One Day After Our Snow Melt - Part 1

If you saw yesterday's post, you know that our snow had almost all melted. The very next morning, I woke up to a winter wonderland - and the snow kept falling:

I took a drive down the (unplowed) gravel road alongside my pasture fence to see the wintry beauty. White Birch were plentiful. That's my pasture on the other side of the trees:

The scenery became mostly forest as I continued on past my property line:

A small, unused field was backed up with woods which looked as if they'd been dusted with powdered sugar:

A neighbor had cleared out around some old apple trees and pruned them:

Much of the tall Red Pines along the road have been cut, but some remain, and they are beauties:

A Beech tree had grown up outside the old fence which shows that there was once a pasture here:

It's hard to tell from the photo, but I think I remember that this was an Eastern White Cedar, a common tree in these parts:

An old stone wall, gradually being swallowed up in tree growth. I once live-trapped a mouse and released it here, hoping it found a good place to live:

The snowy tracery of small brush:

A White Pine had sprung up amid the hardwoods and Red Pines:

A golden leafed Beech behind an arabesque of snowy branches. But there was still more wintry beauty to see, and I'll post Part 2 tomorrow:

What The Thaw Revealed

After an early, snowy and frigid beginning to winter, we had a surprise thaw, so I went out to see what the snow melt had revealed. This is my Blue Moon Wisteria. It's not much taller than when I planted it, but it's sturdier and has already survived one harsh winter, so I have high hopes for more growth this summer:

 The pear tree produced so much fruit that branches began snapping off and falling to the ground. Even after letting the neighbors take all the pears they wanted, there were still plenty of them on the ground:

 And I could tell that the cottontails had been eating them. I see their tracks each morning when there's snow on the ground and sometimes I see them scurry away when I turn on the back porch light at night:

 There were windfall apples too:

 I thought the Coppertina Ninebark bushes were unchanged by winter's cold - until, that is, I got a closer look. The leaves were dry and dead, despite retaining much of their coppery color:

 The Iris and Asiatic Lilies (and all their little weed friends) were asleep for the winter:

 And, on the other side of the house from the main apple grove, the Golden Delicious tree had dropped fruit. I could see that the rabbits had been eating them also:

 The Variegated Weigela and Magic Carpet Spirea looked dead, but they are hardy enough for me not to worry about them:

 The peonies had lain down for a long winter's nap:

 But the Tree Hydrangea will keep its dried flowers all winter long:

 The Mandarin Honeysuckle is in its first winter here. The last one I planted didn't make it through its first winter, but this one grew much better - and they are reportedly Zone 3 hardy:

 The Red Hydrangea and hardy Magnolia were dormant, and I could only hope they will survive this winter. This is the Magnolia's third winter here but, as you can see, it hasn't grown very tall in three years:

 My biggest surprise was the Morden roses. When they told me they were super hardy, I guess they weren't kidding. They still looked like they'd bloom again if we got some warmer weather:

 The Rose Mallows were done for the year. I'll cut them down to the ground in the spring:

 But the Rose Mallows had a surprise for me - pods filled with seeds. I tried planting some last year without success, but I saved these seeds and plan to try again in the spring:

 Another surprise, an Eastern White Cedar seedling growing in an ancient tree stump beneath the big clump of Lilacs. Alas, I won't be able to let it grow there because of the Lilacs:

 And speaking of Lilacs, they too had seed pods, not to mention green buds, all ready to burst open in the spring. Our surprise thaw was short lived. It's now fully winter again: