"Old Man Winter"...January 12 2011

You can say I'm "Warm as Toast" in my own little Arctic World here... We don't get many years with this much snow SO I'm going to say it's "One of My VERY Favorite Things"!!!
There are Beautiful Things Sleeping under this Blanket of White... Scroll on and I'll tease you to come back next season!

We received an additional 30 inches of glistening white January 12th... It's been less than a week since we had the other storm that buried us...

It's impossible to walk outside without the aid of snow-blowers... I have lots of unidentified LUMPS all over the property that need to be addressed LIKE maybe a vehicle or two!!! Gee, I think that's one RIGHT THERE in the middle of the picture, I can see it's EARS sticking out! Do you see it???

Looking down from second floor bedroom... That's my Flowerless Cart!!! It's also in a deep winter sleep!!!

View of our lake from a second floor bedroom...

Mon Jardin Secret in it's Thick Winter Plumage...

This is as close as I can get to my gazebo... BUT all this Wonderful Snow is what is going to bring out the next photo in a few months... READY for a PEEK into summer? Scroll on!

"AHHHH!!! GREEN"!!! AND Just Look at all those pretty Smiling Faces!!!

Meanwhile back in reality! This is my front gate into my little courtyard...
Does One REALLY need color film for winter???

My topiary is awaiting spring and it's next batch of nestlings... For some reason, it's a favorite spot for feathered friends, as you will see in the next photo...

The first time a nest appeared in this topiary I thought someone PUT IT THERE to tease me... THEN the eggs appeared... These are American Robin eggs... The prettiest blue EVER!!!

Oh and here's my "Grandbirdies"... I had many a sleepless night until I got them all grown up!!!
"LOVE their little hairdos"!  Don't you just LOVE their little fluffy heads??? Such Perfection!!!

The view from my front guestroom... Do you see my topiary with it's branch sticking up in the air(I called it Alfalfa all summer. Do you remember him)??? WELL, This summer I "needed" to trim that ONE CRAZY BRANCH, and never did get to it! It's been haunting me all winter now!!! But in the snow, I think the tree looks like a "Hobbit Hut" and that crazy branch is its "Stove Pipe". What do you think???

I can't get around the house to take pictures "SO"... I opened up the Dutch Door Top on my Kitchen entry and snapped a few shots for you...

Poor little Birdie... I promise you, I cleaned him up after I let him warm up... THEN he was swung back into position on the Dutch door and bolted in... Before he followed me home I thought I would NEVER find the perfect knocker for this door... BUT one day, he&We met at a local garden center and it was Love at first sight...Now he "Sings" whenever I have company come to call at that door...

This is the tunnel out my front entry... Can you see my iron chairs embedded in the snow on both sides??? The snow walls are taller than I am... BUT it's kind of cozy in here!!!
Don't you just LOVE the Tall Snow Bonnets Mother Nature places on everything's head???

Here's a close up of one of the iron chairs... Do you see it???

This is what it will look like with a little Summer Serendipity...

The bottom of my blue spruce is buried ...Sleep Hollow Gardens are 6feet under...

"My Black Forest"...

Summer in My Black Forest...

The Chimney Gardens fast asleep... But in a few months

they will Smile in All Their Splendor...
Hurray!!! Some PINK so I can visit Beverly this week...

Yes... This is ALL totally buried and rejuvenating... So it may Erupt into the Rainbows of Spring...
And a little more PINK!!!

For Now Even the Gardeners are at Rest... It isn't long till So Much will need to be done... Some of the Fall Leaves will still need to be raked out of the gardens to allow the next Season to emerge... I LOVE the Seasons and how they are all so important to each other... I am a True New Englander!!! I Love My Life Here and I Love all of You Who Have Touched My Life So Dearly!!! "God Bless You All Sweet Friends"...

"GIVEAWAY"
Wow you MUST,MUST,MUST check out this generous giveaway From "Ginger the Sweetest Lady EVER"... 
http://savannahgranny.blogspot.com/

I'm LINKING To
http://iloveprettylittlethings.blogspot.com/2011/01/friday-pretties.html 

http://romantichome.blogspot.com/2011/01/show-and-tell-friday_20.html 

http://fishtailcottage.blogspot.com/2011/01/cottage-flora-thursdays-3.html 

http://fadedcharmcottage.blogspot.com/2011/01/white-wednesday-83.html 

http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/2011/01/and-so-it-begins-building-of-home.html 

http://smilingsally.blogspot.com/2011/01/blue-monday-bluest-day-of-year.html 

http://houseinroses.blogspot.com/2011/01/show-off-your-cottage-monday_16.html 

http://thetablescaper.blogspot.com/2011/01/snow-dayseasonal-sunday-32.html 

http://bellavita-bellasblog.blogspot.com/ 

http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/01/pink-saturday-january-15-2011.html 

http://bargainhuntingwithlaurie.blogspot.com/2011/01/just-walking-around-snappin.html

 

Thank you Everyone!!!

Thank you EVERYONE!!! for the help... and "SPECIAL THANKS goes to Lori Lynn@ Lori Lynn's Cottage... AND... Sweet Connie @ La Maison Rose"... They both helped make my header picture PERFECT... Oh and Thank you to Mother Nature for all the White Special Effects!!!

AESOP Fables & Snow Birds on a Branch

My restless group of  Chickadees are waiting for me to read to them...

This charming little chorus was singing to me as I brewed myself a pot of coffee...

 Life on the other side of my doors is awaiting another major winter storm, SO I welcomed "Giuseppe Armani's Birds on a snow branch" to join me for a reading of AESOP's Fables... Do you see their delight as they wait for me to begin!

A Cute as a Button, "Boreal Chickadee"... He's the subject of Mr Armani's sculpture... Here he is pictured in Full Summer Splendor doing what He does Best..."Winning the Heart of Mankind"...

"Doesn't looking at this little guy make the Sun Shine"... And "Your Heart Sing"???

I use these Stone Carvings as plate holders... They are remarkable, DEEPLY carved with their subjects (bunnies and raccoons)...Like a fossil on a slice of petrified tree... I bought them about 40 years ago and I've never seen anything like them... They look wonderful on the table for trivets to conduct heat or as I'm using them today under my coffee cup&saucers...

I made my "1st" garden shop visit the other day, Between Snowstorms... I spent HOURS just lingering in their greenhouses and thinking of the months ahead as I consumed all that WONDERFUL greenhouse humidity, signs of spring, and OH the smell of Good Dirt!!!Is it JUST ME or do all gardeners LOVE the smell of dirt???
I did buy something, the wicker covered tray in my photos. I fell in LOVE with it the minute I saw it... SO different and such a fun color(kind of a driftwood gray)... It's quite large and I know it's going to become one of My Favorite Things!

My Little Feathered Friends were promised they could nibble on those iced ginger snowflakes once I start my reading...

http://www.archive.org/details/bewicksselectfab00aesouoft

We Must Invite a Fox if we are Going to Talk about AESOP Fables...AND Oh Yes, I just happened to have a very close friend "That's a Fox"!!!

 My 1st Edition 1871 of this classic is in pristine condition with it's gilded gold edged pages "Waiting to be read"!!! You can go to the LINK(above) I posted and read it free... This Book of Fables, includes the Life of AESOP and his works masterfully  printed in London with the original woodcarving from 1784... The link under the picture below will take you to the 1784 original woodcarving included in this 1st Edition...

http://mythfolklore.net/aesopica/bewick/    

If you haven't read AESOP'S FABLES "You MUST"... and If you only read them as a child, "It Doesn't Count"!!! Read them Now!!! They are Timeless AND Ageless!!! You don't EVEN have to look for this book or pay a penny to download because it was never copyrighted and you can read the exact book I own on the LINK I Posted for you... Consider me the Teacher and you the Student and I'm "Giving you that assignment"! I KNOW You'll Love it!!!

"OK! So it's Boulders and not Grapes!!! BUT I got the Fox right and There's a "Whole Litter of those Cuties Stuffed in that Hole"!!! AND these are MY Neighbors that live in my yard!

We are going to enjoy our Fables now by Candlelight... 

I'm LINKING To
http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/2011/01/glamorous-new-years-eve-table-setting.html 

http://coloradolady.blogspot.com/2011/01/vintage-thingie-thursday-vintage-quilt.html 

http://fadedcharmcottage.blogspot.com/2011/01/white-wednesday-82.html 

http://astrollthrulife.blogspot.com/2011/01/47th-table-top-tuesday.html 

Mother Nature's Gift

You may want to stop "AND" get a nice toasty sweater "AND" a big steaming hot mug of coffee or tea for your stroll through my world today...
"Go ahead"...
"I'll Wait".........
"Mother Nature has left us a gift"!!! After the 107temps we experienced this past summer I am so happy our winter is glistening with snow!!!

It wasn't easy getting to my kitchen entry BUT I had to start here because the sun is out and "Already" the snow is beginning to melt...

"You cannot appreciate how deep this is from my photos"... I left word with my guys that if I didn't come back within an hour to send that "Darling St Bernard" that carries that "Darling little Keg" under his neck to Fetch me!!!"OH, and as a special request, Fill the little Keg with Hot Chocolate please"!!!   Hmmm... "That sounds so good I MAY just Wait it out in the Gazebo to get rescued!

"Papillon Pass in my Library Gardens"

This is the view from my guestroom... Remember this view because I'll show you it in reverse(the forth picture down from here)... I had to stand on a chair because the snow is covering the bottom half of windows... This is also where "My Computer" is as I watch the world outside!!!

The back of the chimney from the guestroom window...

Do you see my garden sleeping out there... Not even a creature is stirring... "No Footprints YET"!!! I LOVE to go out and investigate who's who in the animal kingdom... Oh Yes, some don't mind wandering through while I watch BUT there are the shy ones that leave their prints and tunnels in the snow..."LOVE THAT"!!! Have you ever seen a little mouse tunneling under the snow? It's the cutest thing EVER!!! It looks like a Disney Cartoon...I KNOW Walt Disney had to have wandered about investigating all the life that goes on in the Stills of Winter...

In a few months from now this scene will be vibrant with "The New Smiles of Spring"... I can truly say I am a New Englander! I LOVE the four seasons as they are... Perfectly Formed to mold into the next... I must admit I enjoy my rest from my gardens over the winter... I do all my own work and I too need "The Rejuvenation of The Hibernation...Like my "Wishlist", anticipating what will come is So Self Satisfying! "There is NOTHING greater than to look at a landscape like this, and soon, have a colorful flower pop it's little smiling face up "POSSIBLY" through the snow"... OK...Not Yet...But SOON!!!

This is my Guest Room Window... The Room with a View!!! Although the view is half obscured with an avalanche of snow for the time being... BUT that's OK... it's awful pretty to look at, isn't it?

My atrium (off my kitchen) windows have been dressed by Mother Nature in the most beautiful Curtains of Crystal Icicles... In the distance you can see my little lake...

More of Mother Nature's Splendor...

Hard to believe there are SO many evergreens hiding under this canopy of white... I have two gorgeous boxwood hedges in there... "Somewhere"!!!

"Nature's Bounty"...

I could actually ski in my backyard if there weren't so many trees AND it's out of the question, "The Trees STAY"!!!

"I wonder if Santa has this much snow"???

Whiteout in "My Black Forest"

Eye level mounds burying my gardens

My Front Entry

Even my iron flower cart is fast asleep under a blanket...

I'm LINKING To
http://asoutherndaydreamer.blogspot.com/2011/01/112-outdoor-wednesday-105.html 

http://boogieboardcottage.blogspot.com/2011/01/masterpiece-monday-2.html 

http://dittledattle.blogspot.com/2011/01/amaze-me-monday-7.html 

http://houseinroses.blogspot.com/2011/01/show-off-your-cottage-monday_09.html 

http://thetablescaper.blogspot.com/2011/01/giveawayseasonal-sundays-31.html