Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Super Snowy Tuesday in Iowa

Well, wasn't Super Tuesday exciting? Not only did we have a slam bang (depends on your point of view, of course) night of Primary returns, we had the biggest snow of the winter so far here.

Official reports from the airport and local TV cited amounts ranging from 9" to 11" depending on the area of the city. Fernymoss, who spent most of his day off shoveling, estimates it's more on the 11-12" range at our house. And just looking out the windows tends to confirm that. From our living room windows on the north (the Woodland Garden area) the snow had drifted so high it almost reached the windows.

In the front garden (these shots were taken just to the left of our front steps) it had quite artistically arranged itself into cute little Coneflower caps (which Fernymoss captured during one of his stints shoveling). The snow was also piled so high and deep on the hollies that he needed to go knock the snow off, lest we have some branches break again, like they did during the big ice storm last March (the one that did in the truck, if you'll recall).

I've spent the last two days home sick with a nasty cold that came on Monday night and confirmed itself yesterday. I'd been able to stave off (via Zicam) the last couple of bugs, but this one was determined to make me miserable. And it did. Let's hope its residence is brief, because the coughing and sneezing has been wearing me out!

Nothing like a double whammy snowstorm and a cold to make one yearn even more for the temperate days of spring yet to come. The only consolation is that the bulbs won't get excited too soon about emerging this year, like they did last year ...

4 comments:

Knucklehead said...

Those snow cones are very cool. Are they made with artichokes?

Iowa Victory Gardener said...

Hey there KH! I didn't realize I had made an inadvertent pun there, lol. They're last season's spent seed cones from the echinaceas. We leave them up (and other stuff) all winter because they provide food for the birds (namely goldfinches) for part of the snowy months. They also provide interest (we think) along with the dead grasses in the background (porcupine grass).

I wish we could grow artichokes here ... I have fond memories of when I was in college and working on a veggie farm during the summer in Southern France ... one of my duties was to cut off every third of the artichokes in the field to make sure the rest grew bigger. Of course, the little ones didn't go to waste because I frequently ate them!

Larry Kollar said...

Pretty! (Hey, I grew up in Michigan, I know allllll about the downside of pretty snowstorms. ;-)

Isn't echinacea a medicinal plant? Builds up your immune system or something? Maybe that would help you out too?

Lordy, I need to post on my blog. I just haven't been inspired this week to do much of anything.

Family Man said...

Hi IVG.

Sorry to hear about your cold. We're going through the same thing, sans the snow. However, if you want, I'll take all the snow you can send. :)

Hope you get to feeling better soon.