Winter Garden

December, January, February 2009 - Now

Whose woods these are I think I know.His house is in the village though;He will not see me stopping hereTo watch his woods fill up with snow.Robert Frost

MY GARDEN IN DECEMBER

MY GARDEN IN JANUARY

MY GARDEN IN FEBRUARY

Favorite Quotes

I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape- the loneliness of it, the dead feeling of winter.Something waits beneath it, the whole story doesn't show.Andrew Wyeth
In the depths of winter I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.Albert Camus
Winter, a lingering season, is a time to gather golden moments, embark upon a sentimental journey, and enjoy every idle hour. - John Boswell There are two seasonal diversions that can ease the bite of any winter.One is the January thaw. The other is the seed catalogues.Hal Borland

PANSIES

Facts About Pansies

Colorful annuals with markings that resemble faces, pansies are mainstays of the fall and winter garden in the southern US. Planted in fall where winters are mild, these cheerful little flowers bloom for months until warm weather returns. As temperatures increase in spring, they look great but in hot weather, pansies cease to bloom and the foliage begins to look worn and ragged. Replace them with summer annuals when they no longer look their best.

Characteristics

Most pansies grow 8 to 10 inches tall and are covered with oval or heart-shaped, dark green, shiny foliage. The attractive foliage makes an excellent backdrop for the colorful flowers that can be as large as 3 inches across. The blossoms come in a wide range of colors and consist of a pair of upper petals and one larger lower petal. Often marked with rays that extend outward from the center. the petals sometimes have startling contrasts in color. They grow best in temperatures between 45 and 75 degrees Fahrenheit, but can survive temperatures as low as -10 F.

Types of Pansies

There are three types of pansies that are commonly grown in the U.S.

Large-flowered pansies are the traditional types and the ones most often grown in the garden; the blossoms are about three inches across and usually have marking that resemble faces.

Johnny Jump Up types are smaller, about an inch in diameter, and appear with faces or in solid colors; they are more heat tolerant than large-flowered pansies.

Panolas are a cross between traditional pansies and Johnny Jump Ups. They have the heat tolerance of Johnny Jump Ups, but their flowers, which are usually solid colors, are almost twice the size.

Info from: http://homeguides.sfgate.com/pansy-flowers-26130.html

SUNDOGS

What is a Sundog?

Sundogs are bright spots of light in the sky on either side of the sun. They are also called a "Mock Sun". They are my favorite winter atmospheric phenomenon. When I see them I want to bark out loud like a dog. This has gotten me and others who did it into many funny situations.

Sundogs are formed by plate-shaped hexagonal ice crystals in high and cold cirrus clouds or, during very cold weather, by ice crystals called diamond dust drifting in the air at low levels. These crystals act as prisms, bending the light rays passing through them by 22°. If the crystals are vertically aligned, sunlight is refracted horizontally on the parhelic arch of the sun.

Rainbow Colors Sundog

Sundogs may look like bite-sized rainbows, but inspect one closer and you'll notice that its color scheme is actually reversed. Primary rainbows are red on the outside and violet on the inside, while sundogs are red on the side nearest the sun, with colors grading through orange to blue as you travel away from it. In a double rainbow, the colors of the secondary bow are arranged in this same way.

Sundogs are like secondary rainbows in another way too: Their colors can be fainter than those of a primary bow. However, in this photo I took, the colors are very bright. The intensity of color depends on how much the ice crystals wobble as they float in the air. The more wobble, the more vibrant the sundog's colors.

Winter Storm Trivia Questions

1. Which of the following is not effected by wind chill?

a. person b. dog

c. car radiator d. bird

Answer: c. Wind chill is the combination of wind and temperature and is based on the rate of heat loss from exposed skin such as that of a person or animal. As the wind increases, heat is carried away from the body at an accelerated rate, driving the body temperature down. Wind chill has no effect on cars or other objects.

2. What is the difference between sleet, hail, and freezing rain?

Answer: Hail is a chunk or stone of ice dropped from a thunderstorm. Sleet is frozen rain. Freezing rain is liquid rain that freezes to a surface such as the road or a tree.

3. True or False. It must be 32°F or colder for it to snow.

Answer: False. It has been known to snow with temperatures in the mid 40's. Temperatures are below 32°F up in the clouds where the snow is forming.

4. On the average, one inch of rain is equivalent to how many inches of snow?

a. 10 inches b. 1 inch

c. 5 inches d. a foot

Answer: a. 10 inches of snow melts down to about an inch of liquid rain.

5. Can it snow from clear skies?

Answer: Yes. Ice crystals sometimes fall from clear skies when temperatures are in the single digits or colder.

6. What is more hazardous to trees and power lines?

a. One inch of wet snow b. One inch of ice

Answer: b. An inch of ice is heavier than wet snow and is hazardous enough to cause power lines and trees to come down.

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