Thanks! Long time no see franeli! Drippy...you're killing me. Wake up temperature this Wednesday morning was 13 degrees and the high for today is to be 30; another front is moving in today...possible 1" this afternoon and 2-4" more over tomorrow depending on what local station you listen too! We just might hit are annual 17.5" yet LOL!

Jay, Happy Winter Wonderland Moment! Happy Postcard Perfect Picture Moment! I'm having a mud and puddle type of day myself, and truly find it hard to see the beauty in mud (not that I want snow or ice either, even though it is much more picturesque). I've been watching next week's forecast very, very closely and reading what the experts are saying about the models. I'm a little concerned about the cold temps some are forecasting beginning last next week. Some of the weather bloggers on Wunderground foresee temps dipping down as low as the 30s all the way down along parts of the Texas Gulf Coast. Of course, it is too early to know how that cold front will shape up or what path it will travel, but some knowledgeable meteorologist types are fretting over a cold spell like the one that affected much of the CONUS in early January. I know that having real winter weather in winter means that spring might actually be more 'normal' and not late as it has been in recent years. So, at least there's that. I hate to complain about the rain since our county is more often drought-challenged than flood-challenged, but enough is enough. I wish I could send the next month of rain here to you and Jan instead. At least all of us are here in OK, Kansas, Arkansas and Missouri and we are not in places like Maryland, which may get 24" of snow from this current cold wave that hit us as rain and is moving towards the northeast. I don't know if the folks expecting 24" of snow are excited about it or dreading it, but I'd be dreading if I lived there. I bet one day we'll look back at this as the winter that just wouldn't end, but at least you and Jan and other gardeners, farmers and ranchers are getting some badly needed moisture instead of your usual near-constant drought. Maybe I'll take up catfish farming instead of veggies farming. I've certainly got the full (and overflowing) ponds for it right now. LOL Dawn

I bet in Alaska they get a lot of all those kinds of winter precip we consider unusual down here. It seems like I heard once the eskimos had a large number of words to describe in more detail what we generally lump in as "snow" "sleet" etc. They probably have a word for long spiky hoar frost!

Well, I finished the rose pruning today and removed vast quantities of deadwood; enough so I could unravel most of the healthy canes and hoist them onto the shepherd's hooks. I did have to cut out some green stuff as well. This was the rose pathway on January 8, 2017. I only shoveled as far as the rose blockage. After the snow melted I was able to shove the roses up a bit so I could sidle past, but I got bitten each time. That's sweet Autumn clematis on the shelves to the right. That doesn't bite. And this is what is left today. I won't describe the state of my favorite work shirt that took the brunt of the thorny resistance (the hat and sunglasses and gloves protected most of me). I also cut back the sweet Autumn clematis that's growing on the fence and the storage shelves. The real test will be whether the roses bloom around the Fourth of July as usual. I also need to figure out how to maintain the roses so they don't get this tangled up again. Claire