Snow in my Town 2015

Snow in my Town




http://www.sharonsalzberg.com/moment-snowflake/



Note: If you live in an area where you get snow by the foot per day or hour, this post will bore you as snow is probably not interesting to you. 
   

Chicago Blizzard February 2011
https://ivowidlak.wordpress.com/2011/02/01/chicago-blizzard-february-2011-two-feet-of-snow/


For those who do not live in the snow and or like to look at some boring snow photos, proceed!

2015
As mentioned that before I live in Washington state in the east part.  I have lived in Western Washington for six years previously. We had snow some years. Some years more than others but never more than 2 feet in any given season that I was there. I was less than 100 feet in elevation in the three different houses that I lived at while living on the Olympic Peninsula.
So this is my first time in eastern Washington state as I mentioned before I moved here in July from California where I was living from 2011 to this year. I had lived in Utah for eight years so I enjoyed living in the snow area. I was in Salt Lake City so everything was plowed and kept up. I did not drive a car nor have I ever driven a car in snow. The only thing I drove in snow was a power wheelchair. I used a power wheelchair from 2002 until 2012.  Now I have a manual wheelchair.  But I do not push myself as my shoulders have injuries to both rotator cuff's. So my son-in-law pushes me when I need to use the wheelchair outdoors.  I enjoy looking at snow and taking pictures of it. I didn't mind traversing the snow when I had my power wheelchair and I did walk in the snow two winters before I needed the wheelchair.  I took the bus and train to college and work in Utah. We had some snow in the winter I was in Oklahoma and walk in it a little bit to the mailbox and from the car to the store but not very long distance.
So I am excited to live in snow country again and so I get a little excited about taking pictures and have been cataloging them since I moved here. So with no further ado here are some photos of the snow. I will be traveling to Western Washington for Christmas and so I will have photos of the snow in the mountains on the road to and from which I will post in my "Christmas vacation" blog post.

For the 2015 - 2015 Winter




frost October 28
Our first frost on the grassy medium in our cul-de-sac.


November 24
November 24 was our first snow that actually stuck and had more than a trace of snow.
Most of the views are from my bedroom window which faces the cul-de-sac. The main road is to the left of my bedroom window. The driveway into the garage is on the right.





nov 24 cropped
I like that photo so much I decided to make a "Christmas card" photo out of it for my Facebook page.


nov 24
my son in law car covered in snow.





nov 24

our front yard has grass and this one big tree.




nov 24

a few hours later and the temperature rose and the snow started melting.



nov 25

the next day November 25 there is some snow left which stayed around for a few more days until it rained again.







December 2

our next snow day December 2 we had about 2 inches of snow.




December 2
we still had a couple of pumpkins left that were that small decorative bookends as well as the decorative gourds. the large pumpkin was made into pumpkin pie.











December 2
view from my bedroom window.







December 16

 14 days later and view from my bedroom window. Again about 2 inches snow.











December 16  view of down the street the other end of the cul-de-sac





December 16
our front yard with the big tree. Since it was only a few inches of snow the snow plows did not come around.








December 16
view across the street.







December 16

this is the view from the living room window at the back of the house into our postage stamp sized backyard.






December 16


view of the main road with the beautiful snowy branches of the trees.






December 16


view from the side window to the tree on the other side of the fence. I love how the snow was clinging to the branches. Certain weather conditions allow this. As you will see a few days later when it snowed that did not happen.




December 16
close-up of that same tree.


then about noon the sun came out... making some spectacular photos.













sun on the snow December 16

snow still on the tree but melting fast.








December 16

close-up of the Evergreen tree behind the houses across the street.








December 16

Our little bushes and sidewalk in front of the house.






December 16

that big tree in the front yard has a red bird house. There was another birdhouse in that same tree that dislodge when we had epic windstorm a month ago.







December 16  I like this view so much I cropped the photo and post it on Facebook.


so then two days later....





on December 18  at  230 am I woke up and looked out the window and there was 4 inches of snow.


I couldn't wait until morning so I could get some more photos . I woke up at 230 because I heard the snow plow so I knew that we had a good amount of snow. because they won't allow us you have a good amount such as 4 to 6 inches



December 18 230 AM.


I waited until 7 AM and then I took more photos



December 18 the backyard with her built-in charcoal grill.







December 18 our backyard looking out to the main road.









December 18 The front yard looking out to the medium which was plowed










December 18

My son in law's car. If you look closely on the ground next to the card you will see little tiny footprints from the neighborhood cat. I've seen him or her walk around she is a long-haired black cat.



After 1000 AM on December 18





December 18 the tree next door and apartments across the street on the main road




December 18 and the cul-de-sac to the main road






December 18 close-up of the plowed snow







December 18 snow piled on the medium from the snowplow








December 18, View of the hills covered with snow to the south west.

So that's it for the beginning of the winter of 2015 -2016.  I will have more photos of the snow in other blog posts as the month continues.

My Indoor Garden and My Outdoor Garden 2015

Green thumb - Black thumb 


How I turned a Green thumb to a black thumb and back to Green thumb again.

In my past as far as house plants go and gardens outside, I seem to have good luck at some of my houses and apartments and other residences not so good luck. I had some house plants and  some seem to have had an early demise, others thrived in to a jungle.  Thus I have a Green thumb and Black thumb. 



I have not had a vegetable garden since the 1980's when I was able to at least have some tomatoes. My Dad took care of them and we all benefited from the plants. I had an acre and a half in the 1970s.  It was a wonderful experience.  I had a lot of pets [cats and dogs] over the years, and animals such as chickens, turkeys, rabbits, piggies, sheep, a cow, a horse and parakeets.  Story about that soon!



Tomatoes are a favorite easy vegetable to grow

I moved in July to my new house that I share with my daughter and her husband and two teenage daughters.


My daughter and I love plants and Gardens. Her and her husband have had vegetable gardens in the past with some large lots of land. 
This property has a nice suburban front yard with a lawn, some bushes and a lot of decorative low maintenance rocks, but only a postage stamp size back yard.  There is one big tree in the front yard. 
So we will have to use pots for all our gardening.



As you can see there is 24 inches of grass.  The back step to the built in non gas BBQ grill and path to the fence. 

Our neighbor the other side of that fence has a nice tree.









and then there are trees down the street.
See below for my one tree in the front yard.



We started off in October and got a lot of flowers in pots from the local nursery. We transferred them to nice pots. 
Here are the flowers we got for the outside.

Outdoor Plants in Pots


It was my daughter's birthday in October.  So for her birthday,  I said: "Let us get some flower plants that will come back each year in pots."  So she chose the orange flowers and I chose the purple ones.  The orange ones are Asters. 


Halloween time and Pumpkins with the flowers. She picked out the Brown eyed Susan's. Those are a favorite and were the flowers she used in her bridal bouquet 21 years ago with burgundy roses.




the purple and the orange flowers.



close-up of the other purple flowers and Brown eyed Susan's



flowers on our front porch, and you can see the rocks bordering the grassy areas. 



flowers on our front porch

House Plants
October - Succulents in my bedroom


A succulent that flowers.  This succulent did not have a name tag on it. I thought it was pretty like the idea that it flowers.  The flowers lasted about six weeks after the plant in mid October.
I have always loved succulent plants. Most easy to take care of and supposedly "on the you cannot kill these plants" list.   Wanna make a bet???

A variety of succulents that I also got the same day we got the flowers. I got to matching small planters and the large one photo above.  I wanted something that would be rectangular to fit in the window ledge.





up close  - we had so much to fit in the small planters, we put one small branch in the teacup in the living room.

December - the succulents in my bedroom



Two months later, these two planters have flourished, the one on the right lost it's leaves at the top, but got more leaves growing on the main stem.We water the succulents about once a week.






The flowers are gone this succulent plant, and I cut the dried flowers off. 








Indoor Bulbs 

Paperwhites first bloom Dec 10, 2015 - Our first bulbs to bloom



We both love Paperwhites, so I bought this kit that had the bulbs, the pot already to go.  Just add water!  It started growing very fast. We did not expect, the blooms until Christmas.  So this started to bloom about December 5th. 




Ten days later December 15,  More flowers have bloomed! 



Indoor Hibiscus  October 15, 2015



She picked out this Indoor Hibiscus plant.  We both love it! 


Close up



The plant usually has two or three blooms.  They open and last one or two days. 







December 15, 2015  - Two months later and still blooming with more buds growing.  We are very pleased with this plant.





Another house plant




she picked out this nice plant for the hallway.  
I am sorry I do not remember the names of all the flowers or plants. I will add that in later. 


A Dwarf Ming Aralia Bonsai



Photo as featured from Amazon where I purchased this mini tree.  


I have wanted a Bonsai tree since my Mom had gotten one for her birthday from her sister when I was about 10 years old.  I marveled at the tiny branches and leaves of the Cypress tree.  
I wanted to get a Bonsai for myself. I wanted something different then a Cypress tree, so I saw this Dwarf Ming Aralia Bonsai and decided to get it.

There were no instructions on how to take care of it, other than watering it.   Here are pictures of the Bonsai tree over the last six weeks.  I have been worried because it seemed to have lost a lot of leaves. 



November 20, 2015 looks pretty green.


Five days later after the plant arrived.





December 15th.  Not as pretty as when I first got it.  Perhaps this is normal for winter.  I will see what happens.








Close up of Bonsai Dec 15, 2015. Poor thing only has a third of the leaves it had out of the box. 









Bulbs we planted  for spring

We were grocery shopping and saw the bulbs and already had planned to get them for the spring. So we got the following packages of bulbs.  We have some pots and started some in pots. I will get some more pots in a week.


Both of our choice's, as the blooms looked pretty.



Both of our choice's, we both love tulips.  We liked these pastell colors. 


Both of our choice's, The first house I owned had yellow crocus as well as yellow Daffodils and Jonquils. The original owner loved yellow because she also had planted yellow honeysuckle on the fence. There was pear and apricot trees and walnuts.  It was a great food producing  property.  I love that house. She even had it painted yellow. 

My Choice. I love the Daffodils of all kinds. I jumped on these Giant bulbs.  

Both of our choice. Neither one of us had any of these flowers in our previous gardens, it looked pretty so we choose it. 

My Choice, I love Iris flowers and had not every had any yellow or white ones. 

My Choice. My best friend's father from Italy had a great garden two doors up the street from us. He had these in the front yard and I always loved them but never had them in my garden.  I am so excited to plant and see these bloom every year!
We will have a lot more pots and planters for vegetables such as Zucchini and Tomatoes.  My son in law loves to garden with vegetables so we will no doubt have a great garden in 2016!

 Front Yard Tree

Like I said, we only one tree in the front yard. Here is what the tree looks like from July to December.

July 2015 for my bedroom window, lawn is fairly green with auto timed sprinklers.

September 2015 Sunset through the leaves turning a pretty Burgundy red.

Our first snow - November 2015 most of the leaves are gone. The sprinklers are off before the first frost.

December the snow melted and Epic winds blew all the leaves off, as well, as one of the two birdhouses.  Part of the fence went down. Major damage all over town and some were without power for two weeks!  You can see the one red birdhouse in the tree.

So that is the gardening indoors and outdoors for property.

We look forward to the pretty bulbs blooming in Spring.  I will have lots of photos. No doubt we will have more house plants as well. I want a Boston Fern.  I also like Philodendron which I usually have good luck with that plant. 

I would love to see photos and hear about your Garden and houseplants!

Please leave your link in the comments section.

I would be glad to feature your link the front page of my blog. 

My favorite winter/Christmas flower is the Poinsettia

Marble Poinsettia from Wikipedia

Traditional red with link to

History of Poinsettia

All four major colors Poinsettias

Merry Christmas to you and your family!