Ice, Snow and an Evergreen

I had fun taking these.

I've no idea what type of pine tree this is, what I do know

is that many many years ago it was planted

way too close to the house.

It is a serious leaner. 

Not even a week later most of the snow was gone. 

I'm Back

Thank you for being patient while I was out last week.

I greatly appreciate you all coming back and thank you so much

for all your well wishes.

~~~~~~~

It's been a long week for me.

The cat didn't mean to hurt me but he did

and it took a lot of soaking my hand in Epsom salts

coating with tea tree oil and neem oil for my hand to heal.
The first time I soaked my hand the pain relief was immediate!
~
It honestly wasn't his fault ~ we were dog sitting~cat
got spooked ~  cat was going to get hurt.
~
As soon as my hand started to heal I ended up

getting a sinus infection!!!
Not too happy about that and the week
before I had been patting myself on the back
for not getting sick yet this winter. oops

~

Maybe my body just wanted a break and honestly
I didn't mind laying on the couch in my pj's.
January is always a hard month for me, depression
is like my shadow throughout the winter months
with January being the worst usually.
Laying on the couch was like a mini vacation, with pain.

~
 My daughter introduced me to 

Sherlock and Downton Abbey, both great shows

and I wasn't bored at all while watching them.

~

Here are photos from when we had 

our snow, it's all melted away now

but I don't have any new photos to show you.

Here is Brutus that cat! He is our hunter

which makes him a valuable member of our family.

~

Here are some views of my Curly Willow.

This tree started as a twig that broke off of a larger tree.

I really like this tree!

If you want to know what my hand looked like, take a look below.

If not look away, it isn't too gory or anything though.

You can see 2 of the wounds, the third is hidden

in the little crease behind the thumb.

While my hand is getting red here (taken right after

the incident), it swelled up to twice that size

and was hot and red.

I soaked it in Epsom Salts every half hour

for 10 minutes, coated it in antibiotic ointment

and tea tree oil, after the swelling and redness went

down I kept soaking it but switched to neem oil.

 It is mostly healed, just sore now and the skin

is trying to regrow - pulling taught which causes

pain so I keep putting neem oil on it which is quite soothing.

~

By the way Neem Oil is also used on plants to kill

bugs, control disease and is sometimes called leaf shine.

Yes it works well.

ACK!!!! Mini announcement

The blog will be down for a couple of days, I hurt my hand - rather a cat hurt my hand. One handed computer usage isn't so fun. Hoping the Epsom salt soak works and it heals (stops hurting and doesn't get infected) quickly.

Cats n Birds

We really had a lot of snow come down last week.
I think I was able to get some pretty good photos 

and I look forward to sharing them with you.

No way do you need to see what it looks like

right now, yucky - the snow is melting and it's

all patchy looking, add in the clouds and 

I'd rather look at the snow!

 The birds really seemed active in the snow, they 

were all over the place and there were quite

a few of them.

Our cats are indoor/outdoor cats

and yes sometimes they hunt birds 

but thankfully not often.
As you can see from the photo 

Benjamin Franklin was checking those birds out. 

Ha he just looked at them and then kept going. 

Good cat!

By the way the tree the birds are in
are in the corner of the yard, the
corner that Ben is staring out.

Berries in the Snow

Not very original, I've showed you these
same berries more then once.

I love them, what more can I say?

How about some icy snowy evergreen photo?

Snow Pansy

I'm certain you all have your own snow pansy

photo you could share.
Honestly there isn't too much going

on that I haven't already shown you.

Hmmm well there are some

berries in the snow but if I show you those

today along with this pansy, then

what will I show you tomorrow?

Well I could show you the sunset we had just a few days

before the snow came.

This is facing Puget Sound.

Some Colorful Plants for Wintertime

This was last week when the sun came out.

Red Twig Dogwood. 

A bamboo given to me by a friend, no idea what kind it is but
it does seem to be fairly common around here.

Snow!!!

We had snow! Maybe not a big deal

in many parts of the country where snowfall is

normal, okay well it is normal for us 

to receive some. Geesh
I am just rambling on.

Here is our beautiful snow on the holly tree.

The holly tree is in the middle, the berries are barely visible from

this viewpoint.

I wasn't sure if anything eats the holly berries but I saw a squirrel

harvesting them and the robins love them too.

This is last week before the snow, it was enjoying quite a few

of these berries!

The Wild Fruits

I specifically wanted a wild rose in my yard, not sure which

one exactly but I do believe I picked one that could take shade.

Now if only I can find the receipt.

~
We've had some sunshine off and on and wow is it nice,

although we've had colder weather it isn't horrid.
Mid 30's to mid 40's isn't the worst temps ever

and have allowed me to get out - I need that sunshine.

I also planted this native Oregon Grape. Yes I know it isn't really
a grape, the name is for the cluster of berries.
This plant is actually a Mahonia of the barberry family, both

plants have medicinal uses. This one in particular

has been used for inflammation. I LOVE it for

improving blackberry jam, oh my gosh it is WONDERFUL!

Flowers Make Me Happy

Ahem so I put these bulbs in a pot under the sink with a bit of water

sometime in early November - I kept telling myself
"don't forget the bulbs". It was my intent to have them 

blooming for Christmas but I did forget them and

by the time I remembered to bring them out
they were quite tall.

In my defense I was making

loads of caramel candies and other goodies for
the holidays!!!

All 3 bulbs ended up with buds on them but only 

the tallest one has blooms.
I confess I bought the cheaper ones at a store

and maybe if I'd spent money

on good bulbs I'd have better results.
This would require planning. Hmmm

The orchid my daughter gave me last year and this is 

the first re-flower for me. It's quite lovely and the 

blooms have lasted over quite awhile - I think

this is the 2nd month of flowering.

This site has basic information on growing orchids.
I keep mine in North facing windows pretty much

year round and mist them well once a week in 

the bathtub, letting them drain well before 

returning them to their window. 

Seed Heads aka Bird Seed

Evening Primrose seed head.

Black Eyed Susan seedheads. 

The birds seem to like these although I'm not sure

about the evening primrose seeds. There are going

to be lots of volunteers sprouting unless

the birds keep eating them up.
I don't really want that many volunteer plants,

a few but not too many.

It's nice to see the birds flock to the

 flower beds doing the clean up.

A Pretty Weed is Still A WEED!!!

The sun did shine on Sunday and honestly there isn't much 

to see in my yard. This little bugger is quite pretty, too bad.

Take a look at those roots, that thing probably left some

behind and will pop back out when I'm not looking.

Hen n Chick

Hen n Chick a close up, a repost. 

Miners Lettuce

This is a re-posting from April 20, 2010.
Every now and then (weekends) I'm going to
re-post a photo - maybe you've not seen it before!

Miners lettuce. 

This and That

I don't think there is a theme today,

just this and that.

Various leafs maybe?

There isn't too much going on

in the garden right now,

but then again I need to go look.

Boredom?

Are you bored? I am.

Of course I have plenty of things to do 

and no I don't need to be given

something do - I can hear my

Grandmother stating that she should

find me something to do.

~

I am bored because I am not outside!
Winter I can deal with, being outside isn't

impossible in the winter but it's raining -

At least it is today as I write this but

by tomorrow the sun could be out.

~
I've neglected any garden cleanup. bah

Of course it will have to be done at some point.

Maybe this week when the sun shines.

Have I mentioned it's soggy out there?
I may stay in and bake.

~

Did I mention the birds like the garden messy?

Lots of berries and seeds and bugs.

~

Goodbye 2011, Hello 2012

I was looking back over the year trying to find a few flowers for a collage but
there are so many to like that the collage kept getting bigger and bigger.
~
Thank you for supporting my blog with
your comments and encouragement.
~
I hope that the New Year has wonderful
things in store for all of us and I can
hardly wait for gardening weather.