How am I doing? I'm going nuts. Got a couple of inches of fresh snow this morning. My garden wasn't doing anything good, either, last I saw it. It has been buried in snow for so long that I forget what it looks like. By fall everything looked awful after months on end of drought and frying temps in the 90s. And it was too hot to go out and do any gardening.

And according to some climatologists and meteorologists, these cycles tend to last 25 years or more. Just friggin' shoot me.

Karen

Here is a link that might be useful: NAO

I wish I could say these pictures say it all but if I did I'd be lying. We've got another 2 ft. of snow on top of what you see in the photos with more on the way. I've never wanted to live in Buffalo, NY and now I can say with no doubt whatsoever, you couldn't drag me there kicking and screaming if my life depended on it. THIS is just WAY more extreme than I'm prepared to cope with.

The latest pictures are still on the camera. These were taken last week before the two latest storms dumped another couple feet of snow on us:

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On a serious note, a barn roof collapsed yesterday at Lindy Farms here in the town where I live. Two prize-winning mares had to be put down because they were injured so badly. Another managed to escape somehow.

How am I doing? I'm completely sick of the snow and going nuts. How are the gardens doing? Well, I would ask them, if I could find them.

This is the view out my front door yesterday morning after another 10 inches of snow. The front garden is under there somewhere! :)
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Oh My!
And to top it all off, it has been bitterly cold I hear. Down to the single digits quite often.....so sorry to about the extreme weather.

Spring will come!

We're getting some melting now- it got up to 32ð yesterday. Problem is, every time we get a day warm enough to melt a little of the snow pack, we get a few more inches to top it off. I realize most of the northeast has WAY more snow than we do, we're just not used to this much snow here, nor the frigid temps.

Enough already with this winter. If this cycle of weather lasts 24 years (as suggested in the video above) I don't think I could take it.

Karen

Granted I would love a little snow but man I just don't think I could handle a full winter of all snow all of the winter!! I guess I like it because it is a rare treat for us. 2 inches and we get shut down, lol.

Though spring is on its way, my tulips are coming up!! Of course my muscari came up in fall and I have so much leaf litter in one of my beds that I haven't checked my hyacinths or buttercups. Though someone else in my area was talking about buttercups. So it won't be long now!!

I've lived in New England my entire life, except for a brief nine months in Florida, which I hated. I'm one of those crazy people who really do love the snow. I have always found it magical. We have about 3 feet of snow out there right now and it's very pretty. We have had almost a half dozen storms already this year and my husband has a small electric shovel that our kids gave us a few years ago. It works great! It's only designed to handle snow that is about 6 inches high, so when we get more than that, it takes two people, one knocking the higher snow down to a 6 inch level, which works perfectly fine.

The first snow of the season, my DH found it was very tiring but now after 5 opportunities to do it again, he's not finding it as tiring at all. So, it ends up being good exercise.

It's also been very cold, zero or a little below. So I'm very happy that the garden is under a nice blanket of snow. It always does better when it is covered with snow through the coldest part of the winter.

I find drought in the summer more difficult to deal with than the snow. It has a negative effect on my garden no matter how much I try to keep up with some watering. I do have some sunny drought tolerant plantings, but much of my yard is part to full shade and it's not easy to find drought tolerant for those conditions.

Over all, I'm still finding gardening is still a pleasure and hasn't been impacted too much by the crazy weather. I use soaker hoses, and mulch well for dry periods. I try to almost always choose plants that are a zone hardier than my zone.

There are positives about the weather. I'm finding that the Fall Gardening season is longer and I am able to get more done to get ready for the next growing season.