Snowy, windy, cold

Much of the Midwest got hit with some nasty winter weather this weekend, and although we didn't have a blizzard here in the St. Louis area, we did get a few inches of snow. It's also quite blustery, and very cold. Our low tonight is expected to be around 2ºF (our normal low for this time of year is about 25ºF).

What did I decide to photograph to represent this winter storminess? Whatever I could see through the window, because I was not going outside with the camera today. I also took a couple of shots of the windows themselves -- there was some interesting snow sticking to some of them.

***

(That image above was supposed to have been of two snow clumps, but at the same instant as my finger depressed the shutter release, a gust of wind blew the second clump off the window -- you can see some of the blurred streaks of its fragments. The photo I got wasn't the photo I wanted!)

This combination of cold and wind is "perfect" for damaging bamboo, so we'll see how the unprotected plants fare. I guess it's best to get the damaging weather out of the way early, instead of waiting until late February to hit us with the 'boo-killing weather -- after we thought we were out of danger.

I still think bamboo and snow are a beautiful combination. Let's hope the plants think so too.

Some smaller grasses like this pennisetum look great in the snow:

I know the little bluestem grasses are usually nice in the snow too, but I can't see any of my several specimens from any of the windows, so no photos of those.

Evergreen conifers are nice snow catchers too:

Snow makes even the most ugly, boring plants and objects in the garden interesting I think:

That was some vines that I haven't gotten around to pulling down yet, an empty terra cotta pot, and some branches -- all extremely uninteresting and unworthy photo subjects, until they get covered in snow!

If it wasn't for the wind and bitter cold, I'd be pretty excited about the snow. Knowing that some of my bamboos are being pushed close to their hardiness limits and will likely suffer some damage really takes the fun out of it though. I'm hoping for the best.

Maybe tomorrow I'll actually venture outside with the camera, but probably not. The high temp is forecast to be 18ºF, so it will probably be single digits in the morning (when I like to take photos).

Tomorrow's post (I usually write my posts the night before they actually get posted) should just be about the fireplace and hot chocolate. I just have to figure out how to relate that to gardening...