Wishing all my fellow gardeners, writers, bloggersand garden bloggers (and anyone else who drops by),
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
May your holidays be filled with friends, family
and the warmth of this holiday season.
Come along for a little holiday tour,where here in New England, we just had
back-to-back weekend snowstorms.
This was the start of storm #1.
"Jingle bells, jingle bells..."
If you're new here, let me introduce you to Lucy-Maude ~canine extraordinaire and #1 GardenAuthor assistant
(and part-time garden center employee at Corliss Bros) ~
who also runs her own blog, over at "Dog's Eye View."
We won't bother her now, as she seems to be checking
for fresh squirrel activity.
We'll catch up with her further down...
Inside, all warm and cozy, we find "The Boys," all lined up,waiting for supper. Back to front: Arnold, Jake,
"Uncle" Stanley (all black - hard to photograph) and
Kipper. The 3 orange-and-white, fine, feline specimens
are brothers/triplets and have adopted Stanley
as their "uncle" figure. Actually, group photos like
this are hard to come by, so they had to
wait for supper a little longer that night.
"Welcome to our humble home!"
Two snowstorms AND icicles ~I am one happy amateur photographer!
First glimpse of Monday, after the snows.
My favorite little Acer griseum,during the beginning of storm #1
Night Icicles ("nightcicles"? ~Boo, sorry about that!)
Oops!(Technical error by the nearsighted genius posting these pics!)
OR, maybe I just wanted to show off my tree again?
(No - sadly, it's the first thing.)
After storm #1, which ended Saturday AM - flurriedthe balance of the day, before Sunday's storm.
The icicles showed up with the second storm(this was Monday AM) ~ love them against the
amazing, cloudless blue skies that lasted all day!
"Boy, it's tough being short... what's up there? These darned snowbanks! Hey, how about a boost?"
Yes, that's Lucy, still checking out the front yard.
View from the front kitchen window, early afternoon. This second storm was wet, ending with sleet and a
little rain, followed by plunging temps and
strong winds... great combination.
After first storm.
Oooooh! Love these icicles! Hope you do, too -'cause I'll be sharing them, you lucky viewers.
As the second storm winds down, I see that Peter Rabbitis on his way to the garden gate, under cover of darkness.
Funny the visions you see after two days of snow removal.
Pots of Christmas greens, alongside potted Alberta spruce
and arborvitae, can form all sorts of fanciful shapes!
"Hey, Mom ~ how 'bout shoveling off my squirrel-watching bench?" To which I reply, "Not on my snow
removal priority list... wait your turn, wiseguy!"
At which point, Lucy improvised a little jig ~
sort of "Riverdance in the Snow."
Friday night ~ the silence of first flakes.
"Yikes!"
View from the kitchen sink window,after an earlier mini-snow.
From inside, looking out, on Monday AM.(Hetz Upright Juniper)
Backyard - while still snowing!
Pretty hard to read the "Corliss Bros" sign, but thiswas the garden center yesterday (12/23)...
plenty of snow up here, too!
Gray, bleak... the Kwanzan cherry reaching upward,beyond the daggerlike icicles, which seem to imprison me
(hey - maybe I'll save this for "Waltzes with Words").
Anyway, I'm entitling this one, "Imprisonment."
Watering cans, filled with poinsetties? Left out in the snow? How is this even possible?
Yes, indeedy ~ these are the uber-hardy Poinsettias.They took a licking and kept on ticking!
We've had a gray, ugly Christmas Eve day,with warming temps.
So, I decided to catch the melting icicles in action.
In this photo, the droplets are just starting to fall.
Ok, I got carried away ~ you have NO idea how many of these you must snap, waiting for that perfect moment... or have you?
Well, keep the home fires burning, enjoy these holidaysand don't forget "All creatures, great and small" ~
yes, even the squirrels appreciate a festive
Christmas Eve corn feast!
But, beware small, wily, opportunistic, blonde coyotes...especially when they're clad in turquoise! Oh no, wait...
that's Lucy, again! And what, you may ask, has this wild
dingo dog licking her chops? The thought of imminent,
impending, delicious breakfast? Scroll down...
This would be our suet feeder, which holds 4-5#of fresh suet for our woodpeckers and clinging songbirds.
Methinks she smells it! She's been monitoring this
pretty closely, ever since it went up.
Wishing you all a joyous holiday...
...as Lucy-Maude and I head indoors,for a quiet celebration.
And from our house to yours,MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Photos & Text: ©Deb Lambert 2008
8 comments:
Many of these photographs are extraordinary. Thanks for sharing. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Merry Christmas to you!
Tina ~ Hope yours was merry and bright!
Hello Deb!
I love these shots! Please tell Lucy that I thought she was a Corgi mix at first, but now I realize she truly is a Mini Mastiff! She stands so tall! Almost tall enough to reach that suet!
And "The Boys, & the triplets" they are so handsome. At my house we have "The Girls" AKA "The Gemini Twins" of which they are not; only they kick each other in the womb. They are sisters, both are Torties and they were the only gals borne of Mammy Cat, who repeatedly bore boys. That was 14 yrs ago, Mammy now hunts shrews in her mountain escape in the clouds, and the Gemini Twins? Well, they finally have us pretty well trained.
And they only get together when food is brought out. Their friendly ways only come out when there is a warm lap, they are hungry, or they are both on the outside of the sliding glass door while we are all on the inside, looking out.
I love your image of Friday night's "The Silence of the first flakes." And the kitchen sink view!
My kitchen sink view is of a mini sconce shelf that has a feeble ivy growing from a mini bud vase; it is only there until it gets enough rooting to plant--over a year ago. So now, the plan is that we are working on making it a bonsai.
Thanks for the great pictures! I only hope that we get a chance for another snowfall before March when the bright greens come out again; I mean, after all I still need to shoot the next Volvo series, "The Volvo Snow Trek," around the backside of our local instrusive rock formation of magma that never quite made it to the soil surface, except by erosion, our Spencer Butte. If we do not get that chance this year, perhaps I may be persuaded to shoot out most local claim to fame--the rain.
Thanks so much for the fantastic blog!
You've had a great time with your camera and have taken some great photos!! (Please be careful around those icicles!! My hubby had a very close call while trying to knock them off our son's house... 9 stitches later (on the face)! Whew!
Deb, this was a fantastic post. I got chilly just looking at the pics. I have my AC on here in NC...really weird huh? So I guess your snow is the only I will see.
Poor Lucy having to live with all those cats. I almost didn't see the black cat and actually thought I was looking at only one cat but a reflection. Then I read that it was The Boys...lol. The orange and whites look alike. Very handsome men indeed.
I do like cicles so you are fine by me to take all you want. It is true, you do have to take a million pics to get just the right one. Don't let Lucy walk under them...yikes! They might fall off.
What an interesting squirrel windmill like dealy what?. They get a variety. How clever.
Wishing you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year too. I do see you have my other blog up on your blogroll. I'm getting to be like you...lots of blogs.
Anna ~ AC in December? Really? Sorry you took a chill, but glad you enjoyed the post. More icicles to follow!
That's funny about the cat picture! My triplets do resemble each other, although the one in front (always a camera hog) is the most orange. Poor Stanley is so black, that he often doesn't show up very well... at least we can one eye!
The Squirrel-go-Round holds four ears of dried corn, which keeps them busy for much of the day, stealing a little less from the bird feeders than they used to.
I am officially jealous of your new .Mac site... someday (sigh)! I've been wanting to do this for about a year. For now, it's back to all my others. Happy New Year!
Shady ~ My camera has become an appendage... almost 24/7! Ouch - nine stitches? No, I'm careful... don't walk beneath them or touch them. I do hang out several of my windows to get many of the shots (odd looks from neighbors driving by)... just have to be careful of my wily cats trying to escape. Glad you enjoyed the new photos... lots of shoveling, but well worth it for the scenery.
Happy New Year to you and yours!
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