Another Snowy Day

We're again having another fine snow storm. How snowy is it? Well, look at Kip:

This was going out the get newspaper. Notice that you don't see his feet - he's standing in 5" of new snow. No going into town to look for a graphics card for my other computer for me today.  What a luxury to be self-employed and able to just hole up in my Studio or office and enjoy a snow day! I love working at home and not having to go out on days like these.

All this snow this winter will be very good for the region's aquifers. It's been so dry the last couple of years they were getting rather low. Maybe this spring my marsh will be back up to it's usual level.

Before I went in again I checked on the Plant Shed. Very nice in there, with the snow falling outside but things blooming and growing inside. Another of the Cattleya seedlings I bought a few years ago is showing its first flower, and a fine one it is, too.

The yellow Clivia is just opening a first floret. There are 15 buds on the stem this year. Last year this one had a wonderful fragrance so I'm looking forward to sniffing the air in the Shed tomorrow.

The scented Geraniums are blooming, too. One, which I think is called Mrs. Taylor although I have no idea why, is a wonderful mix of crimson, scarlet and purple. The Geraniums aren't getting enough light of course and are getting a bit sprawly but  I'll trim them back soon. Once it gets warm enough outside (and they can take quite cool temperatures) they'll go into the Herb Garden for the summer. They get quite huge, but cuttings taken late in the fall always grow. Here's Herself:

Well now, I do think it is time for hot chocolate.

Dream Time

Somewhere in the back of my head I have a sort of vague, confused notion that the Australian aboriginals (or is the New Zealand ones?) have a concept they call the 'dreamtime'. Not sure if they mean winter, or the state of hibernation, or a drugged state.... or worse, but I like the idea of being in a dream-like floating state while nasty stuff passes by around you. (In a healthy way, of course.) A good way to pass the 'down' days of January.

I may be coming out of it now, though. There are fat flower buds on many of my potted Amaryllis in the plant shed, buds on several of the Clivias, new growth on the geranium cuttings, and, SEEDS ARRIVED in the mail.

The sun is shining, it isn't as cold as it has been, things are moving in the plant shed, maybe I'll survive winter after all.

And speaking of dreamtime, some of the seeds that came are for Meconopsis 'Lingholm'. There is a small area near my marsh, fairly flat, fairly open, high enough not to be water-sogged, but low enough to stay damp a foot or so down even in summer, that might, just might, suit the fabled Blue Poppy. It is right on my Marsh Trail, with the Trillium Slope to the uphill side, and already has some huge Interrupted Ferns, a few plants of Lobelia cardinalis which did very well last year, and a ground cover of Foamflower, Bunchberry and Goldthread. Mind you, that white cedar which seems determined to fall down over the path to the ferns will have to come out, as will a few dozen small Maples, but that can be arranged. I understand that Meconopsis seeds need a cool place to germinate and grow and I figure the windowsill in the Studio will be just the ticket.

A flat of possible Meconopsis plants should be good for some happy dreaming. And 5-6 weeks from now, when I'll have to concede that maybe they really won't come up, it'll be close enough to spring that I'll have other things to dream about.

Ah, dreamtime.

January

It is very January today.

The sun is shining but, at nearly noon, is barely above the trees. Shadows are long as Kip and I crunch along through snow that is about half ice.

We see lots of the effects of the heavy snowfall we had two weeks ago. Lots of broken branches:

And some very bent-over white cedars:

Add to this the effects of last summer's drought:

 

 and you can see I am going to have a lot of work to do in the Spring!

I've tentatively decided that I am going to have to get a chainsaw..... they scare the dickens out of me, but surely I can learn to use one safely. I've tried hiring someone to come and cut down stuff, but it costs so much, and they never quite do what you want. So maybe I need to learn to do it myself. Maybe.

We come back on the driveway, which is bare but covered with ice. It is so slippery even Kip has trouble walking, and he has 4-paw drive!

Yep, it's January.

'Tis the season.....

 To wish you all a Very Merry Christmas!

Cold, wet, snowy.....

It's cold, wet, and snowy.

Kip and I went for a short walk in the woods, hoping to find at least some uplifting sights, but they seemed to be in short supply. Kip kept looking up, wondering where those fat white blobs were coming from.....

His warm feet made very clear Kip tracks!

Near the road we saw lots of Raven tracks. They must have held a dance last night.

 Spruce and Balsam Firs were dripping:

Bracken fronds, leaning over and hanging down were a beautiful, but wet, reddish brown:

Other than that, it was as I said, cold, wet and snowy. We gave up and went home. On the way I stopped at the plant shed and found a happy surprise, a first flower open on a Cattleya seedling:

 The first flowers on orchid seedlings are often not quite as impressive as the flowers will be later when the plant is more mature, but this one is lovely.

Maybe I'll just stay in the plant shed until spring.

Bugs, yuck

If you ever hear I've been taken away by little men in white coats, you'll know that it was scale insects that did it.

I have a dozen or so orchid plants. They're a mixed bag but mostly Cattleya types. I got them about 5 years ago at an Orchid Show when they were small and affordable. Since then I've waged war against these miserable scale creatures. I'm not sure what kind they are - there appear to be many different sorts - but likely one of the soft-scale species.

We go through the same pattern every year, it seems. In the Spring I put the plants outside and they seem nice and clean and healthy. They stay that way all summer, getting bigger, putting out new roots, setting buds. All well in Orchid World, I think. Then it starts to get cold outside so I bring them into the plant shed. Two weeks later the darn plants are covered with scale.

Then I wipe them off, laboriously and not-very-patiently. I have tried some insecticides but not only did they not seem to have any effect (probably because the scale beasties are protected by their waxy domes) but also now we can't buy insecticides in my area and I have none left. So the only option is to use rubbing alcohol and a tiny piece of paper towel on the end of a thin stick to wipe off every scale I can see. And that, of course, is the problem. They hide under the papery covers of the pseudo-bulbs, and probably also on the tops of the roots near where they emerge from the bulbs, and as soon as they get into the warmth after a cool period they all lay eggs. Many eggs, it would appear. And of course they all hatch. The hatchlings are called crawlers and that is what they do. They crawl to a nice juicy spot on a leaf and dig in to feed and build themselves a waxy dome house. Luckily, I don't think they can crawl far enough to spread to other plants. I make sure plants don't touch and hopefully the crawlers can't make it down their home pot, across the wooden slat bench and up into another pot. They are less than 1 mm long, so that trip would like us walking about 1000 miles.... with no food or water.

This winter I'm going to be really vigilant and have one more try at winning this war. It'll be worth it as the orchids are all starting to bloom and last year several of them were quite stunning. Five or six plants are already showing bloom spikes, several with fat buds. One plant, which I think also bloomed last year, has a number of spikes, each with one bud. They look like they are going to be large flowers. Good incentive to get me into the shed to water.... and try to get rid of those rotten bugs.

Stump Life

Quick, before the snow comes, take a look at this stump:

I'm not sure how old it is, maybe somewhere in the 20-year range, but it is almost completely covered in various mosses, lichens, fungi and liverworts. A great many different things are growing on it:

I particularly like the miniature moss-ball. Some mosses, like the blue one at the top, grow by spreading sideways, others by growing from a fixed centre. Yet others, like the one on the bottom, seem to head off for parts unknown like tiny explorers.

Looking even closer, I am amazed at some of the  wonderful patterns that appear:

Too bad I don't have my microscope with me!