Most of the Snow has Melted

It's been quite cold lately, but the last couple of afternoons have been warm.  My husband Larry has been sick, and finally went to be seen yesterday.  When I got my coat on to go get his prescriptions and a few groceries, Heidi got up, hoping my plan was to go out with her.  I decided to take her out awhile, and take some photos with my new camera.  (The photos in the previous post were taken with it, too.)

It's back to looking like fall.  I continue to enjoy the plants throughout the seasons, and am hoping the critters are making good use of the food and shelter they provide in the winter.

This is the east side of the front yard.

There are still some seeds left for the birds t enjoy.

This is the east side of the house.

Amsonia hubrichtii is one of my favorites, and it has pretty blue blooms in the spring.

The Hellebores seem to be pretty much evergreen.  In the spring, when the bloom stems come up, I need to remember to take last year's leaves off.

See, there was still a little snow left.  I'm thinking after today's 60 degrees, it may all be melted.

The tall plant in the fenced area is asparagus.  I am looking forward to seeing how it does this spring.  It will be the fourth season for it, and I will be able to harvest it for a longer period of time.

We walked back to the front yard, and this is the east front yard bed.  The dark in the corner is from the lens hood Larry bought for me.  I will have to be careful not to have the camera set to the widest view, or else take it off to take the wide shots.  I spent quite a bit of time cropping photos last night.

I have been using the setting on the camera that senses what kind of shot you are taking, and adjusts.  It will figure out when the macro setting needs to be used.  I need to read the manual and do more experimenting.

Here is my favorite area of the yard, right in front of our house, where the tree used to be.

I'm glad I didn't dead head the Golden alexanders.

The sky sure was a pretty blue, and the Cup plant is another one I decided to be brave and not deadhead.

I love the look of the spent Cup plant blooms.

Hey birds, I hope you eat some more of these seeds!

I love the colors of the Switchgrasses and such.

Wild quinine is one of my favorite plants for all season interest.

This was my first year to grow Illinois bundleflower, and it stole my heart.  It's another favorite.

The Liatris is holding up well.

The Wild senna is also holding its own after the snow melt.

The Heuchera richardonii continues to look good near the porch.

 

 I love to show the view from the front porch.

Here's one more from the front porch.

This is a bit of a hodge podge post, but the main point of wanting to do one is to show that the snow has melted, and we are no longer looking white. 

I hope you enjoyed the Christmas season, and celebrate the New year coming in a safe, healthy way.  I am pleased that the days are now getting longer, and am hoping spring comes as quickly as winter did.

Hey, I just remembered I didn't do a Wildflower Wednesday post.  I think there may be enough wildflowers in this post to go ahead and use it.  Gail did a round up post.  Go check it out.

It's Snowing!

We woke up to a couple inches of snow this morning, and are expecting a couple more.  It's a pretty snow, but I don't think I'll drive in it until the street is plowed.  I have a new camera because my other one's view finder was giving me problems.  I had to jiggle it to see anything, and when an image appeared, it was either backward or upside down.  I am still learning how to use the new one.

I took the front yard photos from the porch, because I didn't want to go outside and risk slipping in the snow.  Larry put something on the lens to protect it, and for some reason, it was showing in today's photos, until I zoomed it out a bit.

I like the manual zoom on my new camera.  

The rest of these were taken from the back door.

There weren't any critter prints yet this morning, other than Heidi's, but they could have been snowed over.

The photos in this post were taken around 8:30 this morning.  I took more a few minutes ago, and was going to show how much more snow we've had, but when I ejected the card and removed it, I got a message that it wasn't removed properly.  Then, my iphoto quit, and I got a message to restart the computer.  I got the message again after I restarted it, so I'm going to have to get Larry's help to see if he can open it again.  I hope he can, because I haven't backed it up lately.

(Added at 1:38:  When Larry looked at the computer, he said it must have been doing something still when I went to turn off iphoto.  That reminded me that it had indeed been doing something, and I went to turn it off before I should have.  He didn't think it looked good, but then said that it appeared to be restoring itself.  Whew!  It didn't even take more than 10 minutes to come back.  I need to be backing up my library.  It had indeed been lost a number of years ago, when I got this computer, and Larry was installing things.  That was heartbreaking, but now that we have the grandsons, and I don't print many photos, I need to take action to avoid losing those.)

So here are a few photos taken later in the day.  I guess it's hard to tell here that a bit more snow had fallen.  It's actually still coming down.  Oh, and I see it's coming heavier than it had been earlier in the day.

I've mentioned we are living in the house where my husband, Larry grew up.  This light pole has been in the spot for many years.

I caught this one of Larry on his way home from the neighbors' where he shovels in exchange for storing his motorcycle in their garage.  I'm thankful for having a garage for my vehicle, and Larry has a car port so he doesn't have to clean snow off of his.

I hope anyone reading this is able to be warm and safe from all of this winter weather.  I feel for those of you in places that don't usually get the ice and such that you have experienced this week.  I am longing for spring. For those who are in the south and enjoying your gardens, I hope to find my way to your blogs to see photos.

Post Hard Freeze

Since the last post, we've had some colder nights, and the colors have changed some more.  As usual, it has taken more than one day to get this post done.  I better get this posted tonight, because it is snowing right now, and it will be time to take the first snow photos soon.

Even though we have no trees in our yard, the neighbors have plenty to share with us, and the wind does a good job getting them over.

The Common milkweed buds seemed tightly shut to the point I thought maybe they were not going to, but they surprised me.  In the past, I took them off before they could ripen and blow around the neighborhood.

I do have these cut off now, but they sure are pretty.

The New England aster blooms have gone to seed, too.



I may have said this already, but I hope winter goes by as quickly as spring and summer did.

While we don't have room for a new tree, I do have lots of tall plants in the yard.

I'm enjoying the Rudbeckia maxima, on the left, behind the fence, and Grayheaded coneflower, Riddel's goldenrod, Little bluestem, and I think the plant on the right is Stiff goldenrod.

I don't show this area often, because it's been slow filling up.  The silvery groundcover is Pussytoes.

There are three New Jersey tea plants in the area.  I hope they grow to be a good size next year.

Looking back to the west:

Wild bergamont is another plant that looks pretty to me in the fall.

I am having trouble staying awake, so please forgive me, but I am going to go ahead and post this without identifying the plants.  Maybe I'll come back later.  Most have been identified in past posts, though.

Joe Pye weed:

The Hellebores have grown to a nice size, and the foliage seems to not mind the cold temperatures.

I think these are from a Butterfly milkweed.

As you can see, the irises are finished blooming.

Stock is an old fashioned fragrant annual.

Mountain mint:

My heart and prayers go out to those of you in Illinois and other places that have had severe weather lately.  I hope you are all safe and are ready to enjoy Thanksgiving.