2-26-2014 Hopefully the last real cold push.

After a few absolutely gorgeous days, we're heading back into a few cold days.

Trees have not gotten the message and started leafing and blooming:

Blooming magnolia

Some garden survivors while my tomatoes and peppers started sprouting under the grow light.

This Brussel's sprout choose the horizontal position after too much snow.

Chervil

Crocus

...They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance....                William Wordsworth

Mine aren't in the thousands yet but in the hundreds.

2-15-2014 Can't stop nature!

As we dig out of our latest snow, rain, this morning, uncovered a golden surprise: the first daffodil blooms.

They are a little shy under the morning rain but there is no mistaking their message:

spring is on the way!

It's not quite William Wordsworth

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

2-12/13-2014 The second coming?

We've been blessed this year with not one but two snow storms. This one mixed in with some sleet for good measure.

The garden is again invisible,

The fig tree seen here in a very unconventional way: totally bare but for snow.

but it shows signs of hope, my first daffodil ready to bloom and the quince showing (timidly) the colors through the snow.

Bamboo bending under the ice.

Tea time! No mosquitoes! Guaranteed!

02-05-2014 Bleakness vs hope!

It is rather bleak out there!

 While I appreciate the rain, I think most of us are suffering from sun deprivation.

We're so used to see it most of the time, even in the heart of winter, not those clouds!

I did take advantage of a few dry hours here and there to do some clean up, pull weeds, remove frozen vegetables, clean up those that had a chance for survival. Hardly any of them show much prospect and, in any case, it'll be weeks before I can start eating them again.
I am spreading new wood chips provided by Craig Brown on the old paths to revitalize them some.

I started receiving some of the new seeds and put some to work by starting my leeks, onions and peas out in the garden and some lettuce under the grow light. So that on those bleak days, I can take a peak in the room and see some gorgeous new green leaves waiting for better days to be transplanted outside.