Yup, I'm ready for snow too.....well first I have to get my snow tires on....then I will be ready. It gets pretty dreary between when all the leaves falling and the first snow....the first snow just seems to brighten everything up again....Oh I had also better get those Christmas lights up before the snow comes too. Hmmm

Its deffinately getting darker earlier. We are getting a lot of rain....am very surprised it hasn't been snow actually. Car was covered in ice one morning last week.....and a friend couldn't even get her car doors open the ice was so thick. Hmmmmm.

Sierra

Pretty much a similar story here. All the leaves have fallen and I am starting to feel ready for snow. I do love that first snowfall.

Actually the other night I dreamt that we had snow. We woke up in the morning and the snow was about 2 ft deep.... and all the driveways and sidewalks were already shoveled. OK, I DID say it was a dream! Dreams can come true right? I mean the part about "already shoveled driveways and sidewalks" LOL

We still have a lot of leaves on--very pretty. I'm definitely not ready for snow. Haven't rototilled the garden yet :0

I do hope we get snow before it's gets really cold--hard on the perennials when that happens...

Today is the snap! day. Leaves are down and any that you didn't get raked to keep for the compost are blowing away. I got around 200 bulbs planted weekend before last.

Today was the first day I noticed it was dark while the kids were getting ready for school. Time to sew on the reflective tape. I'm ready for the short days and having a fire in the fireplace. We had a half cord of wood delivered this weekend and the guy said he was done delivering for the year.

I'm with Elvis and I hope the snow hits before the freeze. I've lost way too many plants with the late snows. I noticed my first raven yesterday, but last weekend some large groups of geese were still leaving.

With the late fall this year, I really think we may end up going a couple more weeks without any snow. I haven't even needed my winter coat on yet.

Gloria

I hate losing the light in the winter - it must be so much worse for you folks in Alaska!

It's been a very nice fall here, mostly warm sunny days and only light frosts at night. I finally cut back my roses for winter today and I cut 8 blooms off them to bring in the house - I don't remember having that many in mid-October before!

I also don't like the very long dark winter evenings! As for snow, I HOPE it holds off for as long as possible! Though, I'm definitely most glad when deep snows are covering my perennials! In just a few weeks winter is usually here to stay ... though, often winters can be very sunny and mild, just never know what to expect!

Terry

I'm another one who isn't ready for the white stuff - you KNOW you can't say that word until November! Shame on all of you! LOL

We still have leaves here too, but not a lot as it has been pretty windy. I've just started raking myself, but a friend from town who has a few big trees in her yard has given me seven bags of leaves already!! I'd have to rake in the bush to get that much! My bulbs are all planted, finally, and most of the containers have been dumped. I still need to organize all my trays, pots, and four/six-packs, which are still laying around in piles under the deck. The vegetable garden has been tilled once, and dh has just brought two truck-loads of the peaty black earth from our property north of here. I think he still intends to dump it on the garden and till it in this fall. And i'm still waiting for the poppy and nigella seeds to ripen.

As for firewood, we have more of that than we know what to do with! It reminds me of a joke where a Native says something like, "Sign of hard winter to come. White man has big wood pile." Of course, we heat exclusively with wood, so that may be the reason!

I'm glad you started this thread, Mcav0y. I was thinking of starting a similar one about how far we've gotten in our fall clean-up. :)

Marcia,
"I've just started raking myself"

... are you very leafy? I usually just use a hairbrush.

Sorry - Just had to take that jab! ;-P LOL!

the rule is that you can't say SNOW if you don't want SNOW.
Snow-diddy-snow-snow-snow

The studded tires are on, outside spigots have been shut off, the bulbs are planted and the compost pile is composting. (of course the containers are still displaying dead plants, the leaves are strewn all over the yard and the shed is a mess)

alas.... it kinda worked... we are having a rain storm tonight.

Normally, DH is champing at the bit to go ----mobiling. Guess what? Now that he has his Harley, it's a whole different story :0

Northspruce - there are days! LOL

McAv0y - you're a sick woman! :> (Obviously, i'm not a winter person!)

I find it interesting to see how things progress a bit differently each year. The boxelders have shed their leaves. My Norland apple leaves are yellow but my September Ruby apple is still green and just starting to change. One thing I really like is my autumn gold hosta, the leaves are brilliant yellow. My Swedish aspen is green, but I don't think it's known for fall color, at least not in our short fall season.

My Korean maple has fall color for the first time in the 6 years IÂve owned it. Not as brilliant as IÂve heard it could be, more yellowish with a tint of red on some leaves. My ginkgo leaves are turning yellow. Most years the leaves on these plants get nipped by frost before they turn color.

ItÂs a bit too early to think winter, but that could change drastically. In Oct 2002 we had one of the coldest Octobers on record and by this time the ground was starting to freeze and it was barely getting above freezing. This year itÂs been a rather nice fall.

I am hoping for a gradual ease into winter. For me the first snowfall is sort of exciting. Then, by January I just want winter to go away.

I don't mind early or late winter, but I really don't like the coldest time of the winter, the period from late December to mid February where you can get extreme cold, extreme windchill, and plug in your car once again kind of weather.

Glen

I'm just a lurker... and I have to say I give you all credit... you are very hardy people... Down "south" here, we wimps have not had a frost yet, but should within the next couple of weeks... the leaves are unusually green this year... I don't know why they are not turning much as of yet... When do you all get your first frost??? When do your trees peak??? Are the leaves pretty much gone by now???
Just curious... thank you...

Some years the frost never ends, it seems! Normally, most of us experience our last frost in the middle of May, and the first one anywhere from the end of August to the middle of September. I think i counted something like 129 frost-free days here this year (it's in the other thread). Our trees peak around the middle of October, sometimes sooner, sometimes later, but that's about average. Here, most of our leaves are gone now, but there are still some trees with leaves and still some that are fairly green - dh was pointing out a couple of poplars across the beaver pond the other day.

Tune in next month and we'll be complaining about that awful white stuff! :)

Leaves are about half gone, pretty normal I think. We've had some snow already and lots of frosty mornings, woodstove has been going for the last month. During the day it gets warm inside but just open the doors.. I wish for fire season to be over, but to have that happen we need good rain and I'm not ready for that. Coming up on days off so of course I want the nice weather we're getting to last through them so I can finish up on my outside chores. Have to do my faucets or I'll be in trouble for sure. LOL

Halloween night is usually the real turning point for us on weather. Many tims I've been dispatching fires from home while handing out candy and then wake up the next morning with snow....I have a pile of brush I want to burn in my garden and should cover it so it doesn't get to wet when it's finally ok to burn... Still so much to do......

Mentally I'm not ready for snow but do want to be able to do things I currently can't do because of fire duty...

First frost was Thursday morning. Not a full-blown killer, though; I've still got marigolds and zinnias in pots on the deck, and petunias and a geranium on the front doorstep, that are doing OK (although not for long). The morning glories and portulaca bit the dust, of course.

What's making our autumn less pretty than usual is the endless rain. Who ever heard of flood warnings in the Northeastern U.S. in October? Some trees are still green. Others have no leaves left at all. Crazy, crazy weather - but all I need to make me count my blessings is a good reminder of how many inches of snow this would be if we weren't getting it in liquid form.

We'll start getting snow in early to mid-November, if things return to normal by then. Snow that hangs around until spring can come as early as October 22 (my mom's birthday - it did that famously one year when I was a kid), but generally that doesn't happen here until December.

Another "generally I lurk" person chiming in.

I hate snow maybe I should move south. lol!!!

oh... it was 8F last night and the high today should be around 15-20F. And no snow to keep the planties warm :(

Winter seems to be a little late this year. StashBC in New Hazelton is convinced that climate change is real.
He has been in this area for 30 years. This will only be my 9th winter in this area, so for me the jury is out.
It is so variable from year to year around here.

I generally expect snow that stays around Halloween. The mine where I work is at the 1000-meter elevation and there we have been getting snow in the night and then it thaws a bit during the day.
Smithers is at the 500-meter elevation. I can see some snow on the ski hill above town. Not yet enough to cover the ground fully.
BTW I have already paid for my seasonÂs pass on the ski hill, and if everything goes well the season should start Nov. 25. Yes I like to play in the snow and I enjoy taking a break from the garden.

The real killer for the garden is when we get a hard freeze before we get a good blanket of snow. So I want a good dump soon.

The first light frost here was the first week of September. We were getting hard freezes before I went on holiday Oct. 9. I got back Oct. 25 and we were getting 20C during the day! Today checking the garden there is still some ice in shady spots.

Ian

Our first snowfall was last night but most of it melted today. The ground is nowhere near frozen - I moved a shepherd's hook yesterday to hang a birdfeeder and it went into the soil with ease. No ice on the open water yet either. A nasty wind from the NW today, though, so it sure feels like winter.

The only task I didn't get done this fall was putting my big pile of garden stuff thru the chipper/shredder. The machine jams up if the material isn't dry, and the stuff just didn't dry enough. I spread it all out, hoping to help the process but with rain and now snow, I don't think that's gonna happen so I'll just pile it all up again and wait for spring.

Time to sit back and relax for a bit. Or finally clean the house, LOL.

It was grey and dismal here today, and really felt cold even though the temperature said +5. The ground isn't frozen at all here either. We've had a lot of frost, of course, but it hasn't gotten really cold, maybe -6° at the coldest. I'm pretty much done in my yard too, except for covering the gardens with mulch. Will wait until the ground is frozen for that, or until a snowfall threatens. On the weekend, i even got ahead of myself and started the last bit of the foundation bed at the back of the house.

We've had several long falls in a row here, but i'd gladly trade them for better Mays and Junes. I just hate the promise when the weather starts to warm up in April and then it gets so cold in May. That's when you want to be outside getting stuff done!

Marcia,
I agree with you about hating cold late spring weather. It makes our growing season so short when you can't get at those early gardening tasks. This year it just didn't seem worth the effort to plant containers with so little time to enjoy them. Many of my houseplants just never made it outside this year either.
But I don't want to trade the wonderful long fall we've been experiencing. I now have a new appreciation for perennials that keep their foliage attractive to the bitter end. Even today, I'm still enjoying the lamiums, pulmonaria, bergenia, heuchera, cerastium and blue fescue. I'm hoping to find some more grasses hardy to my zone to add to this new delight. Of course, there's also the pansies. How could I forget them? Any other suggestions for great fall foliage? Marie

Well it is snowing here this morning...I think it might be sticking around for a while here now.
As un believable as it might seem the ground here hasn't frozen yet either, which means I still haven't mulched any of my clematis or my rose bush, guess thats the job for this weekend.
I also still have some violas and a ton of Johnny Jump Ups still in bloom...amazing little guys! But I think after today they might be toast.

Spitting snow today, with predicted high winds later in the day. So far only about 25mph gusts. Might down a tree or two. If we lose power we get to go home... Guess what I'm hoping for?

It started snowing thick and heavy a few minutes ago.
I will have to wait and see if this is the one that sticks.
The forecast is for 5cm snow by Friday evening.
The longer forecast is for mixed precipitation from Saturday to Thursday.

Ian

Suppossed to be -2 tonight. We need more snow first. Sigh. Good thing I used mulch.

Too cold for me with the empty ground. I was hoping to set up a skaking rink for the kids, but with no snow to build the berms, I'm looking for alternative perimeter materials.

I don't want to be out there trying to build something with 2 x 12s right now. Pounding in stakes would be touch. I was wonder if I went and bought a bunch of old blankets and rolled them up and got them wet, if that would at least give us an edge for a couple of inches of ice.

Anyone have any other idea? Sandbags would be great, but a bit pricy for a 20 x 40 perimeter.

Gloria

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LOL...hey Marcia when did you move next door to me...that exactly what it looks like here!

Right down to the black cat?!

Lovely photos, Marcia.
We had our first snowfall overnite, but it has all melted already. Good thing because I still haven't winterized everything!! I think I'm in denial. Lucky for me there's a weekend coming up.
Margaret

Where do you live, Margaret?

Here's my snow report for today....
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Sun just peaking out on the mountain behind my office.

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Pond at the office.

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Office bubbler on top part of pond.

Marcia,
I live in the lovely city of Thunder Bay.
Margaret

We saw snowflakes here today!

Current temp at 1:45pm is still -2.

My daughter thinks its just THE BEST that its FINALLY snowing! LOL

Margaret - will you be ready for a nursery run on April 29th next spring? That's my usual weekend in Th. Bay and some of us spend a few hours plant shopping at various nurseries. The more the merrier!

Marcia
I'd be delighted to join you and your group for a nursery run. Have marked the date down.....and, by the way, I have a wish list already.
Margaret

Last year, Gale, Kelly Rae, Danni and i went to Vanderwees, Creekside, and, hmmmm, one other one, can't remember which one it was. Vanderwees didn't have a lot out, but we did a lot of browsing and a little buying. And we had lunch in their restaurant, which was fun.

Looking forward to seeing you in April!

Oh my gosh, we're getting DUMPED on, 25 cm (10") of heavy white stuff in less than 24 hours, most of it in the last six hours, and it's still coming down although not as heavy There's no wind so it's just all settling on the tree branches and looking very winter wonderlandish. Warm temps (9C) predicted for Thursday but I can't imagine all this will melt.

I wish we would get some snow. It has been so darn cold here. We usually don't go from fall to frigid. We moved into this house last Nov, so we had to some time to acclimate to its ins and outs for cold spots. Built in '65 and is very short of insulation. It just seems really cold in here right now.

Gloria

Right now we have a heavy snowfall warning in effect. So far I think we have had about 8" of snow come down. I guess I find out in the morning what the accumulation ends up being. I think the temperature is only around -2c at the moment.

Syreeta

Got about 4" from yesterday's snow storm, but north of here around Riding Mountain National Park they got 12-14". Boy, were the highways icy yesterday.......time to put on the winter tires I guess. Although for tomorrow and friday they're talking about highs of +8C, so the snow here should melt, hopefully.

We got a couple of inches overnight too, but we also have the warmer temps forecast for Friday. So i guess this isn't quite permanent yet. Won't be too long from now, though.

Twenty-five years ago on this day, we had just had our first big snowfall of the year, and dh had worked overtime plowing the highway. I was extremely pg, and the joke had been that i'd go into labour during the first snowstorm of the year. Guess what! LOL My daughter was born that evening. :)

Isn't that always the way it happens Marcia?lol DH is a January baby and according to my mil, my fil had to plow the way with a bulldozer to the hospital, all 7 miles!

Well, since dh drove a snow plow at the time, he said he'd be bringing me to the hospital in it (30 miles!). Thank goodness the weather had calmed down by then! LOL Of course, by that time i didn't care WHAT drove me to the hospital!