Snow for Spring Break

We recently got thirteen inches of snow, just in time for Spring Break.  We were snowed in for two days, and lost power and water for part of it, but it was incredibly beautiful.

My favorite sight was this little heart-shaped hole in the snow on our gravel driveway.  The snow fairy left us a little gift.

We had fun building our two snowmen.  A sweet one named Beetrice (she had a beet for a nose and beet greens for hair) and one that we call Mr. Creepy because he had flashlights for eyes and we built him at dusk to scare my sister when she got home.

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Today we went to the Daffodil Festival at our local grange.  It's the kind of little event that would be the highlight of a trip if you went to it in Italy or France.  At home it's really a slice of Americana.  Quilts and cinnamon rolls inside and music, horse drawn wagon rides, craft booths and tons of daffodils outside.  I try to go every year.  It just reminds me how lucky I am to live where I do.  It started to snow as we left and we drove down a road lined with yellow flowers and white snowflakes.  Not quite Dr. Zhivago, but still lovely.  Then the sun came out, and we saw fields that were so bright green they hurt the eyes.  We saw a rainbow over our vineyard yesterday, and the winery seemed to be the pot of gold.  Appropriate for St. Patrick's Day.  We didn't catch a leprechaun though!

Daffodils to plant in your garden

The grange

The view while we ate our cinnamon rolls

Lots of fun activities

Lovely live music

Local kids' daffodil artwork

Intriguing art

A hore drawn wagon

It started to snow during the ride

A nice long ride

The road was lined with daffodils

They grow wild in the fields

We saw a flock of wild turkeys on the way home

Daffodils are so beautiful

I bought some to plant in pots

We'll enjoy them on the deck this Spring, and I'll plant them in the garden this Fall

Spring Flowers and Rooting Roses

After several days of snow last week, it finally feels like Spring is here.  The air is warm and the first flowers are starting to open.  I have snowdrops, violets and early daffodils blooming under my Forest Pansy tree, and the little twig of Forsythia I bought at a plant sale two years ago is blooming vigorously in a pot on the deck.  We planted primroses on the front porch, and they add a dash of color to the green landscape.

My mother has an incredible rose in her garden called Jude the Obscure.  It’s a creamy, peachy white, smells great and blooms all summer long.  We go to a wine festival every July and I always take a bouquet of Judes.  Every year, people love it.  They want to know what kind it is, where to get it, and if it’s even a rose at all- it looks a lot like a peony.  I always tell them to go to Heirloom Roses in St. Paul, Oregon to get one, but lately I’ve been dreaming of a whole hedge of Judes someday, and would love to have bushes that I rooted myself.  So yesterday, after my mom pruned her Jude bush, I trimming some of the cuttings and with the help of a rooting hormone, I potted them on the deck and hope they will grow.  I tried five cuttings last year, and one took root and actually bloomed, so this year I tried ten, hoping that two of them might grow. If I keep this up, I will have enough for my hedge someday.  I also tried some from another rose, Molineux- a beautiful ruffly yellow one.  Maybe this summer I’ll have blooms off my new roses- I’ve got my fingers crossed!

The pruned rose bush

The cast off prunings

My trimmed starts

The tools and supplies

Dipping the end in rooting hormone

My potted cuttings

Last year’s sole surviver

A Jude the Obscure rose in full bloom