Bloom Day Dec 2008

Carol of May Dreams Gardens is wonderful enough to host garden bloggers bloom day on the 15th of each month. For people like me it's especially wonderful because I can admire other's flowers when it's so cold and desolate where I live that nothing sane will live outside. If my plant eating cats would allow plants to live in the house I could maybe have more houseplants, but I'll have to wait until that craft room is finished for a cat free safety zone for plants.

Before I go too far, I have to warn you that my computer wouldn't import my pictures AGAIN today so no editing was involved. These are direct from the camera to you, please refrain from laughing as I can't see a blessed thing through my broken LCD screen. I just point, shoot, and hope for the best.

I have no blooms up here (unless silk poinsettas count), but went out in the 30+ mile per hour winds to try to snap some shots of my snow covered seed heads and Christmas garland. Not exactly the smartest thing I could have done, but it was raining yesterday and winter rains are not a great thing to get soaked by.

For some reason I walked all the way to the end of my driveway. I drove the kids to the bus stop this morning becasue of wind chill advisories of 30 below wind chills. I drove on a pure sheet of ice! I had briefly entertained the idea of driving them to school today but decided I'd better send them on the bus. I figure the less traffic there is on the roads in these conditions the safer our children will be. I did make son bring gloves and a scarf even though he refused to wear them. You never know when the bus might break down. He's way to "cool" to argue with about wearing snowpants and boots, but Peanut didn't protest dressing in full gear.

If I were the school district I would have had a two hour delay, but I suppose with temps this cold they didn't think two hours would make much of a difference. Look at those roads! When temps are around zero the road salts are not effective, when it's this cold sand is used. That means my van is going to get even dirtier before it gets warm enough for me to bring it in for a wash.

The snow blew off of my vinca and spikes. I had hoped to get around to bringing them inside before they died. They sure were troopers and only turned brown in the last two weeks or so of cold. Unfortunately I've found way too many other projects to occupy myself with.

Cheesehead's Packer duck family came wading through the snow to say hi to you. I had planned on getting my lawn ornaments put away in my new shed this winter. I ran out of money to buy shelves though, so they stayed out to brave the cold again this year. I decided they would be safer outside kept far apart as sometimes things get knocked around if I put them on the floor. I'll have to hope for the best I guess.

I meant to take some more pictures, but my camera started screaming in protest at me. Those loud screeching sounds in the quiet of the country made me slip and flail my arms in surprise. I managed to not topple over by taking a few quick steps into the snow bank. My heart was pounding in my ears almost louder than the howling winds causing the sub zero wind chills.

I assume the camera must have sreamed at me because the battery died, but since I can't read the screen it's only an educated guess. Once inside I took off my gloves to replace the batteries. The camera felt like an ice cube! If plastic got that cold in just a couple of minutes outside, what are the metal batteries like? The extreme cold plus the fact that the screaming protests of the camera practically made be slip and fall on the inch thick sheet of ice made me decide that I had enough to share already.

Thank you for stopping by. Please leave me a message. I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Cindy