Fall 2018 has been fleeting … and frozen. This season has been like the phrase “now you see it – now you don’t!”
We had a few nice days in early October and after that – well, pfft! And, we had a smattering of snow last Friday, and even more yesterday morning. It was mostly on the lawn, and when I went around the backyard, I had my camera with me because the snow’s appearance, though a nuisance, was very beautiful.
I’ve not been much of a gardener this year. The weather wreaked havoc with my own plans over and over again, so, when I had the opportunity to venture out on a weekend walk, I told myself I was not going to cast that chance aside to pull weeds, or nip spent rose blooms.
I’ve always put the yard “to bed” by late October, first week of November latest. I know at that time, there will be lots more raking to do, since we have these huge trees in the ‘hood, so both the back and front yards will be covered multiple times with a carpet of leaves. But, long before the last leaf is scooped up and put into the yard waste bags, those few remaining perennials that survived the back-to-back Polar Vortexes AND the rosebushes have all been pruned.
Not this year.
I intended to do this task last Sunday, but the blustery winds and cold temps caused me to simply blow it off.
I’ve never seen snow on my unpruned rosebushes before, and the sight, while beautiful, left me feeling remorseful about those frozen red blooms and buds. Their fragile beauty was highlighted by the wet and heavy snow as you see in these pictures.
A fresh coat of snow was deposited on the lawn and leaves as well.
The dewy-looking leaves looked equally beautiful …
… especially this vibrant red leaf that was spotlighted in the snow.
This fleeting Fall will make me less fleet-footed as well. Most of the snow you see in these photos melted yesterday, but traces of snow outlined homeowners’ sidewalks and gardens, plus dribbles of melted snow had frozen across many sidewalks. I was careful walking to the Park so I wouldn’t go sliding on the ice. It was only 20 degrees, so I dug out and donned my storm coat. Usually the first time I wear it is in December, but we are, and have been, about 20 degrees below normal most of October and November.
It was sunny and the Park was bathed in a soft light. The critters finished up their suet and only the dregs of the two trays remained and one squirrel was lapping it up with a pink tongue. The other squirrels came running over for peanuts and I obliged them. Fellow walker Mike was driving away as I arrived – he was an early bird this morning. Only two other walkers were on the trail and they were far ahead of me. The cold weather has most of the regular walkers taking to their treadmills or to Southland Mall for their morning trek.
So, basically I had the trail to myself. It was very quiet and tranquil. One portion of the Ecorse Creek had a light coating of ice which made the water looked like a cracked mirror. Those dabbling ducks were paddling freely in wider parts of the Creek. They were quiet as they were preening or dipping and diving for what vegetation they could scrounge up in the murky water. Thus, the only sounds I heard were the rustling of my coat, as my forearms, swinging back and forth as I walked, brushed lightly against the nylon jacket; there was also the unmistakable crunch of peanut shells being cracked open and peanuts retrieved and enjoyed.
What a peaceful and glorious morning walk and it was over way too soon.
Linda Schaub
WALKIN', WRITIN', WIT & WHIMSY 
Great shots, very southward-inspiring!
Fred
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ha ha – Thank you Fred. I was a little bit horrified to see all the snow on the roses, then decided to make the most of it and take pictures. I don’t recall having snow here before the 15th of November and even that just melted away. This snow event just goes along with the weird weather we’ve had throughout 2018.
LikeLike
Miss “Jack Frost” ………………………………………your pictures of the snow on the colorful leaves and flowers and leaves are beautiful
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Ann Marie – you are right and as much as I despise the snow, the beauty of the contrast between the snow and the vibrant leaves is just beautiful, not to mention the snow hanging off the frozen buds and blooms. snow can be beautiful, though I’m thinking many states are not finding it very beautiful now with the big snow storm that is happening on the East Coast as I write this. We are brushed with just rain … so we are lucky and a clear and dry week next week for all the travelers going to Grandma’s house. I know if I didn’t hate driving in the snow, I’d embrace the Winter more … if only this leopard could change her spots … sigh.
LikeLike
All your pictures are so beautiful, but the one that robbed my heart was the last one.The maple leaf with the snow….it’s position on the green leaves. Just beautiful.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you Martha and I saw red stains on the snow and it has to be the color from the maple leaf … there was nothing else around that would make that red on the snow. I thought to remark on it but I figured people would notice it on their own. Just the contrast between the Fall leaves and snow was breathtaking to me too.
LikeLike
I think your snowy weather is coming our way today. Ugh! I still have roses on my rose bushes, too. I hated to trim the last ones. They look so lovely as I walk past them. I loved reading your description of the quiet park and you listening to the sounds of the squirrels munching peanuts as you walked away!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Laurie, I’m hearing so many states are getting a lot of snow today and in some cases it has already started. We are getting a rainy wintry mix later and it will be warm for snow, so it will just be wet, some flurries on Saturday and they say a totally dry week next week. That’s good for those travelling by car or otherwise and I hope to push, push, push myself to get my steps in. You’ll have to get some pics of the snow on the roses if yours are still blooming. We had two hard freezes, if not more, so those buds were frozen solid and the icicles dripping off them and covered in snow was just so lovely. Hopefully they are okay – in the beginning when I had tea roses, before I got these “Home Run” roses (their name and prized for their durability and hardiness) I used to cover them with styrofoam cones and they still were not hardy … you’d wait forever for one or two blooms and a strong wind or rain would knock the petals on the ground in a heartbeat. I also had black spot, so I dug them up, treated the earth and let it be dormant a few years, then planted these. I almost lost them after the first Polar Vortex. They were brown and I thought dead – I was devastated but I cut them down to about one foot off the ground and pretty soon they were like the Phoenix, rising from the ashes. They came back as good as new.
That happened with a holly bush too – it was seemingly dead as a doornail. I gave it so much Miracid and Hollytone that I revived it – I have pictures I took after lopping it down to the ground with about 6 inches of stem … I don’t always have a green thumb. That was just plain luck. It was peaceful at the Park – usually the ducks are calling one another another, quacking up a storm and now that the geese are MIA … just quiet and peaceful with only that rustling noise of my coat and the subtle sound of peanut shells being cracked open. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I do not have a great green thumb myself. My roses are knockout roses – they are very hardy (knock on wood!) I was once very proud of myself for rescuing a crepe myrtle that I thought was a goner.
I have to get going so I can run outside this morning, rather than inside on the dreaded treadmill! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
The knockout roses would have been my choice and I don’t know if they were around, or as popular, or even available around here when I planted my Home Run roses – they’ve been in for decades. I got caught in rain/graupel and got soaking wet. Was not a happy camper and I hope you were more successful with an outside run.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I got sleeted on, too!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I heard today that the El Nino may not happen now – I was starting to have my doubts Laurie. We have snow overnight tonight and also Monday into Tuesday. Ugh! Too early for all this snow. My friend in NY got a foot of snow – she showed pictures of it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ugh! I sometimes wish I could do like the squirrels and hibernate until spring! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Me too Laurie – not only are we having all this wintry precip but we are still 20 degrees below normal and will continue that pattern til the end of this month at least. Winter is a month away for goodness sake – ugh.
LikeLiked by 1 person
These photos are sensational! The roses in the snow, wow! 💕😊
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks so much Jan . I went out back and was amazed how beautiful they were too … the snow over the blooms and icicles dripping from the buds just had to be shared.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ah, I appreciate your details of the lovely walk – made me not feel so sad that I ‘walked/ran’ on the treadmill instead – I didn’t miss out, after all, the words brought the outside inside for me to enjoy!
LikeLiked by 1 person
This stupid weather – and I was uploading pics and standing up and bending over so couldn’t see very well and couldn’t remember if I pasted Tom’s link into the comment. That’s why I did it separately – glad you got it. You’ll like his pictures and his writing – on Sundays he has a longer post about mindfulness and other topics as well. Tom’s pics will make someone want to learn about macro photography – I know I am inspired.
LikeLike
Freezing rain today and schools are canceled! And it begins!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I wish there was a “dislike” button like Facebook. How awful already – we had a slopping mess even a little freezing rain. You got a nice break and hope you found out before you set out in the car!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Linda, around here we don’t prune the roses until around Valentine’s Day. Mine have survived many a Snow and ice storms, though probably not nearly as harsh as your winter storms. I hope the weather won’t be too bad so that you can get outside and visit Parker! Stay warm!
LikeLiked by 1 person
OK, whew – I worried they might be damaged. I brought those roses back after the first Polar Vortex and so I would hate to lose them now. Today really became a horrid mess out there – it went from rain to graupel, then snow and I got wet coming home. It started snowing harder and we now have a couple of inches of snow out there and I will be shoveling in the morning. It’s much too soon for this Sabine!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh Linda! That’s too bad with the weather where you are. We’ve had a cold wind, but sunshine and no rain. I couldn’t imagine living in such a cold climate. By the way, my roses are still blooming and there are quite a few buds on one of them which is what they always do. 😊
LikeLiked by 1 person
You are lucky Sabine and this year’s weather has been unusual from day one. In fact, last year we had such a beautiful Fall. On December 3rd I was talking to a neighbor who was putting up Christmas decorations with no coat on and I had gone on a long walk in the afternoon just because it was so nice I strayed from my usual routine. Six days later we had a snowstorm and it never stopped snowing and being very cold until mid-April, then the rain came – every weekend we had rain for about two months. We had a very cold Spring and a sickening hot July, and then the rain started again, at least one day each weekend. And no Indian Summer – it is all people in Michigan are talking about – what happened to our traditional seasons? I am usually more on top of the roses and I have to trim everything before the end of November as our yard waste pickup ceases the week after Thanksgiving. No fun picking up leaves or doing yardwork in the snow!
LikeLike
Linda, your rose bushes look exactly like mine! My Knockout roses often bloom late in the year, up until Dec. if it is mild, and they were covered yesterday, and again today. I am never sure when to prune rose bushes, spring or fall. I prune my 6 rosesbushes in the fall, but the 20 Knockouts in the spring, only last year I pruned too early, April 1, then we had two more weeks of winter, and they did not do as well as usual last summer. What a strange year we are having weatherwise.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Joan, I’ve always pruned mine around the first week of November and they’ve been okay. Any earlier and you risk an Indian Summer coming along and just enough warmth and you might get new growth going into the cold weather and then the new hips come out and are frostbitten. Then, that way in the Spring they are good to go and only need fertilizer. After we had the first Polar Vortex, I went out in the Spring and lost most of my perennials and my largest Nelly Moser Clematis which was climbing up a pole and was just beautiful. The roses were all brown and seemingly dead as a doornail. I broke off a branch and it was dry and brittle. I decided I would take them all out when it got warmer and in the meantime, I was listening to “The Gardening Doctor” on WJR 760 (he’s on every Saturday from April to Labor Day) and other people had the same issue with their roses. He said cut them down to about 6 inches from the ground and hope for the best. They have come back as good as new and actually bloomed by 4th of July that year! I used to have tea roses, and cut them down in Fall, mulched around the base, then dropped styrofoam cones over them and they took a while to get going in Spring and I only got about one or two blooms for each rose, so I took them out and planted these instead. They are “Home Run” and I think as hardy as the Knockout Roses from what I’ve heard. This morning I heard that the weather folks are taking a lot of flak for not predicting that East Coast storm correctly … they did not predict that much snow. My friend in NY got over a foot of snow. Same happened here with the weather folks – they minimized it and now we have a little snow tomorrow morning and more on Monday into Tuesday. They said next week was totally dry. The first year I did yard work, as soon as all the bushes had “sprouts” and new growth in April/early May, I was out there and spent an entire day pruning bushes. It is a small house, so I wanted to keep the bushes in proportion to the house, so always get rid of new growth. But just two weeks later that first year, every bush had more new growth. Now I wait until our Memorial Day weekend, last weekend in May, to guarantee no more new growth for a least a few months!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I see what ya did there with the title 😉 And what a STUNNING picture! wowza! (well, they all are beautiful). There really is something so calming and peaceful walking a trail in the winter. My husband and I used to do that in Ohio (it’s actually how he originally asked me to be his girlfriend!). It is magical just being in nature like that. Thanks for sharing, Linda!
LikeLiked by 1 person
You’re welcome Mackenzie and I’m glad you enjoyed them. I’ve never seen snow on roses before – even on anyone else’s. If it doesn’t snow or rain or do anything overnight tonight or tomorrow, I’ll prune those roses down Sunday, but they did look stunning against the stark white snow. My favorite was the icicle dripping from the rose bud. I’m glad you saw that title – you’re the only one who noticed! The mind just glosses over things like that sometimes, like that meme that goes around every so often about how your mind sorts out jumbled words and you interpret them correctly. I’ve never been snowshoeing and it sounds fun – have you been on snowshoes on a trail? My boss does it when he goes to the UP and really enjoys it. A Winter trail, even without snowshoes … go create that first moment again when you visit at Christmas time. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I haven’t been on snowshoes on the trail, but I have been cross country skiing and loved it!!! There is something so peaceful about being in all that snow and the quiet chill in the air! I will have to definitely do that 🙂 I used to go to UP every year for the winter- of course life changes, but I am nostalgic for it every year around this time ❤
LikeLiked by 1 person
I have never been skiing but have friends who prefer cross-country skiing to downhill skiing for the same reasons as you do … more fun to be out in nature and enjoy the snowy pathway. Hope you have nice weather to travel for Christmas … just enough snow to give you the snow globe effect but not hamper your travel plans … have a good Thanksgiving Mackenzie … take a break from the books and roll up your sleeves and get cookin’ Missy!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Totally! I love how you called it the snow globe effect!
Teheh- I am sooo excited to just whip a storm today! Finished up my studies for the week last night, and today is totally dedicated to cooking! woohoo! Have a great Thanksgiving, Linda ❤
LikeLiked by 1 person
Enjoy whipping up, presenting and eating tomorrow – Happy Thanksgiving back at you Mackenzie! ❤
LikeLiked by 1 person
How beautiful with the rose in the snow. I hope the snow won’t spoil your adventures too much as the months go on.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I had to take pictures of those poor roses in the snow Zena. I stood looking at their beauty, but I was still torn how I let them down by just leaving them out in the snow and now we’ve had snow two more times since then. Poor things! I could not get out today to cut them down as it was wintry precipitation … snow all over the leaves again!
LikeLike
It shows what a compassionate soul you really are by being affected by the poor roses covered in snow.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you Zena – I have never had roses with snow on them ever – I have usually put the yard to bed by now – luckily we have three out of four days being nice, so I’ll get the walking in as I mentioned in the other comment and spend at least a half-day out there trimming the poor roses down a little. I haven’t wrapped the outside faucet either, though I shut it off back in September when we had a hard freeze (in September … rather unheard of).
LikeLike
I hope the roses survive all the snow.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I hope so too – I was a little horrified – it has never happened before and I kept thinking I needed to get out there and prune them, but every weekend, it was crummy weather, then the freezing rain and ice started … we had a very strange weather year but I think it was like that around the world. Hopefully that is not the new norm.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hopefully spring’ll come earlier this year to make up for it…
LikeLiked by 1 person
I sure hope so. We had two back-to-back Polar Vortexes … I used to have a bigger garden (it’s a small house, but had a garden around the entire perimeter of the back yard) and loved it. Had a butterfly garden too. Polar Vortex I came along, destroyed many bushes (some planted years and years ago), lost all my butterfly bushes (supposedly hardy), lots of perennials and the roses that I showed with the snow were brown and brittle. I figured they died and they were as high as a chain-link fence. I intended to cut them down over our Memorial Day holiday in late May. In the meantime, I was listening to a garden show on the radio – others called in with the same issue. He said before you remove them (big job due to size and those thorns and I wasn’t looking forward to it), he said cut them down to about one foot from the ground and give them Miracle-Gro. I did that and slowly they came back. You would never know to look at them, so I’m pretty confident they’ll be back. I used to have tea roses and they need too much attention and only bloom a few times per Summer. These are really hardy, but I still feel badly for neglecting them. On the other hand, I sure thought they were beautiful being snow covered.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You didn’t neglect them. You couldn’t have known that the day you’d have covered them it’d be freezing…..
I’ve just googled butterfly bushes. They look so pretty!
LikeLike
Pingback: Glimpses of Grady. | WALKIN', WRITIN', WIT & WHIMSY