sad lookin' garden in the winter

but... oh, wait... "winter" isn't til the 21st.  this rose bed looks quite dismal, tho... weeds, dead leaves.  no rain today and not freezing out there, so i thot i'd prune some of my roses.  that resolve did not last long.  even tho i was all wrapped up in 3 layers plus mitts, it felt cold enough to freeze a well diggers brass monkey, so i didn't last long.

here is one lone rose bud looking like it was trying to defy the reality of cold weather.  if it were just a bit further along in maturity, i'd have brought it in.  would have been too depressing to watch it bow its head and die.

a good thing.... i was pretty sure the 10 days of freezing weather (many days in 20s and below) had done in all my bulbs... but however, i started digging around a dahlia and was delighted to find living and hopefully viable bulbs in that cold wet earth.  they are now in my studio and i'll be back out there digging around other plants.  got too cold to stay out there for long today.



and the plans for xmas are shaping up beautifully!  we have been planning to go to Duvall to spend the holiday with the kids and kidlets.  the big obstacle was what about Tasha... we checked out the usual ... Carla and her league of pet-care people at RuffLifePDX. that was a dead end and  no surprise... last minute "planning" during a big holiday time yielding not many options.  finally had a plan in place, tho not ideal.... the neighbors down the hill at Roads End Pottery agreed to come up to feed and walk the dawg, even tho they are consumed with getting inventory ready and then spending lots of time selling at Saturday Market.  but that would leave her alone much of the time and that's just not fair to her!  but, on Sat. during the cookie-making day, i mentioned it to my niece Maggie, and she and her girlfriend Jake want to stay here while we are gone (only 3 nights) and i can't even say how happy i am that this is working out!!  now if i'd just get hit with the incentive and energy to get gifts wrapped, i could quit thinking about that!

happy with how life happens!

ETA:  another good thing... after that long period of way below freezing temps, i was sure that all of my bulbs and pots of flowers were dead beyond reclamation but while i was in my dead winter garden, i dug around where my dahlias had been and lo and behold.... there were bulbs in that cold wet soil that were still alive!!  now those are in my studio and i'll be out there soon digging for more of them so i wont have to do as much replacing as i'd thought.  the ones in the pots?  i'm pretty sure they are goners.