The first, tentative, appearance of snowdrops! They haven't changed since it turned cold again, but it's nice to see them anyway, all three of them.

I need to pull away some of the leaves in another spot - maybe there are more!

Claire

This was the river today from near the water level. The rain broke up the ice and washed it downstream, but I am not sure why so much ice ended up piled up on this stretch of river as it's not noticeably shallower or narrower or slower here.

nhbabs: Is the river higher than usual or is it just that the ice has piled up around the trees? I can't imagine the trees tolerating that level for long.

It looks like the river is bending, as rivers do, in the distance. Maybe the current is just moving to the outside of the bend and driving the ice to your shore. River (and ocean) currents are fascinating. I just googled Oxbow lakes to see how the river meanders and meanders until suddenly it pinches off a lake.

It's a bit far from the garden landscape discussion, but hey, it's winter.

Claire

nhbabs - good winter pictures! That field picture with hay fork is a calendar star. And, for those of us with water envy (river, brook, pond, ocean,stream, bay - any trickle will do)please keep snapping and posting. Thanks, Jane

Claire -

The river has about a 10 foot rise and fall over the course of the year. Right now it's probably up about 3 feet above what is normal at this time of year. The Merrimack gets water from the Pemigewasset River which has no dams and so no control over flooding, but also from the Winnipesaukee River which drains Lake Winnipesaukee which the powers-that-be try to keep a bit lower in winter to reduce damage to docks, etc. So during spring melt and after winter rains, the river can come up fairly quickly and sometimes quite a lot more than this.

The silver maples that are what mostly line the bank near river level are quite tolerant of wet feet for even a couple of weeks at a time, but eventually the river erodes too much soil from under their roots and they tip over during wind storms.

In the photo, the river goes from being totally ice free just upriver from the house to being solid ice chunks all the way across for as far as I could see downriver. I'll have to look down by DH's shop when I walk down that way this afternoon to see if it stretches that far downriver, about 1/4 mile. I was fascinated by the irregularity of the blocks of ice. At times in the past in really cold stretches, there have been deer and coyote tracks crossing the ice, but not in recent years. I don't go any where near the ice since the currents make it really unpredictable.

Jane -

I love how the light looked that morning. The hay rake dates from when this was a working farm. We found it it the woods with a small white pine growing up through it and liberated it. Lots of folks around here put picturesque old farm equipment in their yards or gardens so we did it sort of tongue in cheek, but also as a reference to the history of the house. I still have a hay cutter to move from the same wooded area and perhaps grow a clematis on it.

Here's the big bed at DH's shop yesterday. Mostly I am pleased with how it's looking, but I can already tell that the voles have been noshing on the Dianthus/pinks at the base of the nearer gold arborvitae. (Any plants I add in this bed now are surrounded by hardware cloth cages.) With the relatively mild winter, I've cut down most of the perennials that I left for their decorative value through the fall but have since been mushed down by snow and ice, so it's pretty much ready for spring.

In milder winters like this one, the rhodies really add to the color in the landscape. For me, the real value of these PJMs (left side) are their cold weather foliage - the screaming magenta flowers in the spring are a bit much, but I tolerate them because the plants are rock hardy, require no fussing, and provide 6 months of this rich maroon-mahogany foliage, though often during the middle of winter it's too buried to be readily visible.

I was interested to see the differences in leaf curl between the PJM and the Olga Mezitt (lower right), both developed by Weston's nursery and I think having similar genetic background. I guess the variation is similar to the flower and foliage color variation.

nhbabs: It's startling to see your landscape completely without snow. I think I remember a photo a few years ago showing the bed at the shop with much smaller shrubs and trees surrounded by snow. They've certainly grown since then and look quite happy.

Do you think you'll have much winter damage due to the lack of snow cover? I realize you won't know until the Spring growing season starts. Limited snow cover is always a concern here on the coast even though it's much warmer than your zone.

The rhodie leaf curl difference is really dramatic. Have you seen any variation in winter survival with the two?

Claire

It's true that a lack of snow cover can be hard, especially if there's a great deal of wind. As I sit here typing, tomorrow is the day for the big storm Nemo --- we'll see if he lives up to the hype. The photos on this Feb. thread could look much different in a few days.

So today I went out into the garden looking for "reds" and found a few. Of course, many of these do look much nicer surrounded by white snow.

I love the red buds on my Pieris 'Dorothy Wycoff'

We bought this Cornus alba 'Bailhalo' Ivory Halo for its winter color and for holiday decorations

My Hellebores 'Pine Knot' are starting to show their reddish buds

Molie

Nice reds Molie.

I tried to capture this shot of all the ice on the trees last week.

This is why we don't skate on the pond. With all that ice, lots of down branches, which are now frozen in the pond ice.

Lastly - I shot this as it has started to snow today. This is the view out my kitchen window. Makes doing the dishes a bit tolerable!

Nice, Pixie and Molie. I am sure all of our landscapes will be taking on a different character today. Here is a current look at the field behind our house. The snow in most places is probably a bit deeper than around the hay rake since it's on the septic mound several feet above the rest of the fields and the wind is scouring the snow off most of the higher surfaces.

This is my back yard this morning, taken just about 1/2 hour ago from the back window.

Nice wintry pics above.

Saturday I looked out the windows at the collapsible greenhouse to see how it had weathered the storm. Not well.

Here's the view from beyond some houseplants.

From another window with no houseplants:

I doubt if the greenhouse will be able to rise again, but it's surprised me before.

Claire

Oh Claire, how sad is that!? Your poor green house!

Hope you are staying warm.

I went out snowshoeing yesterday and enjoyed the sculpting the wind had done on both flat surfaces and along the top edge of the river bank where extra snow blowing upriver was deposited.

Drifts along the top of the river bank.

spedigrees: The house is nice and warm today. I did laundry and took enormous pleasure from the armload of warm clothes just out of the dryer. I didn't really want to put it down.

nhbabs: All that lovely sugary looking snow! Here it's been raining and the snow is morphing into slush. The forecast insists that it will stay just above freezing tonight so I'm leaving it to melt with the warmer temps tomorrow. If it's not gone by tomorrow afternoon I'll scrape it off the paths before it freezes.

Claire

Wow, you all have such large yards and such wonderful views! When I do dishes, I look out at the cars in my driveway and beyond that, my neighbor's house, lol!

We may complain about the snow, but it sure can be beautiful! Thanks for sharing!

Dee

Here is part of my hillside in Bennington, VT.

Here's a shot of my hostas in the backyard.

Welcome to the forum, timhensley! Your landscape is lovely and that's a wealth of happy, healthy hostas to feast our eyes on.

For those of us still stuck in February, this is the sight I saw this morning as the sun was just coming up. More snow, about 3 inches of wet heavy snow.

I left the red gazing ball (stainless steel) out for the winter just to have some color on the deck.

Pretty much all of that snow is melted now (yay!).

Claire

When I left this morning to drive my daughter to school, I jokingly told my husband that our tree was smoking. The tree was definitely steaming. By the time I got home, most of the steam was gone, but I tried to capture it a bit.

Last day of February. No steaming trees here, but now that the snow is mostly gone I can see a few snowdrops.

and the Spanish Bluebells are sending up leaves.

The snow is melting away from my other red gazing ball which I plopped down in the middle of some euonymus and ivy just to have some color in the winter.

Trees reflected in the gazing ball.

Is it really going to be March tomorrow?

Claire

Yes, thank goodness, March 1st! Red ball is a nice touch in the winter garden, Claire. Very nice. No smoking trees here (I like the photos, PL) but the swamp maples are preparing their April flowers:

and the catkins on the Japanese willow have swelled, maybe doubled, since I saw them in January:

Despite Mother Nature still coming through with some strong right punches, it appears things are pretty much on schedule. I still like the 6 months WITH leaves better than the 6 months without them.
Jane

claire - thank you for pointing out to me that it is February 28th. It was the gentle little reminder I needed to get the March thread up. Especially since we are leaving on vacation a weeks vacation tomorrow!