The Winter garden...

It's cold out - maybe +11C - and I've been outside doing garden chores most of the afternoon. There is always debris to clear away and plants to fuss over. My hands are now ice but I certainly can't complain since Canada is currently experiencing a severe cold snap that makes +11C look positively tropical! Yikes!

There isn't very much that is interesting out there now, I'm afraid. Everything looks a rather bare and there are few flowers although my geraniums are still blooming regularly. Bless them! All my maple trees are completely bare except this one tree with the two seed pods that you see below. We had a ferocious wind storm last week. It was so bad that trains stopped running and schools were closed. I'm not quite sure how these two managed to stay attached!

Despite the cold, there are already signs of spring. Various bulbs that I planted in the fall are already sending up greenery. It always makes me a little uneasy since it's going to get a lot colder in the coming weeks. They should be fine, of course, but it partly depends on how cold it gets. Let's not break any cold weather records this winter, please!