Start of spring in my backyard

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Gardening, postaday2016, winter

Even though this past winter was mild compared to the previous two winters, some of my plants seem to have suffered more then they should have theoretically. Perhaps it was the yo-yoing of frost to warm that did damage, I’m not sure. Case in point, the picture at the top featuring my crawling phlox in my pond garden shows one red tulip where there should have been at least a half dozen, in addition to hyacinth which never appeared. I’m hoping the iris do much better, I’m keeping my fingers crossed for their arrival.

On a positive note, the winter didn’t put a crimp on my wild strawberries, their tiny white flowers, so adorable, are carpeting the area near the pool, so come early June, I should have a fine, healthy harvest of tiny wild strawberries. I can’t wait, I love carefully picking them for my family, I’m allergic so I can’t eat them but I love feeding them to my husband.

The small purple flowers that come from vinca minor are everywhere, both in the back and the front of the house. I am sometimes conflicted by my vinca minor, there are days where I want to rip them out because they have taken over in too many parts of my gardens, there are other times, like today, where I don’t mind their prolific presence because the huge splash of color is quite beautiful, so I am torn.

Gardening is never boring, though I confess I haven’t done any work in my gardens as of yet, I am still too tired. I’ll ease into it nice and gently, no pressure, at least I will try not to put any pressure on myself, there is no need to do so.

I spoke too early

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leaks, pipes, postaday2015, winter

I should have never complained about the cold and the snow when I did. I spoke too soon, when I thought that things couldn’t get any worse and I couldn’t take much more of the cold, something got worse, worse as in pipes bursting upstairs yesterday.

My daughter was a champion, she caught it pretty quickly and that gave me the time to race down to the basement to shut the water off to the whole house. The break was in the small passage way up to the attic on the East side of the house, water started dripping from the wooden beams in the kitchen and I set up pots and pans in a straight line.

After that was done, I went down to the basement to better investigate the problem, meaning determining which zone controls what part of the house, isolating it and shutting it off while allowing the other zones to run. Writing it down, it sounds fairly straightforward, but this is an old house and the heating system wasn’t put in all at once, the second floor was added to the heating system when we moved in and we had to replace the furnace a few years ago, so it took me a few minutes to look around and trace the pipes back both to the furnace and to the various areas in the floor plan from the bottom up.

I took my daughter down with me to show her where the entire house water shutoff valve was located, where the other turnoff valves to the furnace and the water heater were located; it was a very good lesson in home maintenance for both of us. Basically I figured out where the zone was, the correct valves to shut off, I drained the zone to get rid of the water so that future leaks wouldn’t happen and I restarted the furnace to start heating the ground floor. I thought everything was fine until I saw that another leak had sprung from the upstairs guest bedroom and the downstairs library had water dripping from the celing. I raced once more downstairs to turn off the furnace and switch the water back off. Now I was confused because I thought that I had found the solution, it wasn’t until my husband came home and he saw that one of the zone 4 valves wasn’t closing and that’s why I had had problems with the other leak, if it had closed correctly, I would have been fine.

My husband to the rescue, he replaced the faulty valve and we are back in business for the moment. The next order of business is repairing the leaks which will get done, I am not worried because we have the issues understood and a plan of action. ANd that is really all you need, a plan of action.

That’s it, I’m done. Uncle, Uncle, Uncle!!!!!!!

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freeze, postaday2015, snow, winter

I am crying Uncle; we have had too many days of below 10 degrees during the day with negative numbers at nights; combined with the outlandish snow, it is getting to be an overload. The last time that I remember having this much snow, the temperatures were in the mid 30’s, and that made all of the difference; it was much more manageable to shovel and to transfer to other places so that you can make trails for the dogs and open up the driveway to see out onto Route 23. This freezing insanity is making winter much harder than it usually is, but I am taking heart that we are nearing the end of February, each day brings us closer to Spring, crocuses and snow drops.

Now this hasn’t only been tough on myself, but also Jack and Lulu. They have gone outside like troopers these past few days, but today they have both reached their limit. Jack has been hiding from me because he knows that I will put him outside; it is so funny because all of a sudden I see his adorable little face peeking out from around the couch and when he sees that I saw him, he bolts the other way out of the room. Lulu is so quiet and ever since I told the kids to feed her a combination of her food, white rice and pumpkin puree, her stomach has recovered, her gassiness is gone, her movements are solid and now we don’t have the tell that alerted us to her need to go outside, so she has been having accidents in the house, but thankfully I have been able to pick them up and flush them in the toilet. Jack knows how to use the training pads that I have put down in his spots but Lulu hasn’t quite gotten the hang of it. Thank goodness for rice and pumpkin; I don’t know if I would be so easy going with a day’s worth of diarrhea.

This week is going to be another week of teens and twenties during the day with negative numbers at night. This is pushing me to my limits.

I am making butternut squash soup as I write and I made pizzas Friday and yesterday was mashed potatoes and my husband made roast beef, so we have been eating serious comfort food during this freezing spell.

A happy belly does help keep the spirits up.

Putting Christmas to bed and away

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baking, doldrums, postaday2015, winter

The house is back to rights, I am a little sad about it, Christmas decorations make any home cheerier during dreary winter days; no matter how much work it is, I always enjoy putting up all of our decorations. However, putting everything away puts me in a bah humbug kind of a mood. The thought of spending month after cold month pining away for Spring puts me in the doldrums. Maybe I am afflicted with lack of adequate sunlight syndrome that many people suffer from these winter months. I don’t know, but I am going to patiently wait for Spring to arrive and find some way to appreciate winter by refocusing my energies on soup making, baking and other types of cooking.

The pool is going into winter hibernation

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pool, postaday2014, winter

I spent the last few days vacuuming the pool and getting it ready for its winter closure. I had to take a few pictures because between the blue of the sky, the blue of the water and the gorgeous colors of fall, I had to capture it to share with all of you.

My pictures of early fall/late summer at home

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fall, postaday2014, seasons, winter

Irrespective of the warm weather, my plants are curling up in preparation of a long winter’s sleep. It makes me sad, I have always hated letting go of summer and I think that I may be a sufferer of seasonal doldrums. The decline in sunlight hours does a number on me. The saving grace for me exists in the kitchen, hearty soups, lasagna, chicken pot pie, all of these wonderfully comforting dishes help banish the winter blues in a big way. I shouldn’t forget all the baking that the future holidays bring to mind such as my dear friend Mary’s annual Christmas cookie swap. I have a lot to look forward to these next few months.

However in the meantime, I will continue enjoying the last vestiges of my garden and all of the gorgeous colors that the cooler weather is bringing to my backyard. I am so very lucky to be able to wake up and see all of the autumnal majesty of the Berkshire mountains right here, up close and personal.

Ode to the Yucca

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bunnies, environment, postaday2014, winter, Yucca

My Yucca plants always amaze me. I had never seen a Yucca before I moved into my house; I had heard of them, but I had always thought that they were native to the desert. I googled Yucca and according to Wikipedia they are native to the Southwest and are primarily ornamental plants. So how my Yuccas survive the harsh Western Massachusetts where I live is beyond me.

There was a year where I thought that the big Yucca bush had bitten the dust; something had devoured it from the roots upward and I figured that it would never recover. Au contraire, it came back bigger and stronger than ever. Moreover just a month ago, I took the rake and the clippers to the Yucca to divest it of the oldest leaves and cut away all of the dead weight and as you can see the new crop of blossoms came from the new shoots that erupted shortly after I pruned it.

The little one that is featured by the stone wall; last week I had left for a goner, as you can see I was mistaken. I am amazed at the yucca’s tenacity especially in its non-native environment, it doesn’t matter if it doesn’t get watered enough, if bunnies make their nests at its bases or if it doesn’t get much sun; it won’t surrender.

After I took the picture of the tiny Yucca, I turned and saw the prettiest sky behind me off by the white Lilac bush right at my bedroom window and I had to capture it as a picture.

My herbal obsession: Rosemary

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plants, postaday2014, rosemary, winter

There I admitted it; I have an obsession with Rosemary and it is of a long duration. Year after year, I buy Rosemary plants hoping to have one take hold and stay with me for more than just one season and year after year, I get sad when they don’t make it. This year, I decided that since one of my rosemary plants did really well this summer, I would try to once again to bring my plant inside and see how it goes this winter. The one that I planted near the pool is going to stay outside, I’m sorry little Rosemary plant, I wish you well this winter.

The thing that I am doing differently this time around is that I dug out the Rosemary plant from the soil, so I am hoping that since the Rosemary plant was so happy in the soil and where it was, it will continue to be happy this winter, I just have to find it a really good sunny spot which is much easier said then done, my little Rosemary will be competing with the Bougainvillea, the Mandeville and the three hibiscus plus a few new Impatiens that will be needing a spot inside, I tell you I will be needing a Greenhouse if I keep this up.

Further proof that spring is coming

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blooms, postaday2014, spring, winter

Even though we had a slight setback with the crazy snow of yesterday and I was worried about my delicate plants, the emergence this morning of my teeny, tiny daffodils put a smile on my face. They are practically microscopic, I know, but they are adorable and they are mine. I couldn’t help but include the latest picture of my hibiscus, looking naked yet still blooming. I can’t get over that; despite being cold all winter long, evidenced by the loss of most of its leaves, my hibiscus still found the energy to produce blooms throughout these long winter months. I can’t figure it out, I didn’t feed it anything whatsoever, all I did was water on a weekly basis. But I don’t need to understand it, all I need is to embrace it as the gift that it is.

Snow, now. REALLY?!

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postaday2014, snow, winter

This morning I woke up to falling snow and it is still falling. Last night they did say something about overnight snowfall, but I figured that it would be flurries and would blow over by morning. We are in Virginia after all. It is much farther south than Massachusetts.

It makes me laugh at myself, thinking that by being in Virginia, we would escape any lingering hints of winter that are left. Here I was hoping to enjoy some 50 or even 60 degree weather, but no we are in the 30’s and when we leave to go back up north, we will be driving back to cold.

Winter and cold weary.
Here is a hopeful song, hint it has something to do with sun. 🙂