Snow Day on Beech Street

  • Post published:01/17/2018
  • Post comments:7 Comments

I knew it was a Snow Day, no exercise class, when I woke. When I went out to take this photo at 6:30 am the plows had not come through and it was still snowing. Not as much as predicted, but enough to close the schools and the Y. Time for coffee and reading before the day really  got under way. The sun was hiding, but sharing some of its light. In town there is no room  for…

My Winter Garden in Color

  • Post published:01/12/2018
  • Post comments:8 Comments

My frigid winter garden is peaceful, blanketed with snow. Mysterious tracks speak of the creatures that wander across the landscape, leaving hints of their dancing in the bright moonlight, or shifting shadows of the breezy day. Tiny birds frolic near the Norway spruce, and seem to be feasting on the spruce seeds left for them on the snow. My town winter garden is small, and very different from the fields of Heath, where the snow danced with the…

Melting, Flooding and Maybe Spring

  • Post published:02/28/2017
  • Post comments:6 Comments

The melting season with its flooding  is upon us. A year ago, three months after we actually moved into our new house, the back yard looked like this after milder temperatures, snow melt and rain. We had known that the backyard had a big 'wet spot' but we didn't expect this. One year later and the flooding isn't as bad. It is possible to see the progress made in the increasing size of the beds, and the creation…

View from the Window – January 31, 2017

  • Post published:01/31/2017
  • Post comments:3 Comments

The view from the window on this last day of January when the noon temperature is 25 degrees shows how the snow has melted, and where the wet spots in the garden are located, in front of the stone wall, and down the paths. Snow is predicted for this afternoon but everyone is hoping the Punxatawny Phil, the groundhog, will not see his shadow two days hence and assure us that there will be an early spring.  He…

Iced April – View from the bedroom window

  • Post published:04/10/2015
  • Post comments:1 Comment

The view from the bedroom window shows a world iced with crystal and shrouded in mist. I love taking photos of this yellow birch in the west field. So mysterious shrouded in fog. I didn't worry about all the perennials buried under three feet of snow all during the frigid month of February, but ice on the weeping cherry is definitely a worry. I wonder how the wisteria feels about all the ice. Probably not happy.

View from the Bedroom Window – March 2015

  • Post published:04/01/2015
  • Post comments:1 Comment

February ended cold, and March began cold. 10 degrees at 7 am on March 2. The fountain juniper is almost completely covered. More snow yesterday, but warmer temperatures - over freezing. Temperatures are staying at freezing or below - but the fountain juniper  begins to reveal itself.  The only place to find color is at the Smith College Spring Bulb show. More sun, but still freezing temperatures. And yet melting - or subliming - continues.  "Sublime  verb -…

Frigid February View from the Bedroom Window

  • Post published:03/02/2015
  • Post comments:1 Comment

The view from the bedroom window by February 5 showed that another 25 inches of snow had fallen since February 1. Cold and often windy with just below zero temperatures on a few nights. Another 18 inches of snow on February 9, but sun on the 10th. Occasional snow showers over the rest of February and continuing frigid temperatures. Minus 12 on February 16 at 7 am. Often windy with wind chill advisories common.  You can see the…

Bright and White and BarelyFreezing

  • Post published:02/11/2015
  • Post comments:4 Comments

It is bright and white and barely freezing. The snow has stopped. The plow arrived. One car got  out. The snow has fallen and drifted into the Sunken Garden, half burying the Sargent Crabtree. The western wall is over six feet high - also buried. If you look closely you'll see a tiny branch at the right of this photo, hinting of the three hydrangeas now buried - and probably damaged. Sigh. We are really really happy that…

From Heath to Cambridge, MA

  • Post published:02/06/2015
  • Post comments:2 Comments

On Thursday the snow stopped long enough for me to make my escape from Heath, onward to Cambridge, MA for a visit with my son and a writer's workshop organized by the Garden Writer's Association. And what did I see when I got to Cambridge, MA?  Snow. And ice. And icy icy sidewalks.  I should have brought my YakTrax. I think snow is more of a problem in a city, but the trip was more than worth it.…

Sastrugi Finally Forms at the End of the Road

  • Post published:02/02/2015
  • Post comments:2 Comments

It hasn't been a great winter for the formation of sastrugi. The snow has been heavy and wet, not much given to drifting. But this last snow storm brought frigid temperatures and high gusting winds. The result is the first sastrugi of the year forming at the western lip of the Sunken Garden. The word sastrugi is from a Russian word which means snow wave  or caves. We have all noticed them. More now. The sastrugi  shifts and…