knocked the snow off the branches this evening.

Meanwhile, inside, the normal accoutrements on my kitchen floor anytime it rains.
I really need to see about fixing that leaky skylight. Maybe after I get the garden in shape. It's going to be 80 degrees this weekend. Woo-hoo!

Ghost storm

I said I wouldn't post anymore shots of snowy tulips and I'm keeping my word. This was the new bed last Thursday afternoon. I thought I was being clever and helping a few tulips and daffodils hold their own against the forecasted 12-14 inches of snow we were supposed to get overnight and into Friday. Coloradans battened down the hatches, the airlines canceled 140 flights at Denver International in anticipation of snowed-in runways, even the State Legislature declared it a snow day. And nothing happened. During the night the front took a 100 mile swing south of us, spawned a tornado in Texas, and generally wreaked havoc across the nation. But we were spared. Now we're feeling like weather wimps, but I think it's just post traumatic snow syndrome.

The next day dawned sunny and beautiful, a good thing for one of my nephews who had planned an outdoor wedding at a small bed and breakfast inn at Manitou Springs, nestled at the foot of Pikes Peak. The bride, in her long gown, had to clamber up those steep wooden steps to the top of a hill and descend down the other side into the garden for her wedding entrance. A spread of rose petals awaited her. And no, she didn't trip. Ah, youth!

Pikes Peak and the Garden of the Gods rock formations made for a nice backdrop. Talk about borrowing your neighbor's scenery to enhance your garden.

I hadn't been at the wedding five minutes when the strap on my shoe broke. See that one across my ankle? It came unglued, or unstitched or whatever it was that was supposed to be holding it on. Thankfully the shoes had wedge heels so I was able to pretend like I was wearing clogs. With a flopping strap. I was almost wishing I had a pair of flowered wellies in the car!

The Easter Bunny did it

Since my last post, things were looking rosy outside. The snow melted, the sun shone. I took off the lawnmower blades (actually, my neighbor did) took them to Big Tool Box while they sharpened them while I waited, I changed the oil, mowed the grass (highest setting). That was last Sunday. The tulips and daffodils were standing erect again, having shrugged off the surprise snowstorm, and then the Easter Bunny paid me an early visit this morning. Those poor yellow tulips above don't look quite as happy as the day before.

They were looking pretty perky then. Ah well, fleeting beauty. That's spring in the Rockies. Our local garden guru gave us a "to-do this weekend" list in the newspaper. He says:

• Prune hybrid tea roses, butterfly bush, and grapes as needed


• Fork organic matter into vegetable beds


• Top-dress perennial beds with compost


• Aerate and fertilize lawns

I've pruned the roses (well, some of them); the butterfly bush seems to be squashed behind the Rose of Sharon and I'm not sure what to do about it; fork organic matter? Not today. Same with top-dressing. The aerator guy came last week and it's really too soon to fertilize the grass no matter what the guru says. Do I want to kill myself mowing that verdant lawn? Do I really want to encourage it this soon? I don't think so. Besides I've seen his garden. He has no lawn, well, maybe two long strips.

While I was mowing last weekend, I checked on the Nepeta "Six Hills Giant" which I cut back drastically a few weeks ago. This plant has been growing next to the driveway for years. See that crack in the concrete? Six Hills likes to throw runners out there too, so it looks like I grow flowers in the middle of the driveway. When my son was a teenager he drove over it every day to get his car in the garage. He said he always enjoyed that since it smelled so good after he crushed it. A teenager noticed that? It gladdened my heart and it obviously didn't hurt the nepeta in the long run.

Before the Easter Bunny came, here is the freshly mowed front lawn complete with aerator plugs. In the background is a Flowering Quince (japonica) that I see I should have trimmed last spring after it bloomed. Too much Quince, not enough Flowering.

Well, must go, I have an appointment with an Easter Bunny (ears first)!

CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF SHOWERS..

That's what they said last evening, but it was a rather shocking surprise this morning to find that 4-6 inches had sneakily fallen overnight. Even the weather man was surprised.
When I got home from work this afternoon I had to check on the new bulb bed I planted last fall under the little amur maple. No sign of the daffodils that had been perky the day before but I can see the hyacinths are tucked in nicely, and even a tulip or two.
Off the back patio everything is sporting a crown of snow. You can see from the flagstones that the snow didn't stick to surfaces that had been warmed considerably by our 60-plus degree days we've enjoyed recently. The guy that aerates the lawn was supposed to come today. He's rescheduled for next Monday but the forecast is...cloudy with a chance of showers.

A sea of white

Snowstorm number three arrived like clockwork at the end of the week, but this time with only seven inches of snow. Add that to the two previous storms in the last couple of weeks and you get the scene above. Not much curbside parking going on in this town! That's my next-door neighbor's work vehicle. He was off last week but needs to go to work on Monday so a bunch of us painstakingly helped him dig a path just wide enough for him to pull out of those snowbanks. I don't think we're going to see the street again till March!
These are my across-the-street neighbors. We didn't have a block party this summer but have made up for it by having a lot of snow-shoveling gatherings. It looks like this all over town, and has made for some interesting rituals. Like don't turn down your street until you make sure no one is coming from the other direction, there's no room for two-way traffic. Be sure to make a sharp right-angle turn into your driveway or you'll end up in a snow bank. At the supermarket, we leave our full grocery carts outside the door and go retrieve our cars and load the bags curbside. The parking lots are full of snowy ruts and icy chunks that aren't user-friendly for grocery carts.

I did start taking my Christmas decorations down. The one above will be staying out for awhile. That's one of a set of three little Christmas trees in big green pots that line my sidewalk. I put large red bows on them, and this one is just visible. Inside, it's pretty chaotic too. I never seem to be able to make a clean sweep of putting away the Christmas things. Some things are back down in the basement, a lot of it is spread across the dining room table, and there are fake evergreen needles all across the living room carpet. Not sure why a fake tree sheds almost as much as the real thing. Today I decided I needed a few more of those big plastic storage containers to help me get a handle on organizing all the holiday decor. By the time I navigated the WalMart parking lot and made my way home, I was out of the notion. But there's always tomorrow, and the promise of more snow at the end of the week should keep me inside finishing up on my sea of Christmas clutter!