Snow came early this year — our first snowfall was in the middle of November.
The light snow added glamour to slightly tattered bergenia leaves. Sunlight shining through exposed the veins and highlighted the range of colours.
The snow didn’t last, thank goodness. In fact, we had a few days of almost warm weather, tricking the magnolia into thinking that winter wouldn’t come.
Blooms on the witchhazel (Hammamaelis virginiana) added a touch of gold.
But winter did come, of course. And with a real dump of snow.
Last year about this time we lost power for almost a week, thanks to a horrendous ice storm. A large birch tree by the driveway was bent over, almost to the ground, under the weight of ice. After a few weeks, when the storm was over and power restored, we winched the tree upright and secured it with cables to a tree on the other side of the drive.
We plan to leave the cables in place over the winter, then release them in the spring. We think the top of the tree will pull to the right then and straighten up.
This weekend’s storm added a cap of snow to the sculpture I made several years ago to honour my husband’s career as a journalist. I call it Webster’s Column: for many years he wrote a column for two different newspapers, one in English and one in French, so the shape of the sculpture was a given. Filling it with newspapers seemed fitting as well.
The last few days have been an arrangement in black and grey (Whistler’s mother has not been seen.) The weather will change, of course, bringing more snow and the glorious days when blue skies reign over a frosted world.
Until then, happy holidays!