This winter has been very variable so far. It snows and then it rains and then it freezes and snows some more. The two most famous almanacs, The Farmers Almanac and The Old Farmers Almanac, gave us two different predictions for this winter. The Farmers Almanac said it would be much colder and snowier than usual here. The Old Farmers Almanac said we’ll have above normal temperatures, and plenty of snow and rain. So far the old farmers seem to know better. It was 58° yesterday and what snow we had is gone again. We’ve had snow off and on, but never more than five or six inches at a time and it has melted off pretty quickly every time. Unfortunately, both almanacs say it will get worse in February and linger on and on into the spring. I hope they are both wrong about that.
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| The view across the garden. |
I took advantage of a mild day yesterday to prune the orchard. Most years I wait and wait for a good pruning day and then run out of time and have to go out in terrible weather to get it done. So I was happy to see the forecast say it would be in the 50's on Saturday. I got all the pruning done and managed to clean out some winter debris from the flowerbeds. It felt so good to be out working in the garden on a warm day in January. As I was cleaning the flowerbeds, I noticed the tips of the shoots of crocuses, muscari, and snowdrops emerging. It is too soon for them to come up and I know the cold will return and send them back to sleep, but it gladdened my heart to see them.
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| Pruning. |
One of my chief delights in the winter is watching the birds that come to my feeders. Their energy and their songs and the colors of their feathers are a bright contrast to the sluggish and monochrome winter landscape. Most winters I can stand at the kitchen window and count a dozen different species. But that has changed. Ever since we removed our pine trees, the variety of birds has gone down drastically. The birds liked the nearness of the pines and the shelter they provided. Now the feeders are too exposed to the wind and the eyes of predators. I seldom see cardinals or titmice anymore and I never see red-breasted nuthatches. Occasionally downy and hairy woodpeckers come to the suet blocks, but not as frequently as they did. These days I mostly see chickadees and white-breasted nuthatches and house finches and goldfinches. They are lovely, but I miss the other birds. I’ll replant the woodland garden this spring, but I’m putting in deciduous trees and they will be small. It will be twenty years before they achieve any great stature and I’ll be an octogenarian by then. I probably won’t even be able to see birds from the kitchen window without binoculars by then.
I bought some LED lights that are designed especially for plants. The color spectrum they emit stimulates growth and flowering. I’ve been using florescent grow lights for years and they worked pretty well, but I thought I’d try something better. They arrived last week and I set them up in the music room and the upstairs bay window where I keep most of my houseplants. These LED lights are very energy efficient and they last a long time. I’m not used to them yet. They give off an intense purple light that makes those rooms look like we’re throwing a Halloween party. The light makes the leaves of the plants look black and the flowers of my geraniums glow with incandescent colors. I have the lights set on a timer to turn them on and off. I’m a bit concerned because these are the kind of lights used by people who grow marijuana. My neighbors, seeing the purple light shining from my windows, probably think I’m growing pot.
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| My plant lights during the day. |
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| And at night. |
This morning at 4:00 the wind started to blow. I say blow but I mean howl – or maybe roar would be more accurate. It shook the house. It woke us up. Stacey said she was glad she didn’t have to worry about any of those huge pine trees blowing over and smashing the house. I said that because those huge pine trees aren’t there to block the wind, it hits the house full force now. Oh well. The wind made strange noises as it swirled around the house. At one point it blew the front door open and I had to get up and close and lock it. There were some clunks upstairs and when I went to investigate, I found that somehow one of the windows in Josiah’s room had come open and the wind was blowing the bedroom door back and forth making the knocking sound. When we left for church we encountered fallen trees and branches on the roads between here and Genesee.
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| No snow in the garden for now. |
The shift in the wind also brought a change in our temperature. It was 58° last night at 10:00. This morning it was still 55° when we left for church. When we got out of church it was 35°. That brief, brief spell of warmth was just a tease. I see more snow forecast on Wednesday and Thursday. Winter is back and spring is a long way off. At least it isn’t as bad as it is out west. Daniel (out in Spokane) told us they have 10" of snow and their church was cancelled today. I hope it all stays west of the Mississippi. In the meantime, I’ll keep reading my seed catalogs, planning this year’s gardens, and tending my houseplants (not marijuana).
