Six On Saturday – 02/02/19 – Welcome Back, Winter. We’ve Missed You!

I’m being facetious. Mostly. The past few winters have been relatively mild. A bit of snow here and there, quite chilly now and then. Nothing to write home about. It looked like this year was going to be the same. Sure, October and November felt cold, but December and the beginning of January – meh. Felt like another wishy washy winter.

Then came the ‘polar vortex’ last weekend followed by a blizzard this past week. Now that’s more like it! Snowshoeing! Cross country skiing! Thrilling drives over snow covered roads where you can’t quite see where the road ends and the ditch begins! Here are some scenes around the garden, taken yesterday. (Spoiler alert – there’s a lot of white!) To see a lot more, generally more colourful, garden images from around the world, head on over to The Propagator‘s site.

1 – First, a pretty scene. I’ve showed you this old manure spreader a few times before, including just last week, but here it is again, just because I really really like it. This photo was taken at sunrise yesterday.

2 – Another pretty scene, another part of the back yard that you’ve seen before, but this time with a lot of snow.

3 – I’ve been reading about an ‘irruption’ of snowy white owls this year. That means it’s a record year in southeast Ontario for these huge birds. Their numbers have increased because, according to this Toronto Star article, “…there may have been a collapse in the Arctic lemming population — a favourite food source — or a boom during the last breeding season that has increased competition for food.” Whatever. I haven’t seen any around here, which is a pity because there’s definitely been a boom in the local rabbit population. Great owl food, I would think. As it is, the rabbits seem to enjoy the tips of my smaller flowering shrubs. Here’s a look at what was on their menu Thursday night

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  Bridlewreath Spirea – rabbit delicacy

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  There won’t be much left of this small Burning Bush…

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  The pesky rabbits even went after a few Sumac stems

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  My favourite flowering shrub – Korean Spice Viburnum – nary a flower bud left

4 – These chairs are perfect for a mid day pause. In the summer.

5 – Closer to the house, I have a large clump of tall ornamental grass. It was no match for this week’s high wind and heavy snow though. Not to mention the snowblower…

6 = Speaking of snowblowers…I finally made it to the gas station yesterday with my jerry can. Should have gone Thursday but white-out conditions (from blowing snow off the lake) made it a white knuckle excursion I preferred to avoid. Once I filled the tank I was able to make a few paths for Shileau to easily walk along.

I made this path more for me than Shileau – leads to the composter!

That’s it for this Saturday. A few days of warmer temps are forecast, which means rain instead of snow, and likely a bit of flooding. Followed by a few more months of snow… I think I need to seriously think about seed starting soon…