Our area is coming out of over 110 hours of very unusual, bitterly cold, sub-zero degree weather. Throughout high east winds channeling through the Columbia River gorge, snow fell the second half of the day last Saturday and temperatures stayed from lows of 11 degrees (f) to highs of 27 degrees (f) since. Yesterday, we had a bit more snow and then an ice storm. Overnight, things warmed a bit and today’s all about the slow melt back to normalcy.
The fountain is gorgeous with its icy coat. It runs 24/7/365 to allow birds and wildlife access to water, and to keep the pipes from freezing solid. Most of the fountain parts are underground and fairly well protected below the frost line. Tomorrow, the ice will fall off the pillars in big sheets and by this time next week, it’ll look typically wet and mossy green.
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We were notified last weekend that our Colehaus Cats Facebook page somehow violated their copyright rules and our Colehaus Cats Facebook page would be deleted. That notification could be spam or it could be real. We don’t know. Mom doesn’t have time to play email tag with the Facebook higher ups to find out the hows and whys. So if our minuscule presence on Facebook disappears, you’ll know why. All we can do is apologize. Oh, and grrr.
The last of the Christmas decor is packed away with exception of a string of white icicles on a weeping Japanese maple out back, saved for a possible snowy display. We love the look of white lights in snow. We hate the thought of driving in snow. And yet, Mom likes shoveling snow. Welcome to a mixed up, crazy Colehaus world!
The past couple of mornings have been very foggy here. We can see the fountain in the backyard but we can barely make out the mailbox across the street and we have to assume the end of our street still ends and isn’t in a forever puff of dense whiteness.
We had one dusting of snow very early Wednesday morning. Mom said driving in it wasn’t bad, even going up the big, big hill to her job. No problem-o. Another snow/ice event is scheduled for late this afternoon. Dad’s probably going to have to find a ride home tonight, and to-and-from work tomorrow. Mom absolutely must go to work early Sunday morning as usual, regardless of the weather, and because well, layoffs are all the buzz for late January.
A single mini petunia is still hanging in there from last summer. These are annuals, always have been annuals. The first frost and *Poof!* They’re done. And yet, we’ve been seeing more and more annuals hanging on throughout the winter. Mom knows what’s going on but no one believes it in our neighborhood, so she’s keeping quiet. She knows what she sees.
And another annual, though to give it credit, these seeded themselves last year which may have made them stronger than your average annual alyssums. We’re guessing here.
Bergenia, Winter 2024
The Bergenia are acting normal for January, putting on its bronze-red leaf color. We divided this clump a couple of years ago and now, we hope to share those growing clumps with others this spring when Mom tries her hand at giving away overgrown plants to a NextDoor garden group. She sure hates throwing perfectly good plants in the yard debris bin but we can’t be responsible for our county becoming the Berginia and perennial capital of the world.
We’re convinced this gifted greenhouse-grown Cyclamen has made the complete adjustment to living outdoors permanently. It’s thriving and sends up flowers every winter through spring. Keeping a good layer of hazelnut shells as mulch around it completely discourages slugs who we all know huddle together in a garden corner and curse the day hazelnut shells were invented.
This is heather, a pink heather, to be exact. It blooms in January and Mom loves the way they look when the plant is trimmed into a ball shape. Mom didn’t shape her heather for reasons unknown and so, this heather is sprawling in directions most unbecoming. Last summer, Mom tried to “shape” this heather and the heather wasn’t having any of it, having rooted itself this way and that. Now that we’ve acknowledged the sprawly heather, let’s move on. Nothing more to see here.
This is Mr. Stubbs. He’s been popping in and out of our backyard for a couple of months now but we’d not been able to get close to him. We actually saw him for the first time last spring, or technically, we saw his stubby tail as he high-stubby-tailed it out of our yard.
And this is Mr. G, formerly known as Murray, who still hangs around our place despite the cold and the rain. He knows where the warmed feral shelters are and that kibble is usually available in the feeding stations during the day. Mr. Stubbs is Mr. G’s brother so you’d think, eventually, Mr. Stubbs would be curious as to why Mr. G hangs out with Mom when she’s outside.
And suddenly one day, Mr. Stubbs thought curiosity wasn’t a bad thing to have after all. He comes out for pettings and catnip chicken treats whenever Mom’s outside. His fur is like the softest, finest bunny fur and his tail is tightly kinked into a ball. He loves scritches around his neck and ears. We haven’t heard him meow yet, while Mr. G is very talkie. Mom’s going to have her hands full with two garden cats next spring supervising and directing where this plant and that plant goes.
