Ready for Winter!

Hello everyone, and welcome to 2010! I thought I'd share some wintery shots taken over the past week at our house.

Some of you in the southern United States still have flowers in bloom. Here is how my rosebushes look these days. This is one of my Royal Bonica roses with its rose hips nearly buried in snow.

I usually bury may non-native plants in a thin layer of leaves for the winter, and hope a nice blanket of snow will insulate the plants enough to prevent the ground from heaving in the spring. Heaving causes air pockets around the roots, causing the plant to die. This Nikko Blue Hydrangea is my most tender plant. It is hardy only to Zone 5 (I am in a Zone 3 micro climate). I bury this hydrangea about 2 feet with leaves to keep the canes alive.

The weekend after Christmas, we had freezing rain.

Every branch of every tree and shrub was coated in ice.

It made everything look like it was made of sparkly glass!

My pond heater is broken so my pond froze over this year.

I need to buy a new one soon! Meanwhile, we have this

auxiliary heated bird bath for our backyard buddies.

The plastic Canada Goose looks more like a Snow Goose with its snowy beard,

cape and icicles on its beak!

There are icicles everywhere.

And finally, our house and gazebo.

This is hot cocoa weather. We hit -1°F last night, and will stay well below normal all week. At least we didn't get the 2 feet of lake effect snow that fell this weekend on the other side of Lake Michigan! Stay warm, my cold climate friends!