Saturday, January 17, 2009

Winter Whites

"Two seasonal diversions can ease the bite of any winter. One is the January thaw. The other, seed catalogues." - Hal Borland

My garden is asleep under a blanket of white. I flip through catalogs, making plans for warmer months.

I want every flower in those catalogs and I won't whittle down my list until it's official someone else has won the lottery.

I peer out my window, keeping tabs on the ancient arbor, stripped of flowers until next spring. It's listing to the left but so far shows no sign of tumbling.

I'll bet you're wondering why I planted pear trees next to a flower arbor. Well, that was before I knew what I was doing. (Though I'm not so sure I currently know what I'm doing.)

Frosty Kokopelli plays a tune in my sleepy garden. In Hopi legend, Koko travels from village to village bringing the change of season, from winter to spring.

If that is true, then Koko should walk slow so as not to foil his own magic.

Gardening is 5 long months away, though I don't mind. The days are so warm we hike toward the old stone house with jackets tied around our waists.

Mornings glitter with frosty diamonds on all the trees.

And, we gardeners can happily hibernate! Just like the bears ~ while we scheme and dream and wrestle with flowering plans for the coming season.

9 comments:

Cowgirl said...

Wow! You sure do live in a lovely place and your photos are so nice. I live in the mtns of British Columbia and am learning about gardening here.

workhard said...

the snow pictures came out so beautiful, there almost silver

BPO work from home

thismngardener said...

gorgeous photo of the tree, friend.

Kate/High Altitude Gardening said...

Thanks, that's very nice of you to say.

Cowgirl! - are you a really a cowgirl? I'll trade you gardening advice for cowgirl advice. I'm trying but I still look like a poser when I sitting on my horse.

Iron Needles said...

FIVE months til gardening??? Could we maybe squeeze it to four?

We had 60 degrees today, too. It's such a tease!

Granny J said...

Seed catalogs -- what wonderful dream books! Then I discovered that on the web you can order wildflower seed by the ounce and the pound. Wahoo!!!

Kate/High Altitude Gardening said...

I scattered wildflower seed in the back area of my property this fall. I hope it sprouts...

Unknown said...

Gorgeous photos...I wish I could hibernate for the winter, but it doesn't appear to be working...however, the days are getting longer day by day, so we'll make it through...

Anonymous said...

I live down in the valley floor and we are choking on our own smog! I went snow shoeing in Little Cottonwood canyon Saturday and did NOT want to return when I saw what I had been breathing down below. (But I did and Im envious of you mountain dwellers right now)