I'm sitting here looking out of my window ... and it's a melancholy sight. The trees are bare now. The last of the leaves have gone, and the last of the quinces are lying forelornly on the grass at the foot of the tree. I wonder whether all the trees will survive the winter and break into new leaf in the spring, or whether any of them will succumb to disease. The mulberry didn't leaf at all this year. I'll give it one more spring just in case ... but if it's died it'll have to come out and be replaced. The fences are looking a bit sorry for themselves. I'll need to have them treated with wood preservative in the spring, I think. Too late now ... it has to go on when the wood is dry. The edges need re-cutting and the beds are looking very forelorn. Come the spring they'll burst back into life again ... and the annual struggle to eliminate weeds while keeping the plants I want will begin all over. And so the seasons come and go ... and the cycle repeats itself ...
Not enough doom and gloom for my taste. I prefer some good Dickinson or Plath when I stare out the windows in winter...
That is what is great about nature. I love cycles... My garden doesn't look super forlorn though because since I live on the coast, the weather doesn't change all that much so I still have Chard, Brussel Sprouts, Broccoli and Kale growing and my Rhubarb is looking good. No flowers though and I greatly look forward to the return of flowers.
It's been unseasonably warm here in the southeast. I wonder if winter will ever come, or if it will trick the flowering buds with a frost. Oh well, the garden is always alive in some way. Kitchen scraps composting. Worms writhing. Cardinals pecking and aerating the soil.
Tis the season for seed catalogs, garden planning books and blog sites that offer great photos and ideas. I usuall set the bird feeders in the garden area so theres life and color of a sort there even in winter. And then theres nothin to do but wait it out, good luck.
We now have snow so there is not much to see. I dislike the time between everything ending for the season and the no snow. At least with the snow on the ground it is a fresh coat of paint for a little bit. There are very mature pines around the front and side of the property so they house birds all winter. The bit of colour they bring and the sweet songs are wonderful to hear. I had for years two morning doves who were here all winter and would sit on the tin roof of the garage, smarties as it kept them warmer. I have not seen them this year and wonder what happened to them. Then I have this insane little red squirrel that sneaks into my garage and has made himself right at home. He taunts the dogs by running on the railing of the deck and he stops right at the patio door and sits up, quite the entertainer he is.
Looking out over the garden everything is brown and gray. The lilacs, forsythia, dogwood, mountain laurel, pussy willow, cherry, and crabapple are in limbo – strange, last year at this time we had so much snow every intersection was a nightmare trying to see oncoming cars, this year not a flake h
