Oh the Weather Outside is Frightful
Well, I wouldn’t say “frightful”, I love the snow and cold weather. It has been quite cold around here, temperatures in the single digits with wind chills below zero.
We’ve been getting snow every day, which sends Mr Chiots out to shovel and get some exercise. If we don’t keep the back porch shoveled it quickly become an ice rink that takes weeks to thaw since it doesn’t get a drop of sunlight.
All of this snow of course has it’s drawbacks when you have somewhere to go. They do a pretty good job here in rural Ohio keeping the roads drivable but every now and then they can get a little scary.
Since Mr Chiots lived for many years in Florida and I grew up in South America on the equator, so we really appreciate this weather. I love living where there are seasons.
What’s the weather like where for you: snowy and cold, or sunny and warm?
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The First Snow of the Season
We had our first snowfall on Friday night, we woke up Saturday to a bit of a mess outside. Unfortunately, we had to drive to a few rural areas and the roads were less than ideal.
It snowed more throughout the day on Saturday and into Sunday morning. I woke up Sunday to the most beautiful sunny day with the ground coated in a blanket of fluffy white snow. It was beautiful! This is the kind of snow that everyone dreams of having on Christmas day. Since we celebrated Christmas on Sunday with my family we had a white Christmas.
It always helps me get into the holiday spirit when there’s snow on the ground. It lifts my spirits and makes me happy. I think part of the reason I love it so much is because it makes the days so much brighter!
My Christmas decor looks even better now that there’s some snow on the ground!
What helps get you into the holiday spirit?
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Good Old Ohio Weather
Yesterday we woke up to temperatures in the 50’s with sunny skies. It looked like a beautiful day. I was headed over to my parent’s house to pick up Mr Chiot’s deer from the processor and was enjoying the sunshine and the warm weather. I knew bad weather was coming through, so I was planning on getting home before it got too bad!
The wind picked up about mid-day and the sleet/rain/snow moved in. I don’t really mind bad weather, unless of course I’m out and about in it. I noticed a lot of downed branches and a few trees along the road (no roads blocked entirely though). I managed to arrive home before the worst of the weather hit. About 5 pm last night Mr Chiots and I were working away in the office and we heard a huge “BOOM”. We looked out the windows and didn’t notice anything. We couldn’t see any trees on any of the neighbors homes, so we went back to work. A few minutes later we noticed the sheriff down the street.
We went down to check out what was going on and a HUGE tree had fallen across the road right down the road from our house. Fortunately it wasn’t any taller or we would have lost our electric!
Mr Chiots offered to help with the clean-up, but the local maintenance crew was already on it’s way. They brought out a big backhoe to clean up all the debris.
These gusts of wind up to 50 mph make me a bit nervous. Most weather doesn’t bother me, but since our home is surrounded by massive trees, the windy weather can be a bit nerve-wracking. Of course this is why we have insurance, but it would still be a bit of a pain to have a big tree come crashing through your roof, especially on a cold rainy winter day!
This is one of the reasons we’re prepared for emergencies. Back-up heat, cash on hand, food in the pantry, we’re ready for the electric to be out for a few days or to be snowed in for a week or two. Such is life in semi-rural Ohio. That’s why Ohioan’s say, “If you don’t like the weather, wait 5 minutes.”
Any crazy weather happening in your neck of the woods?
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Protecting Hydrangeas from Winter Weather
Hydrangeas are beautiful shrubs, I’d have to say my favorite flowering bush. I have 12 hydrangeas in my gardens, 11 different kinds. I don’t know if I can pick a favorite, I really love them all.
I have a few that have never bloomed because they’re the kind of hydrangea that only blooms on old wood. They aren’t hardy to this zone and the buds freeze out on the stems each year. I also have some hydrangeas that bloom on both old and new wood, these varieties are nice for our zone because if the buds freeze out you still get some blooms.
This was my hydrangea ‘Endless Summer’ in 2008, it’s 2nd year in the garden. This past winter was tough on the hydrangeas, we had some very cold weather. Because of all the snow on the ground, the local deer decided hydrangea buds made for delicious winter eating. My ‘Endless Summer’ hydrangeas didn’t bloom all summer long because the deer ate all the early summer blooms. They bloomed this fall, but they weren’t nearly as pretty as last summer.
I have “Nikko Blue’ hydrangea that has only bloomed 3 years of the 8 we’ve lived here. This one needs crated to bloom because it only blooms on old wood. I have a few other varieties like this, a variegated hydrangea, another red one (can’t remember the name) and one that gets wintered over in the garage in a big pot.
This year I finally decided to protect a few of my hydrangeas from the harsh NE Ohio winters and the nibble deer. My efforts should be rewarded with beautiful blooms all summer long!
There are several different methods for protecting hydrangeas. I’m going to use 2 of them. The first method will be used on my large mature hydrangeas. I’m wrapping them with burlap and stuffing the burlap with leaves. This should insulate the stems from the cold and keep the deer out.
I used red yarn to tie off the burlap because it’s easy to see. Next spring it will make it easy to unwrap the hydrangeas, I’ll be able to spot the ties easily. It also makes for easy spotting of your needle in case you drop it.
I put stakes around the shrub, 3 spaced in a triangular shape. I used 3 instead of 4 because I only have 6 nice wooden stakes and I have 2 very large hydrangeas that require heavy stakes. I’ll use smaller bamboo stakes around the smaller bushes.
I wrapped burlap around the stakes (it’s 4 ft tall) and filled the area inside with leaves. I finished wrapping one and I still have another large one to wrap. I’ll fill you in on the second method I’ll be using next week when I have some photos to show.
It’s not the prettiest thing, but I think in the snow it will look nice. I think it’s worth looking at burlap all winter to see beautiful hydrangeas all summer long. One hydrangea down, 11 more to go.
Do go to any great lengths to protect any specific plants in your garden?
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Throw Open the Windows
Yesterday we had a nice warm sunny day, it was in the mid 60’s. When we have weather this warm I always open all the windows to get some fresh air in the house.
The cats are in heaven on days like today, and so am I. One of the things I really miss in winter is open windows and being able to hear the sounds of nature.
What are you going to miss this winter?
