Minus 12 C and counting...
By elke
4 comments
Yes indeed, that’s the temperature this morning, and it’s supposed to be getting colder too, but the sun is up and that always helps. Just stepped outide the front door to take a few photos. The ground is, as the famous carol says, ‘hard as iron’, and no doubt the cove has frozen over. It’s amazing any plants can survive, as we have so little snow cover at the moment. Anyway, a few photos as I braved the cold for you.
We like to leave the old stalks and stems as they often contain seeds that the small birds love.
Across the drive are our beech woods. They look beautiful winter or summer.
The forsythia has masses of flower buds this year. That will be our first taste of spring!
The rhododendrons look very sad in these temperatures, but they don’t suffer – did they not originate in the Himalayas? This one was 1 ft. high when we planted it in 2004.
You can see how little snow is left – this is the north side of a huge juniper, which shades the area from the winter sun.
A clump of heuchera – I know it looks sad now, but…
More stalks in the morning sun
Frost on the deck
Must get some laundry on that line today, it will dry in the sun and wind
Back to the front door, with a view into the side woods and to the barn
The indoor garden in the sun room is resplendent this morning in the sunshine:
More amaryllis in here. We save our bulbs each year – they spend the summer in their pots out on the deck, and then Patrick brings them in takes them out of the pot and stores them in the basement. Around Christmas he brings them out again and repots them. This is the result in less than a month.
These huge blooms enjoy a view of the bay from the living room.
25 Jan, 2009
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Comments
It certainly took some getting used to when we first came to Canada in 1971. And Montreal, Quebec was a lot colder and snowier in winter than it is here - we moved here in 2004. Our son in Calgary has a wind chill temperature of minus 40 C today... But you get used to it, find things to do outdoors like skating and X-country skiing that keep you warm, and it's not the damp cold that you get in the UK, which somehow chills you to the bone.
25 Jan, 2009
I like your sunroom . It looks nice and warm in that cold weather you're having.
25 Jan, 2009
Hi again Spritzhenry - we have about 8 acres, mostly in spruce woodland behind the house, down towards the cove. You get used to the wide open spaces here, we had 1 acre in Montreal, Quebec and thought that was huge. Here we have dug a few beds near the house for flowers, we mow the field and let the rest stay natural.
25 Jan, 2009
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My goodness, Elke - that really does sound c-c-c-cold! How much land have you got? It looks HUGE out there! Poor plants - I hope you don't get too many casualties.
After our cold period, I know I have got a lot to replace. It's unusual in this mild area to get down as low as we did, which was about -8 I think.
25 Jan, 2009