Winter Weather

It's been quite a winter so far this year. We had three snow storms even before the new year. The snow that fell on the Saturday before Christmas has not yet completely melted. Usually, snow melts off within a few days.

My dog has really enjoyed the snow. It seems to send his energy level sky-high. It was such fun watching him bounce through the snowdrifts, and shove his face in up to his ears.

The snow should be good for my garden. So often our winters are really dry, but as all of the snow has been melting, the moisture soaks slowly down into the soil. This should be especially good for the evergreen tree I planted this fall.

I hadn't had any evergreens before, and really little shelter over the winter for birds. I keep a heated water dish outside all winter so that my dog, as well as birds, squirrels and rabbits, can always have water. I keep three bird feeders with a variety of seed mixes and one with suet. But up until this fall, all of my bushes were deciduous, so there wasn't much in the way of shelter for birds during the winter.

In the last week, as the snow has begun to melt, the pansies have started to peek back out, and have begun to bloom again. I love to see the flowers in the middle of the winter.