Six on Saturday – 07/12/2019 – snow, beautiful snow

There’s a few things I don’t enjoy about winter:

• driving or walking during a freezing rain event (for readers who are not familiar with that term – take it literally, and imagine what freezing rain does on a road surface or sidewalk…)
• driving or walking after a freezing rain event, before salt, sand or sunshine has melted the ice
• the home heating bills when I don’t have enough firewood for the stove that normally heats the house
• rabbits (and the occasional deer) eating stems and tips of shrubs

But I love winter. Snow. Cold, refreshing temperatures. Flannel sheets. Time to read, and cook. Where I live, though, we don’t get nearly as much snow as other parts of the country, and it’s not nearly as cold, and the winter not nearly as long. So perhaps I’m a winter-lover, in moderation!

Here are six things from my garden this week. Photos were taken last Monday, after last Sunday’s snow storm, and yesterday late afternoon, after the morning’s snowfall. We’re expecting several days of above zero temperatures so this may all be melted by next weekend! To see more garden Sixes from around the world, most with no snow, check out The Propagator’s site.

1 – I call this my ‘twisty pine’ – there’s two trunks, with one part starting to swirl just inches from the ground, then spiraling upwards. The other part grows straight up, more or less. It’s difficult to notice this when the vegetation around the base is growing but up close it’s quite weird and wonderful. Right now; however, I’m a bit concerned. The tree should NOT be tilted in quite these directions (bending towards the left, and also to the right, on the ground). I have to wait for the snow to melt before getting in closer to see if the trunk split during last week’s winds.

2 – Sticking with trees, I have a number of large, dead tree trunks along the driveway fence line. Even though there’s a bit of a danger from them falling and either hitting the car (or me) if it happens to be on that part of the driveway at that moment, I like to keep them standing, rotting, providing habitat for bugs and then food for birds.

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3 – And yet another tree – snow along the branch of a small pine, which was grown from seed scattered by a cousin of the twisty pine, above.

4 – Yesterday’s snow acting as a hat on some Sedum spectabile:

5 – This is an unknown honeysuckle (Lonicera) bush that is not native and is considered invasive here (as opposed to the native, Diervilla honeysuckle). It does look pretty when it flowers in the spring, and also when covered in snow:

6 – And finally, a lone Goldenrod (Solidago) flower stalk. As a reminder of the past, glorious, growing season.