Tag: winter

Winter at the South Seattle College Arboretum

This 5.5 acre little gem of a garden rose from a former site of sand and gravel storage to become a place for horticulture students to learn and the public to enjoy. Today it features a conifer collection, a rose garden, a sensory garden with fragrant specimens, water features, a gazebo, Sequoias, Japanese maples, walking paths and little bridges. It is also adjacent to the authentic Chinese Garden, which includes special rocks from China and a peony garden. The area stands on high ground in West Seattle and there is a peek-a-boo view of the Seattle skyline.

Even in winter there is plenty of life to see. Conifers range from dark green to blue, tall and short, with textures of long needles and short tight bundles.

The Chief Joseph pine is my favorite, with its winter coat of neon yellow.

Winter elevates the colors and forms of branches to the front. No leaves hide the arches and bark colors, and catkins sway in the breezes. It is the season when red and yellow-twig dogwoods show their real beauty. It was very quiet on the cold day that I visited recently, and I did not find many birds. But I recall that once on a Christmas bird count there, I found a hermit thrush.

The arboretum is ever evolving, as the students and designers work add and tweak the plantings.

A Poem for the Winter Solstice

The Shortest Day

by Susan Cooper

So the shortest day came, and the year died,

And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world

Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.

They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen;

They burned beseeching fires all night long


To keep the year alive,
And when the new year’s sunshine blazed awake
They shouted, reveling.

Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
Echoing behind us – Listen!!   


All the long echoes sing the same delight,
This shortest day,
As promise wakens in the sleeping land:
They carol, fest, give thanks,

And dearly love their friends,
And hope for peace.
And so do we, here, now,
This year and every year.
Welcome Yule!!

Musical Bonus!

Lord of the Dance – A celebration of the winter solstice

Jack Frost was Here

This morning it was below freezing. It’s been said that Nature was the first artist.

And so she painted in frost on my deck railing!

It is the life of the crystal, the architect of the flake, the fire of the frost, the soul of the sunbeam. This crisp winter air is full of it. – John Burroughs

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness. – John Steinbeck

Winter is a glorious spectacle of glittering fractals complete with a soundscape and atmosphere entirely its own. – Anders Swanson

 

 

 

February

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Fog

Fog can form when cold air moves over warmer ground. Gray foggy mornings have been with us now and then in Seattle.  Despite popular belief, it’s not foggy or rainy all the time here, especially in winter. But this is our wet season. No snow so far, only intermittent light rain. We go back and forth between rain and sun breaks, foggy mornings and sunny afternoons. Days average in the 50s, with some near 60.  There’s been a real dearth of snow in the mountains this year and skiing is not good or nonexistent. I frequently go out  in a sweatshirt. This  is winter?

The plants have taken notice of the warm winter too.  I see leaf buds greening on the Spirea, which seems early to me. The winter bloomers — Hellebores, Daphne and Sarcococca have been out on cue, but the Brunnera seems outright crazy to be putting out tiny flowers already. That’s about two months early.  Maybe it’s a sign that I can start my vegetable garden earlier this year!

DSC_0458 Winter afternoon

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