The "frosty stuff"

The spent flower spike on some succulents.

Climbing Hydrangea

Mahonia

Katie, only sell off part of their property....DH says you need to keep the most cramped, dirties of the kennels to put those people in after their convicted........he thinks fair punishment is to let them have to live in the same conditions they forced these poor little dogs to live in.....there were some of the sweetest little faces in that story.....it brought me to tears, I wish I could take all of them.

Great pictures as always!!

rachierabbit....great pictures, I like the second one best.

Trish...your DH and I think alike!! The punishment should be appropriate!

I agree that's a most fitting punishement!!

Omg Sally!!! you're braver than I!!! I don't know if you could tell or not, but none of my pics have been on my bank to the river. I'm just positive that if I tried to do that...... well I'd be getting out of the river at your place, if I'm lucky. Actually I can go do there ok most of the time, I just figure that I'm only good for so many lucky trips down the bank! I also don't have any bright light on the bank yet, won't have for maybe another month. Definitely need the bright light for the sparkly frost. Just not a combination that we're well known for this time of year!

Rachel, those are great. i like the spent flower one best. if you hadn't told us what it was... i'd still be trying to figure it out. You climbing hydrangea has great color for this time of year. What kind is it? I've never seen one turn red (even if it's just stems) in the winter.

RC it's Brookside Littleleaf; http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/89058/

I haven't been climbing around the river bank, not in this weather. LOL Just the bank behind our house, it's only a graduated 3 ft bank just steep enough to make it hard to work on (or walk on). And when it's frosty, it's really slippery. The river bank I leave for summer, there are a few places I can get down and I carry a big ole walking stick to help me back up.

wow, Rachel! Your's is special. I've never seen one be that bright in the winter. does it get a pretty good amount of sun?

Sally, I agree completely. That's smart. So is the walking stick.

Nice pictures, Rach. I'm impressed with the color on that hydrangea, as well. Thanks for the link.

And I love the Mahonia picture - I always think of you when I see it since you have those lovely mature stands at your home. Last month I was wandering through Molbaks and there was a hummingbird feeding on the Mahonias they had under cover there. They said that he had been hanging out there for days. I hadn't thought of it as a food source for hummingbirds . . .

here are some of the pics from my yard from the ice storm that hit 12/15 that shelly mentioned earlier - a 120' hickory came down and mangled this bird house which i was able to bang back into shape somehow.

this huge limb came down and just missed some over wintering jm's

This message was edited Jan 25, 2009 5:41 PM

i lost 4 or 5 100' white oaks like this down by a wet lands in back

an iced over maple in the pond

if you look close here are the 4 jm's that somehow were spared.

we lost electricity for 6 days because of trees coming down - we were lucky some lost it for 12 days

thread leaf cypress covered in ice - to the right where it is all green that came from falling branches of white pine

here is a shot of the huge hickory that came down

the canopy of the hickory - this storm was really bad - it hit around 9PM on the 14th and by 11PM there were shotgun blasts all night of branches breaking or trees crashing down - we are surrounded by 100 ft trees and there was no sleep to be had that night.

we were lucky not to end up like the duck on the left

this is some of the white pine branches from all over the yard - this fire was lit and never went out for a week.

and here is the hickory after clean up - some how this missed an orangeola jm, only clipped one branch of a new wolf's eye dogwood, and a couple branches off the flowering cherry.

Wow big loss on the trees. We had a storm like that in '96. Ice on everything, tree tops snapping off, no electric or water for 6 days. Not fun. Glad you survived with minor damage. You cleaned it up quickly too. Funny duck!

like many companies mine had an extended shutdown before the holidays - i spent mine with a chainsaw fire pit, and lugging debris for a couple weeks straight

i thought that duck kinda told the story

the duck forgot to duck.

very good katye!

Wow. A 102' hickory. That's a lot of wood by itself, not to mention the other trees you lost.

The only thing frosty here today is ME! DH insisted on a bike ride....it's only 35 degrees out.....it has taken me all day to thaw out again.....not doing that again.....

Hey Rachael!!!! Someone else from Olympia......well, I guess technically you are in Lacey aren't you? I knew there had to be someone besides just me and Laura around here!!

Bill.... thanks so much for sharing all of those over here. Really makes me appreciate the weather that we do have! That tree that fell over and froze above the pond and the cypruss amaze me still. Did I see cattail growing along side of your pond? How do you keep that stuff where it should be??

Katye.... I love that...... The duck forgot to duck! classic.

as soon as the chain saw is fixed that tree over the pond is out of there - gotta get while the ice is there - not cat tails iris's that were relocated from a local river

oh... good to know that it's iris and not cattail. The stuff would be everywhere! They still have your saw!! hmmm... I'm not sure about that place! (not that it matters what I'm sure of :-p)

Wha, I hope that your back is feeling better after all of that firewood! So glad to hear that it spared most of your other plantings.

Trisha, yes we are an Olympia address even though we are North of Hawks Prairie, I'm guessing in the next 3-5 years Lacey will annex us though. Are you in downtown Oly?

Rachael, I am technically Tumwater, near Olympia High School, Laura is off of Blvd. Road right now but will be moving as soon as they can find a new house. My husband works for the Bike Stand/Alpine Experience down town in the old Train Station.

these were taken this morning.

Shelly, I love that one!

thanks tricia. If you remember seeing it on the hellebore thread... I looks exactly as it did two weeks ago :-p Well, minus the snow. but the poor thing is confused I think.

darn it. I keep getting distracted and forgetting to attach the other picture.

Shelly - I wish I had a camera that could get as close as yours.

Here's a Hamamelis that got covered with snow today.

I don't know if it's 'Diane' or 'Jelena'. I had thought it was 'Jelena' - doesn't 'Jelena' come out first? But now I'm not sure. Any ideas?

A micro mode was a must for me when I went shopping for a camera! Hopefully you'll get one with a macro mode soon!

Your Witch hazel definitely isn't 'Diane'. Jelena is one of the first to open, but it's usually a little more orange than that. But maybe that was the light that day? Does it usually seem a little more orange than it does in that pic?

rc...they're still trying aren't they? Those pictures look like sno cones got dumped on them. Neat!