Very nice, babs! I have no still photos but here's the live streaming video of my garden, snow and fenceposts and mysterious pawprints:

http://cohen-beach.click2stream.com

Beautiful photo, NHBabs! Carol, I'll enjoy watching your garden progress from snow covered to green in the months ahead via your webcam!

Where is Pixie-Lou? Are you in there, Pixie? Hope all is well.

My indoor 'gardens' at least show the passing of a rough winter through the spike of growth in the geraniums. The first picture was taken on the day of our first snowfall, November 14, 2014:

Your geraniums look great, Jane. I didn't over-winter any of this past summer's geraniums, but I plan to try starting some from seed this spring. We'll see how that goes. I always bought geraniums in the past, but I've become increasingly worried about pesticides that may have been used on these plants, and their effect on butterflies and bees that visit the flowers. Thus I'm going to begin growing all my annuals from seed. Most I already do.

The past two days of snow melt led to a lot of critter activity around my sleeping perennial beds. For myself, I'm just happy that the ice dams on the roof finally gave way!

Sped, you have far less snow than we do. Nice to see your bottle blossoms.

We had more but it melted, but nothing to hold a candle to the snow that hit MA, or even CT. We are far enough to the west that we avoided the snowpocalypse!

Lovely serene scene, NHBabs, and winter seems to have spared you somewhat, spedigrees. Those geraniums look almost like a miracle in the middle of winter, Jane.

My attention here has not been on sweeping vistas, but on the nitty-gritty of getting ice from underfoot. After several 50 degree days the snow has been melting but turning to ice so I've been busy chopping and chopping and chopping (a change from shoveling and shoveling and shoveling). By this afternoon I'd found the bluestone paths in a few spots, concentrating on the paths on slopes where I was likely to take a nasty fall.

I haven't quite gotten the car free of ice yet (it's drivable but backing into the slot is tricky).

And opening the doors while keeping my balance can be an adventure. I slipped once today but I landed sitting in a snowbank.

The melting snow has exposed a few hundred layers of birdseed hulls that I kept throwing down in the middle of snow storms when the birds were frantic.

The path to the back is mostly clear. I kept thinking that the chipmunk that lives under the path must hate me for chopping away when it was trying to sleep.

I haven't touched the path up to the tool shed and I think I'll leave that for a while - it's too dangerous and I don't really need to get anything out. All the important tools are leaning against the house already.

Claire

Maybe you can shovel up some of those sunflower hulls to spread over the ice on other sections of the path in place of sand, Claire? It looks like good, usable grit to me!

I've been thinking that also - I'm just a little wary because I'm afraid of tracking all that stuff into the house, bird droppings and all, although I've managed to survive the turkey droppings on all of the paths. I do have multiple boot scrapers and mats near the door.

Claire

Well that's a point! There's always a downside!

This year's icy paths convinced me to buy Stabilicers. Easy on and off.

I've got a similar slip-on ice cleat, the Yaktrak - also easy on and off. They really work! Unfortunately, I once took one off before getting into the car and it slipped away and slid under the car. I did manage to get it back using the car snow brush. I knew there was a reason I got the extra long extendable snow brush.

Claire

Sunset last night

The reason I plant reticulated iris along the southern foundation - what other plant would be starting to show color inches away from a pile of snow that's still well over 2' deep? A combination of an uninsulated cellar, the snow shadow caused by the eves, and the reflection off the white wall of the house makes this area the first bare soil in my yard.

The low sun angle in the late afternoon brings out the texture of the melting snow.

This morning's sunrise was both the only sun and the only color we've had all day. Not a beautiful first day of spring or even particularly spring-like! Are those of you farther south getting snow?

Babs - glad you got SOME color. Spring arrives in exactly 3 hours. uh-huh.

NHBabs: I'm stunned by your reticulated irises and the colorful sky is very pretty. It's snowing here in Plymouth, MA too.

This is about the only color I have in my landscape right now.

And the snow is sticking on the sand bar.

Spring? Bah Humbug!

Claire

We'll probably have a delayed spring that lasts a week or two and then have instant summer, as it's done in the past few years. Personally, I've had it. My enthusiasm for New England gardening is gone. All the effort and every year it's another big cleanup and waiting to get things established once more, and do it all over again. And now I'm facing yet another surgery in a few weeks so I won't be able to do a lot when it really matters. I think I want a more benevolent climate somewhere, so I can garden a little bit at a time, but all year long, thereby spreading the work out. And NO SNOW to shovel. Sigh..............

Well, Bill, I can't do a thing about the weather or your depressed gardening spirit, but I do wish you the very best of luck on the upcoming surgery and hope that your recovery will be aided by you taking more nice pictures. Take good care.
Jane

Bill: Surgery is no way to spend Spring anywhere and I do hope all goes well. You're probably right that this will be a delayed and short Spring but it may well be magnificent during that short time span.

Maybe it's time to lower your expectations and just wait and see what your garden will do on its own. You've planted a lot of plant material that should have survived the winter, and a lot of the more tender plants have probably been covered in a protective snow blanket. As far as the bigger shrubs like your wonderful camellias, you need to wait until at least July anyway (as Bill Cullina once said) before giving up to winter-kill.

You have the hardscape which will give order to your garden and it will still look good even if some of the plant beds aren't immaculate. I suspect that you'll be pleasantly surprised at how your garden looks once the cursed snow is gone and things start sprouting.

A season or two with minimal maintenance will not destroy your garden.

Claire

Thanks Corunum and Claire. Maybe by June the snow will be all gone! At least I won't have to mow the lawn until it's all melted!

Bill, hope your recovery will be quick and maybe just some warm air and sunshine will be enough to revive your spirits. Things will look so much better when they green up.

If you look really closely there's a purple crocus right up against the white house. The dying pine branch is from the swag I hung under the window.

Bill,

Here's hoping your recuperation will be accompanied by warm Spring weather that will allow you to sit in your garden. Get well soon.

Since Houz doesn't support Flickr, I've decided to bypass it and just upload jpegs from my desktop.

Galanthus Blewbury Tart is the only thing blooming in my garden. I don't even have any crocuses showing. They're all under the snow.

Sedum Angelina, still in her winter colors, but at least snow free.

The damage that is emerging as the snow melts is considerable. Small trees and shrubs have loads of torn branches. The conifers have their lower branches still covered and bent. This is a detail from Thuja 4Ever Gold, which actually has had its best color this winter.

I often bring in a few potted Hostas and put them in a window in order to get them to bloom a little earlier than usual. This is Designer Genes, one of the best with a yellow and red combination. No green on this plant.

We're supposed to get some snow melt over the next few days. It's almost April for goodness sake.

Steve

Thanks everyone for the good wishes.
Meanwhile, I went outside yesterday and to my surprise there was a tiny yellow crocus fully bloomed! And today, there are several more bloomed out in the back bed, including one purple one. Maybe there's hope.............
So I got inspired and started to rake out/clean out part of one of the beds. I cut down last year's hibiscus stalks, gladiolus leaves (yes, my glads have overwintered in the ground for years!) and the daylily stalks as well. There were tons of leaves, especially from the holly tree. But it's a good time to rake since the ground is still partially frozen and most of the bulbs are not to far above ground yet. I did see some allum (A. gigantium) sprouting, and several daffodils. Later in the day I thought I'd go out and sweep out the mess of sand that was spread on the street throughout the snowy winter. The sidewalk and driveways looked like a beach, so at least now they're presentable. Looking for that 60+ degree day..............

Glad you're back with it, Bill. "This too shall pass".
I found Designer Genes at two hosta nurseries in CT, so that is on my list in addition to all the clematises already ordered. Thanks, Steve, lovely pictures, and for showing us a lovely gold hosta. It should help brighten up my 'woodland' garden.
Jane

I have no idea what happened when I tried to post this morning - first 4 posts showed up and now none.

Steve, you are a real hosta enabler . . . I have H. June because of you, and now I think I will have to get Designer Genes.

Bill, glad to hear that you have some bulbs appearing and were able to get out and clean things up a bit. Best wishes for quick healing following the surgery.

My yard finally has a bit of brown showing in places further than a foot from the foundation, though the spots are all S to SW slopes. Hopefully these few warm days will help.

The rain and sun over the last few days have finally uncovered a lot of bare spots. I was outside yesterday morning and saw that a few dozen crocuses had emerged from the snow, with swollen buds. By afternoon they'd bloomed.

I know I've seen someone talking about how to post Flickr photos, but I can't find that discussion. The Photo button doesn't do anything for me, so here's a link to the photo on Flickr.

Crocuses

Galanthus

Edit: Looks like Houzz removed the link part. Hmm. Can any one tell me how the heck to link to my Flickr albums? This new site makes me feel like an idiot.

Edit 2: trying again, using just the link rather than the "HTML/BBCode" option on Flickr...

Galanthus

Crocus

nekobus,

I'm having the same problems. Houz won't allow me to post directly from Flickr any longer. I used to copy and paste from the "All Sizes" page of Flickr, but now I get an error message saying my post is too large.

So I've decided to bypass Flickr for posting here. I just put a folder on my desktop and export jpegs from Lightroom to that folder to publish on Houz. It's an extra step, but it does work well. The pics come out at a good size since I export at a max of 1200 pixels per side.

Nice pics of your Snowdrop and Crocus. The 50 you are using is really sharp. I believe that Snowdrop is a nivalis.

Steve

Sorry to hear about your upcoming surgery, Bill. I add my name to the lists of those wishing you a speedy recovery. I love seeing photos of your gardens.... they will return. I do understand your lament that you've "had it" ... being able to garden this spring seems like a wishful dream to me right now. I was planning to go out and take a photo of the blooms on my Hellebore 'Cinnamon Snow', but it's snowing this morning. Miserable snow that's piling up on the grass and covering my Hellebores and crocus.

Thank you for your beautiful shots, Steve, especially that wow of a Hostas 'Designer Genes.' Spectacular!

Molie

Thanks NHBabs and moliep. Tomorrow is supposed to be a nice day, and Wednesday too. Maybe I will continue the cleanup. I posted to another thread here about "Damage Report" about the state of some of my plants. Time will tell, meanwhile I'll get as much done as possible until the surgery. Then I know I have to take it easy for a few weeks. Darn getting old! (older?) Anyway, there are lots of crocuses in bloom now. A sure sign of spring. The snow drift around the forsythia is finally gone, so maybe that will start to show some growth soon.