I don't have to go anywhere right now - but even so, I am getting a bit fed up with the white stuff. and today the sun was gone - replaced by freezing fog. even more white - for the few metres that were visible!the birds are totally ravenous, I stopped counting them because there are so many! yesterday I saw my very first snipe in ireland - at the front gate!! it must be bad for them outside; they barely move from their feeders, even when we open the door and pass them close by... I hope that we'll have a thaw soon - I am going to buy a bigger pack of bird nuts and if I can, more of those fat/seed filled coconut shells they seem to love so much! they were very low in those at the supermarket last time with those shells; if they don't have them anymore, I plan on making my own out of fat and chopped nuts, raisin and seeds...
I also went for a quick walk with the dog today (after doing my "chores" - mainly refilling every pot, pan and bowl with water from our outside tons:)) - and saw some things close up - with the camera:
Dobby loves snow - the more the better:)) she rolls around in it, sticks her nose in and runs along trees to cover herself with the falling snow - maybe she was a sleigh dog in a former life?:) look at her, she says: come on, don't be lazy, let's go for a walk....
the freezing fog has covered everything with a fine layer of ice needles - the whitethorn looks as if it is in full flower....
but not everything is more beautiful because of the snow! this is one area of the garden, where the frost during last winter nearly killed most of our NZ hollies. most of them did sprout out again - but I wonder if they'll survive repeated hard winters. the empty area here is where we had to cut down the growth of the long branches... and I doubt they'll grow back if they have to battle against long hard winters every year!
makes for a nice "running" area for the dog though:))
the gorse suffers from frost, too - if it goes too far down with the temperatures they'll turn brown and drop off their "needles", but they sprout out easily again and make up for the loss with massive growth. this one has every needle covered with ice - it looks a bit softer than before!
the palm suffers more, I think! it even looks cold - the leaves drop down at the tips and look thoroughly bedraggled:(( it survived the last cold winter, so I do hope it will last through this one. we'll see in the spring, how many victims we have to mourn this time:((
the frost must be hard on insects, too. those cobwebs look pretty, when frozen - but the many spiders blocked in the icy layers on our watertanks show the real picture..... 
6 comments:
Wow, you have gone overboard on the snow! The palm tree looks very sad-but he will bounce back next summer, I am pretty sure. I will try to push some warm air your way!
Poor snipes, they migrate away from northern winter just to get cold and snow over there, too.
I didn't know you could grow even palms in Ireland, I hope they survive. Please show more garden photos in the summer, too:)
Merry Christmas to you and hopefully the weather turns warmer soon.
Cindy - send over lots please - so that my gas defrosts and I can bake cookies:))
Leena - thank you for the greetings, there's no letup in sight yet (26th, maybe...), but I think with those temperatures the frost might actually be a blessing at least for the smaller plants. the palm is too big though - but it survived last winter, so I am hopeful for this. it's in a sheltered spot - our agave in the front garden had to be cut down to the ground - though it did sprout again from the base... we'll see:)
too much white, dass ich nicht lache. immerhin guckt bei dir noch ne grüne pflanze heraus. ;-)
ich hab mich montag abend auf dem parkplatz von der arbeit so festgefahren, dass ich nicht mehr vor und zurückgekommen bin. eigentlich sollte ich lars noch in wuppertal einsammeln. ende vom lied war, dass lars nen freund von uns angerufen hat, der mit ihm "mal eben" um halb neun abends nach velbert gestartet ist. die beiden starken männer haben dann den smart aus dem loch geschoben. ich war fertig mit den nerven, nachdem ich ne stunde lang von vor und zurück, über fußmatten vor den reifen legen bis hin zu speisesalz beim aldi kaufen alles versucht hatte. und der adac hatte keine aufträge mehr angenommen, da mehr als 4 stunden wartezeit.
und morgen solls neuen schnee geben. ich hab mir ein 4er-ticket gekauft...
tja, dafuer muessen wir dann aber auch in dem too much white laufen, nix auto fahren:)) oder Michael riskiert brueche, wenn er mit dem rad faehrt... immerhin - bei uns soll es erstmal keinen neuschnee geben - und angeblich auch ab sonntag tauen! haha, ich seh das schon, es taut zwei tage, alles wird eine pampe - und dann kommt die naechste ladung frost... das wird dann ein spass - leute, holt die schlittschuhe raus! aber vielleicht geht es dann ja auch ganz weg und wir haben fruehling -die hoffnung stirbt zuletzt:))
egal, aendern koennen wir es nicht - und immerhin bist du noch "heil" rausgekommen!! frostige gruesse in den ewigen schnee:))
Oh, ich da hattet ihr auch sehr viel Schnee. Hier siehts ähnlich aus.
Gruß
Juliana
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