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olorielA pic a day is not feasible for me, but in order to keep posting, I'll try to do a picspam (or at least a single pic to ramble about?) per week. We'll see how that goes!
We've been having snow, on and off, all year (haha). That is, it's been snowing, then it's been staying for a day or two, then it's melted away, then it's been freezing, and then it started to snow again. No big cumulative masses of snow, just enough to delight the kids, powder the landscape and cause a couple of unnecessary accidents on the roads.
Today is another snow day. But as I've already posted several snow picspams in past years, I won't do one (now, anyway). Instead, have some pics of the cold spell that hit us last week. We weren't hit as badly as some other regions - never less than -10°C - but we've had some very pretty frost in the garden. Which is as good an excuse as any to show off my measly attempts at keeping a garden in the first place. ;)
So, the old cottage garden in its current disorderly state. The boxwood hedging is what's left of the original garden. The raised beds I made from old roof shingles over the course of the last two years. Not sure whether they're going to improve the yield but I figure it's worth a try. It's about half past 9 in the morning, the sun just beginning to creep over the hills.
Some frozen hardy veggies/greens: field lettuce, Japanese mustard, white salsify, artichoke (!), winter savory, golden beetroot, leeks, red kale... and a Tuscan garden gnome. It's not a cottage garden without a garden gnome - you gotta ward off bad spirits somehow! ;) - and this was about the un-cheesiest one I could find.
Ain't no Lyra picspam without the standard valley view from underneath the old walnut tree. I once read that if you asked people, regardless of their origin and background, about their ideal dream landscape, the overwhelming majority would describe a not too broad nor too narrow valley with a river running through it and light (not dense) woodland on either side. It certainly works for me. Well, when I can't go to a Breton beach, anyway. ;)
More frozen stuff. Dead flowerheads can be so pretty! The mother-in-law always cuts everything back in autumn because that looks ~more orderly~ but I just leave stuff until spring. Not just because I'm lazy! Also because it gives you some awesome structures and besides, birds like seeds. :P And some stuff even flowers in winter, like the heather which seems surprisingly unbothered by the fact that it's growing in a somewhat alkaline spot. The flowers in the mulberry tree are artificial, though ;)
I made this fence! Tore the skin off the knuckle of my right pinkie BUT I MADE IT MYSELF. In front of the best fence in the world, you can see my stinging nettle plantation. ONE DAY I WILL HAVE AMASSED ENOUGH FROST-RETTED STINGING NETTLE TO SPIN FIBRES FROM IT but it is not this day.
(You don't have to be mad to live here. We'll train you.)
Valley view to the east. Not quite as satisfying as the standard valley view, somehow.
Not much going on with the bees right now. The netting in front of the entrance is not to keep the bees in, but the shrews out. Shrews love the warmth, carbohydrates and proteins that a beehive offers in winter, and even one tiny shrew can wreak havoc on a colony in dormancy mode.
I don't know what attracts the cat to the cold canvas roof. This is Caesar, our uphill neighbours' cat and a steady rival to our own plushpaws. I guess you can't put two cats named Caesar and Fëanáro next to each other and expect them to get along peacefully. -- I also don't know how the dratted mole does that. If I try to stick a spade into the ground during this weather, I'm more likely to break either my back or the blade.
A squirrel has walked on the garden wall. 'náro cat tries to remove all evidence, or something? IDK.
Heh, we all know that shadows wander, but somehow I find it hilarious whenever you can see it demonstrated so clearly.
Things are looking very different today, all underneath a nice cover of snow (like so). But showing you snow wouldn't have allowed me to ramble about the garden so much. So yeah. Now I'll go fetch firewood because while it's warmer than last week, it's still pretty cold...
We've been having snow, on and off, all year (haha). That is, it's been snowing, then it's been staying for a day or two, then it's melted away, then it's been freezing, and then it started to snow again. No big cumulative masses of snow, just enough to delight the kids, powder the landscape and cause a couple of unnecessary accidents on the roads.
Today is another snow day. But as I've already posted several snow picspams in past years, I won't do one (now, anyway). Instead, have some pics of the cold spell that hit us last week. We weren't hit as badly as some other regions - never less than -10°C - but we've had some very pretty frost in the garden. Which is as good an excuse as any to show off my measly attempts at keeping a garden in the first place. ;)
So, the old cottage garden in its current disorderly state. The boxwood hedging is what's left of the original garden. The raised beds I made from old roof shingles over the course of the last two years. Not sure whether they're going to improve the yield but I figure it's worth a try. It's about half past 9 in the morning, the sun just beginning to creep over the hills.
Some frozen hardy veggies/greens: field lettuce, Japanese mustard, white salsify, artichoke (!), winter savory, golden beetroot, leeks, red kale... and a Tuscan garden gnome. It's not a cottage garden without a garden gnome - you gotta ward off bad spirits somehow! ;) - and this was about the un-cheesiest one I could find.
Ain't no Lyra picspam without the standard valley view from underneath the old walnut tree. I once read that if you asked people, regardless of their origin and background, about their ideal dream landscape, the overwhelming majority would describe a not too broad nor too narrow valley with a river running through it and light (not dense) woodland on either side. It certainly works for me. Well, when I can't go to a Breton beach, anyway. ;)
More frozen stuff. Dead flowerheads can be so pretty! The mother-in-law always cuts everything back in autumn because that looks ~more orderly~ but I just leave stuff until spring. Not just because I'm lazy! Also because it gives you some awesome structures and besides, birds like seeds. :P And some stuff even flowers in winter, like the heather which seems surprisingly unbothered by the fact that it's growing in a somewhat alkaline spot. The flowers in the mulberry tree are artificial, though ;)
I made this fence! Tore the skin off the knuckle of my right pinkie BUT I MADE IT MYSELF. In front of the best fence in the world, you can see my stinging nettle plantation. ONE DAY I WILL HAVE AMASSED ENOUGH FROST-RETTED STINGING NETTLE TO SPIN FIBRES FROM IT but it is not this day.
(You don't have to be mad to live here. We'll train you.)
Valley view to the east. Not quite as satisfying as the standard valley view, somehow.
Not much going on with the bees right now. The netting in front of the entrance is not to keep the bees in, but the shrews out. Shrews love the warmth, carbohydrates and proteins that a beehive offers in winter, and even one tiny shrew can wreak havoc on a colony in dormancy mode.
I don't know what attracts the cat to the cold canvas roof. This is Caesar, our uphill neighbours' cat and a steady rival to our own plushpaws. I guess you can't put two cats named Caesar and Fëanáro next to each other and expect them to get along peacefully. -- I also don't know how the dratted mole does that. If I try to stick a spade into the ground during this weather, I'm more likely to break either my back or the blade.
A squirrel has walked on the garden wall. 'náro cat tries to remove all evidence, or something? IDK.
Heh, we all know that shadows wander, but somehow I find it hilarious whenever you can see it demonstrated so clearly.
Things are looking very different today, all underneath a nice cover of snow (like so). But showing you snow wouldn't have allowed me to ramble about the garden so much. So yeah. Now I'll go fetch firewood because while it's warmer than last week, it's still pretty cold...
