Keeping Warm on a Cold Winter's Day

I've meant to get on here and post so many times, but it just never seems to happen.

A lovely lingering virus hit us one after the other beginning the Tuesday before Christmas. It's made it hard to get anything done. I've been at about 90% for a week and a half. Not sick, thank the Lord, but easily tired.

But that's really okay because if there's a good time to hunker down it's winter.

That doesn't mean I haven't been busy!

First, I found this book at the library:



Oh my. My head is spinning just reading this book! I should start by saying that it is more geared toward landscape designers. Which I am not. Obviously. However, it talks about planning a space that is self-sustaining. So for instance, instead of snapping up a couple of bushes, flowers, and trees that were picked up at Lowe's, dumping them in the ground several feet apart, and then strewing an ocean of mulch all around (guilty, guilty, and guilty) a better, more sustainable, hands-off method, would be to figure out what kind of soil you have, locate plants that are acclimated to that type of soil from a real nursery, and layering them (like the wild) so that grass and weeds aren't able to gain a stronghold. Very little soil preparation is needed and the garden should be fairly hands off at that point. Sounds good to me!

There's so much more than I could ever cover here. Some of it is just very much against traditional garden wisdom, but it makes so much sense. There's so much good stuff. And the pictures are gorgeous, too!

I already have plans for some intentional plantings around our pond. I even found a nursery online that carries those types of plants and the prices are very reasonable. I'm also going to select some prairie grasses, flowers, and ground cover for the fresh dirt that was dumped in our backyard during the renovations. The soil has been slow to cover over and I realize now that I have a great opportunity to get some visually appealing plants started instead of a bunch of weeds.

I'm also going to start looking at eliminating any mulch in my flower beds and instead find good ground cover plants to keep weeds and grass at bay.

It's a good thing Spring won't be here for a while because I have plenty of planning to do!

Of course, all of this thinking about plants has turned my mind to my vegetable and herb garden. I'm moving it and this time I'm doing a mixture of garden beds, container gardening, and planting right into the ground. I have a large, oddly-shaped section of yard to the left of the house, between the house and the driveway. It gets great sun and is a barren wasteland ever since the new addition. Not only will it look much better, but it will be practical as well. My dream is that some day we could enclose that space with a white picket fence.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="348"] White Harvest Seed Company. Small, family run company with quality seeds.[/caption]

Seeing as I'm thinking ahead, I've also been looking into planning our family vacation. We won't be going until Fall so I have plenty of time, but I like being able to budget well in advance. We're going North this year. Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana. "Only" 5 states this time, but it will take every bit of two weeks to cover that distance.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="375"] Theodore Roosevelt National Park, ND[/caption]

We're looking at seeing Sioux Falls, The Badlands, Yellowstone, Mount Rushmore, Theodore Roosevelt National Park, Pictograph Cave State Park, Grand Tetons, Bighorn Canyon, and perhaps Scott's Bluff. My heart swells just thinking about it.

All of this planning is being fueled by my latest love: Choffy.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300"] Courtesy of Amazon.com[/caption]

Its coffee and chocolate.

Enough said.

Now on to what's happening outside.

Today we have the first snowfall of the year. Big, beautiful flakes fell for hours and left us with a light dusting. We had to get out in it pretty quickly because it's clearly not going to stick around.

[caption id="attachment_2534" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Luke in the snow[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2535" align="aligncenter" width="200"] Enjoying the first snow of the year![/caption]



[caption id="attachment_2538" align="aligncenter" width="200"] One of many mini creeks in our backyard.[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2539" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Perfect snowflake[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2540" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Winter pond[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2541" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Snowy branch[/caption]

I love the woods in winter. It's so still and peaceful!

I snapped a couple of close ups of the boys and these pictures are so them.

First is Gabe in his furry hat and red cheeks, looking sweetly into the camera.

[caption id="attachment_2542" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Little Eskimo[/caption]

Then there's Luke, orange hat, dad's-scarf-because-he-couldn't-find-his-own, and chipped tooth. I know he appreciates the fact that his glasses darken in the bright light, but those dark lenses make for such crummy pictures. You can't see his eyes!

[caption id="attachment_2543" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Lukester[/caption]

So that's some of what we've been up to on these bleak January days; keeping warm and dreaming of days to come!