Snow Sharks

I figure that if Danielle can have field fish, I can have snow sharks.

You can't really tell in this photo but the tip of that fin is a foot over my head. It's certainly been a record season for snowfall here in Nova Scotia.

Yesterday was spring

It took forever for spring to finally arrive in Saskatchwan this year. It was April 26 before I could see any real patches of ground not snow covered. By April 28 I was able to work in the yard with lots of open, already dry places I could easily reach. There were still some off-limits areas. The summer road was still snowed in through the bush, the compost did not have a path that would take you all the way there without stepping into snow, but it was all getting there. Was.

This morning I woke up to winter. Highway closures (several of them) and all this lovely, lovely snow!

If spring and summer are going to happen together in the span of 4 days, I guess our days of growing and harvesting are done. And I hadn't actually started the harvesting part in any earnest. This is the season I am starting my larger, fenced kitchen garden and I have already cut back the seed list based on the late snow arrival. Today was the day we were scheduled to move the fence for that garden. Now, it may have more flowers than originally planned. Snow or no snow, I am still putting that garden in this year!

As soon as all this finally leaves for more than a day....

The Melt

 

Flood warnings are the order of the day here. We have a lot of snow. The drift is as high as my 6 ft. fence all along the nursery. We have been moving snow daily away from the house and out towards the garden and I am not sure we will get it all moved before it melts. Slowly it is melting. The afternoons are warmer now. Benedict is starting to come out from under his snow blanket and I can see more of the bench at the three sisters every day. There is going to be a week or so of wet snow that is cycling through freezing and thawing. It will be slippery but better than what is to come - the season of mud and molt.

One Brave Soul

 

My garden is a cat death trap at this time of year. Everyday, I have to go out and knock down the icicles from the roof edge. I never do that in the dark. I wait until the sun is up and I am less likely to land one in my eye! So every morning Hannah takes a chance.

 

She is the first one up and always wants to go out very shortly after she wakes.

Surprise!

Just when I start singing the praises of spring, we get hit with winter! It has been snowing for two days now. Not much snow and not that cold but it is cold enough to form icicles and not enough snow to cover the plants. I am getting a little worried about the tarda but so far they seem to be holding their own. We have better weather forecast soon so I am just going to hope they are right... and keep my eye on the green bits outside.

Snowy Owl

This afternoon, Sean and I were driving home from Weyburn when we saw a Snowy Owl. It was huge and beautiful. I could see it long before it landed but it did land before we passed. It perched on top of a power pole and watched as we went by. I have never seen a Snowy Owl that wasn't a photograph. We had a Great Horned Owl take up residence on our acreage for about 3 days one year but never a Snowy Owl. When I got home, a blog I read had a post about a Snowy Owl. That landed me at an article telling me that there have been unusually large numbers of Snowy Owls showing up in places they do not normally show up. Hawaii for example! I also did some reading to find they are daytime owls so that explains why we saw him in the afternoon. Normally, we only see Owls at dusk or night. It was a nice experience.

Happy New Year !

Our white Christmas arrived a few days late but a snowstorm blew in on Thursday night. It made the roads an absolute mess and we had no choice but to drive in for groceries. It was slow going but we made it safely and the reward for all the nasty weather was waking up to this on Friday morning! I ran outside in my pj's and boots to get these shots before the dogs went through and knocked it all off. The bird sanctuary was beautiful. I am looking forward to my 2012 garden and when the view turns into this it reminds me why. This year I am getting fencing around my kitchen garden so I have already pulled out the seeds to plan.

Happy New Year! I hope you all had a really great Christmas.

And then there was snow...

When I worked in operations, nothing annoyed me more than Christmas. Every year, year after year after year, we would experience delayed shipments, no staff and general confusion. My thoughts were always... Christmas comes every year at the same time... how does it take so many people by surprise? Well, welcome to my garden where the same issue comes back to haunt me. Every year, year after year after year, Mother Nature decides when my gardening season is going to end. She always decides this around the same time. I couldn't set my clock by it but fall is always followed by winter. This year has been better than most for my garden timing. I only have 4 shrubs and a pile of bulbs that did not get into the ground. Now I am left with the decision to put it all in the shop for the long winter or dig in the snow to drop them in. I haven't decided yet. It will depend on the temperatures over the next few days. Regardless of what I do, winter has arrived in my zone 3 garden. Nothing to do but play with garden maps, read garden books and wait for spring. The season that never takes me by surprise. I am usually watching for the ground to thaw for weeks before it actually happens.

Season Ends

This is what Summer and I stepped out the front door to find this morning. Worse still, this was the best weather of the day. Winter arrived in my garden today in the form of a storm bordering on a blizzard and the gardening season officially ended. The only thing we could do here now is plant lilies and that is only if the holes are already dug. I wouldn't want to dig in this. Since I have no lily holes dug, all that is left to do for me is to settle inside and look back on my 2010 season. I will spend more of the year looking back or looking ahead than I will actually garden. Yes, the first snow day tends to make me a little melancholy. Good news is, I always recover quickly.