SNOW!

Woke up to sleet tapping on the office skylight this morning and it soon turned to snow.  It has been snowing for almost 2 hours now and, looking at the weather forecast, we are in for hours more.  I finally traded my slippers for real shoes and ventured out.  The snow is wet...perfect for making snowballs and Scott and I may don coats, scarves and gloves and make it out soon to have a snowball fight.  Then again, maybe not!  Being out for 10 minutes to take pictures left me with frozen hands (although I was bare handed...not real smart) that have yet to thaw.  The flakes were huge-more like clumps of snowflakes.  By the time I got inside and downloaded my pictures the snow was coming down harder, but no more clumps.  Now, a half hour later, the clumps are back.  I have to admit, I am enthralled.  I grew up in Connecticut and I recall massive snowstorms where I would play in snow up to my thighs-of course I was considerably shorter than I am now!  I am glad my work schedule allows me to be home today and whereas I have to be in the city tomorrow by 1 p.m., the forecast predicts sunny skies and temps in the mid 50's.  So today will be a day of bread baking and soup making.  I may even make a batch of jam...anything to keep the stove fired up!

Pics from my foray out into the frozen wilds:

This was an hour ago and it has been snowing hard ever since.

The bench outside the garden.  The woods look lovely.  It makes me want to bundle up and take a walk cross country.  Or grab a large piece of cardboard and slide down the hill!

The artichoke plant in the garden.  This is the most resilient plant!  It has survived through last years heat and drought (we were gone for a month and it never once got watered!) and freezes to 6 degrees earlier in the winter and now 3 snows-although none as heavy as this one.  And it puts off 3-5 artichokes year after year.  What a joy!

Sorrel in the foreground and arugula behind it.  We have been eating arugula, grapefruit and goat cheese salads every few days for months now.  The arugula reseeded from one plant two years ago and it is everywhere in the garden.  It is great on homemade pizza, too!

I transplanted these tiny lettuces last week and then went away for 5 days.  It froze twice while I was gone-upper 20's-and they only had a smattering of hay to cover them.  When I got home I was amazed to discover they'd survived.  I have heard that snow acts as an insulating blanket for plants.  It is in the 30's today and is supposed to be in the 30's tonight.  Hopefully they will make it.  

I spent a few hours in the garden Sunday-it was beautiful- 72 degrees and I was in a tee shirt and flip flops.  I planted more beets, some peas and radishes and just puttered around weeding and digging up a new bed.  I had no idea this is what was coming just a few days later!      

Plants that are "fussy" don't make it in my garden.  I am thrilled when I get an entire day to work in the garden, but those days are seldom.  It has to tend to itself much of the time.  This has been one of the best winter gardens I've had in recent memory, thanks to lots of rain.  My soil is pretty good right now and the chicken coop is ready to be raked out and added to the garden, so it will only get better.  I am looking forward to a great spring garden and maybe a bit more time to spend there.

Looking out from the garden into the woods.

The gate from the driveway to the front yard.

My footprints leaving the garden.