Celeste, I started out laughing, but then, the ending was almost poetic! Don't think I could come up with anything more; you've covered just about everything.
Thanks for an entertaining look at the life of the Northern Rose Gardener!

Judith

Celeste, you hit the nail on the head, and in such a delightful way! I feel your pain (my snow and ice looks a lot like yours!).

Celeste, I'm so sorry for you! I just don't know how I could handle all that snow. And only a few months to see the roses?? OMG! But, look at how beautiful your garden is when it IS in bloom! Wow! They really make up for it, don't they? I love your huge collection of rose books! I thought I had a lot, but you surely must have every one ever printed!! Hang in there girl! Spring will reach you before you know it!

Gorgeous summer garden, Celeste. Don't hate us here on the left coast. Remember, many of the roses you buy are growing big and strong for you out here where it's warmer. Also, snow is pretty and magical etc. At Christmas, we envy you guys for just a moment.

I can't quite match Celeste's pictures, but the situation where I am is very different in spite of having winter also. Sometimes our winter looks like this, after an ice storm:

{{gwi:231327}}

We can go to the Christmas poinsettia show at the park conservatory which in part looked like this:

{{gwi:231328}}

But, spring does come around, and if there aren't any bad hailstorms, tornadoes, tornadic thunderstorms with high winds, late hard freezes, the Jeanne d'Arc alba in the first picture comes out looking like this:

{{gwi:231329}}

Celeste - I love your post!! :-) I can relate to all those photos, although my winter is just a teensy bit shorter than yours (only 5 or 6 months long, LOL.)
I'm itching to get out there in the garden, too. I just wish my rose seeds would have sprouted like yours. Nothing at all from mine - yet - but I'm keeping the faith. And meanwhile, I've been wintersowing tons of companion plants for the rose gardens. It will be a busy spring when it does come and I'm thinking I should get serious about some light weight lifting and aerobics so I'll be ready (or readier, anyway!)

Anne

And though we have no flowers, we can find excitement on even the coldest days when the frost makes patterns on the garage windows:

{{gwi:231330}}

We long for summer when we can enjoy our beaches:
{{gwi:231331}}

We spend time with obscure garden books like "Moss Gardening" and dream up new creations like this bed I made last year:
{{gwi:231333}}

And think of our favorite roses
{{gwi:231334}}

How many bottles of wine did the cat drink? lol

Wow Celeste, that's a lot of snow!! Most of the storms have been missing my area and hitting Iowa/Wisconsin instead. I would LOVE a little more snow but we do still have plenty to play in. Last week I ordered a few roses which is getting me excited for spring.

But for now I'm keeping very busy and hoping for another month of good snow cover. I'm trying to take my dogs sledding 3-4 times a week and as expected it's absolutely NO fun for any of us. Seriously, why would anyone want to spend time on snowy trails in the winter??

Here are a few pictures from today
{{gwi:231335}}

look who's (NOT) having fun!
{{gwi:231336}}

Nope, winter is no fun at all...
{{gwi:231337}}

Hang in there, spring will be here soon!

Celeste:

Your post was so funny, clever and appropriate I woke my husband up laughing at it this morning. Then HE started laughing after checking it out. He read it again, scratched his chin for a second and then said he just realized I wasn't the only one who had habits like obsessive rose contemplation and compulsive catalog reading.

I love your kitty. My cats are amusing themselves by beating on another constantly. A daily episode of big-time wrestling for cats. I think its cabin fever.

Thanks for sharing your post with us.

Kate

Celeste, what a great post and great pics!

I really miss the roses in the winter months. Seems like it can take forever for June to come around with blooms.

Shopping for roses in the winter months does help...

I have some of the same rose books that you have. I love the pic of Jacques Cartier on the cover of The Rose Bible.

That pic was one of the reasons I had to add JC to the garden.

Thanks for taking the time to make such a beautiful post Celeste. I think you are a poet in disguise. You always show us such beautiful things.

My winter is much like yours, snow, ice, snow, ice, shop on the internet, read rose porn, order roses, plan where to plant them, snow, ice, etc. LOL You get the picture. The only one here who seems to enjoy the winter is my dog Buddy, he can stay out there for hours happily on the doorstep just letting the snow accumulate on his fur only to come in the house and promptly lay his wet furry body on my clean bed. Oh, that is another thing for us winter weary rosers, we get to start our spring cleaning early for lack of anything else to do besides shovel snow.

Valerie

Celeste, I always get such pleasure out of your wonderful photos. Your post is amusing and beautiful at the same time. Kitty has a good idea too!

Carla

Celeste that's so funny! Great post.
Twohuskies I love the pics of your dogs!

Sounds like you have it down pat! Spring is right around the corner, but this is the hardest part of the winter for me.

HI EVERYBODY !!

I'm enjoying your comments to my post and glad to hear that so many of you can relate...(and those who can't, are polite enough to offer up sympathy!).

Judith...it seems like it will be forever until it is June and we take our annual trek up to your lovely city and the Botanical Garden (my most favorite place on earth). I am
always amazed that roses are so resilient (just like us, I suppose) and come back every spring. When you look outside and all you see are the brown tips of them sticking out it hardly seems possible that they can come back to life and be so breathtaking in so short a time!
Karen...I know you get some tough weather out your way too, and can certainly relate. There are so many of us who go through this winter-thing...there should be a support group!
Beth...thanks for the encouragement. I DO have quite a collection of rose books, and I didn't show them all! Dozens upon dozens of good rose porn, which I stare at with glazed eyes night after night. Most of the books are dog-eared, worn-out, and the bindings coming apart from so much use...(some of them have wine stains too.) But I would be hopelessly lost without them.
mljan...I promise I don't hate you lovely folks who don't have to wear thermal underwear and don't have to chisel ice off your cars every morning...honest! Without you folks, those of us who are climate-challenged would not be able to live vicariously through your posts & photos. We may grumble about winter but we are the first to admit that snow & ice CAN be a thing of beauty and we alternate between cursing Mother Nature and being in awe of her. I like how you said at Christmas you envy us for just a moment (that envy passes quickly, doesn't it? lol).
the bustopher....I loved your photos, esp. of the before and after pictures of Jeanne d'Arc...WOW, that rosebush is a thing of beauty! What a transformation, come June! You gotta love those Albas and how they aren't afraid of winter.
Anne...hang in there with the rose seeds. They can be frustrating at times. With some, they sprout so quickly & easily that its a real bummer to wait out the slow-pokes.
I love my little "rose- babies". They are so cute! Tonight I was busy seperating and potting up into individual pots dozens of them from their seed flats. They are little miracles to me. I am always in awe every time one pops its little head up from the soil. The fun part is wondering and imagining what they will become, since all of mine are open-pollinated. That's another fun way to pass the time: dreaming up what the rose-babies will look like.
veilchen....I loved the frost pictures! Mother Nature is quite the artist. I sure love the Maine coast...your photo made me long for the smell of the ocean and the sound of the surf hitting the rocks.
rosatimo...The cat (Cosmo) gets drunk off the fumes from my wineglass. He isn't normally this sluggish...in the summertime he spends days & nights hunting mice, birds, moles, chipmunks, etc. All winter long, he dreams of chasing mice and how much he enjoys using my rose garden for a litterbox.
twohuskies....Your dogs are gorgeous! You have probably heard of the Laconia Sled Dog Races we have up here every February. This year we had tons & tons of snow for the event. The past few winters were freakishly lacking in snow cover and sometimes the race has been cancelled. The dogs always look happy, just like your guys. They are too cute.
Kate...it IS a sickness, isn't it? I can't keep myself from checking out the catalogs & websites all the time, even though I have ordered DOZENS of roses, too many in fact. I do this every winter, promising myself and DH that I will not go overboard like I always do and will limit myself to just a FEW roses. I blame it on the winter when I go way, way over the limit. Isn't there clinical research that proves that winter alters people's chemicals in the brain & such? It's NOT our fault! We have 4 cats going stir-crazy inside the house, so I know what you're talking about! Mine are usually good-natured with each other but they have lately been attacking each other too. I am finding big tufts of fur all over the house. Cats provide another way to get through winter...play a game of "find the hairball" or a game of "dodge the cat's latest accident". That always keeps us on our toes.
krista....I'll bet you are restless for spring too! It is getting close, if you look at the calendar....but if you look outside....it is so far off. We are getting another storm on Tuesday...how about you? It is interesting that you have some of the same books...I get most of mine off Ebay, Abes books, etc. so they are reasonable...I must have between 50 and 75 books, but I haven't counted them all. I could start my own rose-library! I even have some very old rose books that can be entertaining to read.
Valerie....I can just picture Buddy playing in the snow then plopping his wet doggie butt on your bed...that's too funny. How did your new rose garden do this past summer?
Are you liking your new place?
Carla...you always have something nice to say...thank you!
Yeah, Cosmo enjoys my rose catalogs too...he will often plop himself down on them & fall asleep as I'm trying to look at them, and he won't even wake up when I pull one out from under him.
Jackie....You are right...those huskies are pretty, esp. against all that white snow, and they look so happy. I am glad you enjoyed the post.
jbcarr....I agree with you, right now is the hardest part of winter. We are way past the holidays when the snow looks festive but still so far away from spring. It isn't the snow or even the cold that is so hard for me, is the DURATION. I enjoy my 4-seasons up here and even winter has its charm...(for a couple months)....but enough already!

Celeste

Celeste,
Really enjoyed your poetry and photos. Before reading all the posts, I stopped to count all the rose books in your photo. Wow! I look at flower photos at night so I have sweet dreams, haha. We had 3 inches of snow yesterday and I shoveled the whole driveway just to keep in shape for digging come April. Never mind I knew that snow would melt today! This is the longest part of winter, when we are teased with a few warm days and mailboxes full of tempting catalogs. Nurturing seedlings through the winter sounds like an excellent remedy, too. I really should be grateful for the winter break because that's the only time my hands and back aren't aching! I hope some more people post pictures. I'll see if I can get my daughter to post mine for me.
Cindi

Celeste

I love your name!!

I broke my toe 2 weeks ago, so I can't even get outside and go for a walk in the woods with my dogs. I'm going stir crazy!! But at least it's not summer (which is too short) when I would be begrudging my rose time being wasted!!

What would we do without the warm zoners showing what will surely come!!

Carol

Hi Celeste,

Are you near Laconia? I'm in Sanbornton. I missed the sled race this year, we took one of our Haflingers (horse) to a log pull.

Just wanted you to know, your not alone, I'm here too... up to my you know what in snow and ice. On the bright side we will be tapping trees in a few weeks and boiling sap by the end of March. 4 weeks and counting. We start the sap season with snow and end it with mud.

AAhhhh MUD SEASON! This year I'm looking forward to it, melt snow melt!

Have you tried putting on you garden clogs while doing the house work? I did--mine have ladybugs on them and daisies. Helped some but not much.

I too have been looking over all the rose books and taking careful notes to finally decide after 2 years exactly how I am going to finish a rose bed. Just when I think I have it just right....LOOK OUT another rose catalog shows up with something else in it and I change my mind.

Your rose babies look so cute.

-Karyn

twohuskies, your doggie pics are very entertaining, love them too. Your huskies are great looking.

Carla

Twohuskies,
Your dogs could be on T.V! Those smiles are fabulous. Warms my heart to see our four legged friends doing what they love to do. Great thread Celeste. Really helps to pass these LONG days....Lesley

Celeste, have you ever visited the rose garden which is part of the Royal Botanical Garden in Hamilton/Burlington, Ontario? It is amazing (and huge) and has all sorts of OGRs and Austins (including ones you don't often see anymore? I was amazed by this when I was there is June '06. Loved your post!

Ruth

Celeste,

I love this post and was leaning into the screen to check out your books. I am a winter book junkie myself. I happen to see a few I dont have yet....yet.

Gorgeous summer roses. You should post more of your summer garden to let us dream by. :o)

ronda

SIGH!!!!

And more yet to come....

Celeste, your garden is really amazing!

I have started wintersowing the last couple of years that is quite fun! I also am starting some dayily seeds inside right now, I hurry home each day and take a look.

Its not really the snow that bothers me, its the long hours in snarled traffic and slippery roads, and snowblowing at 4 am and the ice build ups etc.... SIGH!

We are nearing record snow fall for this part of Maine, We had 139 inches like back in 1979 or something on record... We will probable smash that this year considering we have a month of steady snow to come, another 12 inch storm on the way tommorow and we have already broken 100 inches for the year.

I just told my wife it was like this every year FORGET it! someone else can have the picturesque scenery... WE will move south!

That said even in the middle of winter I never seem to have enough time for anything =)...

The following pics were taken like 20 inches ago!

If you wanna pretend , there are some roses under there somewhere =P...

{{gwi:231338}}

{{gwi:231339}}

{{gwi:231340}}

CANT WAIT for the the first signs of spring! Someday maybe a Rose will bloom LOL

{{gwi:231342}}

{{gwi:224101}}

..just a little snow crazed.

I hope she won't mind since its a public album but I also go in search of photos of rose gardens. Below is the link for one in Japan. Simply scrumptous!!

Here is a link that might be useful: Keisei Rose Garden on Webshots

When I gardened in zone 4/5 WI I grew mini orchid species under lights in the basement to help keep my sanity until spring!! :-D

Hi again Everyone.....

I haven't been able to post to thank the rest of you for your responses due to work and...guess what? We are still digging out from a huge snowstorm which started last night and is still going on late tonight, although less heavily. (Plus another snowstorm for Friday!). We got an extra foot of snow out of it so far. It takes forever for DH to snowblow us out (our driveway is very long) and we have tons of steps up to the house, which is fun since tonight I went grocery shopping and had to lug in tons of bags! Don't you just love it?
cindi...you are very ambitious, doing all that shoveling yourself! Yikes. In years gone by, when my kids were little and I was a divorced mom I used to shovel out my driveway and steps all by myself because I couldn't afford to have someone plow it. I am quite fortunate to have my DH now who not only takes care of all the snow removal, but is my right-hand man out in the garden all summer.
Carol....sorry about your toe! I know what you mean about being cooped up inside....in the summer I take a 4-mile walk everyday, but the road has been too snowy and icy all winter for much exercise....I feel so lazy and sluggish now. I really think we should all hibernate all winter like the bears and such.
Karyn...That is so cool that you live in Sanbornton!! I work in Tilton as a nanny. I live in Belmont, but am on the Gilford side (Durrell Mountain & Belknap Mtn. just down the road). Can you believe how HUGE the snowbanks are around here? I can't even imagine how much flooding we will have in the spring, not to mention the worst MUD-SEASON ever. Looking out there, its hard to imagine we will ever see the end of winter. That is wonderful to hear that the sap will be running in a few weeks....it gives me hope! Pure New Hampshire maple syrup is the best!
Lesley...Thank you for letting me know you enjoyed the thread....we are all waiting patiently for spring and keeping each other hopeful!
Ruth....Thank you for the tip on the Botanic Garden in Ontario. I had not heard of it but am now putting it on my list of gardens to see. I have not been to Ontario (my son has and loved it) but I have always wanted to. We enjoy visiting Canada every year....have been to New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Quebec City and Montreal many times. (DH and I honeymooned in Nova Scotia, as did my son and his wife).
Ronda....I am a rose-book fanatic....I keep collecting more and more rose books, mostly just for the photos. Believe it or not, I have about 20 or so more than the picture shows! Thanks for the link to those gorgeous, amazing garden photos. What a treat!
Silverkelt....Great photos, and I'll bet you had fun out there last night and today (and tomarrow, and Friday, etc.) snow-blowing. My husband owns a hardware store and they had a lot full of snowblowers at the beginning of the season (like 60 blowers) and now they are all gone, with people begging to get their hands on one. DH repairs snowblowers, ice augers, chainsaws, woodsplitters, etc. and had to hire extra help this year, when usually he is a one-man operation. I believe we will reach that snowfall record quite easily! And I know what you mean about driving in the winter....that aspect of winter is what I hate most of all. And it always seems to wait to snow to coincide with the morning & evening commute.
Peggy....What would we do without flourescent lighting? It is such a delight to have something growing inside when all is frozen outside. I have always been fascinated by orchids, but have never tried growing them. Better I don't get into another addiction....lol.

I did a lot of shoveling yesterday from that same storm! We have a snowblower but it won't spit out the snow when it's heavy and wet like yesterday. DH had to leave for work after digging out just enough to get out. We have two driveways, one of them is long and wide.

Celeste, was your snow heavy and wet like it was here yesterday? Some fellow shovelers in the neighborhood informed me they'd never encountered such heavy snow. The stuff was like white muck. Let me tell you, it is hard to lift up a shovelful of snow that weighs like 20 pounds and have to fling it 7 feet in the air to reach the top of the snowbank.

Unfortunately plow guys are out of the question because they'd ruin the gardens lining my driveway. :)

Veilchen, your photos are great, the ice on garage windows is neat.

Carla

Celeste, just had to add that like Ronda I was leaning into the screen to check out all your rose books...and so, now thanks to you I have a new book to devour tonight. I found a used copy of The Book of Old Roses by Trevor Griffiths and snapped it up. I can hardly wait to get dinner out of the way so I can curl up with my fleece blankie and my new treasure. Thanks! ;-)

Anne