Wasn't me!

I didn't hear that, but I did hear a dog bark and a baby cry.

It was very unsettling.

The dust has settled and the sleeping dogs are laying? Total boredom.

*thud*

Politics anyone?

No! But all you guys should be made to vote. I know, all you are doing is electing politicians but they are a necessary evil

Here am i sitting here getting poorer by the minute because of the sub prime thingoh. What are you lot doing? Fancy lending someone who cannot pay 110% of the value of something.

Tears falling on keyboard. Sob.

Arthurm, I feel your pain!!!

What is the view out of your most frequent window?

Mine is dominated by a Masonic Temple. That'd be out of my office window.

Tiled roofs (mostly red), a distant palm tree. The trunks of Eucalyptus citriodora and sideroxylon. That is the sitting down view.

Massive red oak trunk, snow, vernal witchhazel covered in dead leaves, snow, new bird feeder yet unvisited, snow, buddha statue, snow.

I'd rather not everyone voted, just the informed ones. Additionally, we don't have the infrastructure to support 100% voter turnout.

Lol, just the informed ones.

If i go to the window, i can see a Mango tree, a fig tree, a Banana herb all owned by the idiot who lives next door at the back of my yard. His house with barred windows,

My mess of a garden, a small glasshouse, a water tank, Scanning left, is the other next door, the hole in the fence, so you can go there quickly if you run out of supplies. More palm trees (fuglies) some roses, a crepe myrtle, more red roofs, a Jacaranda tree, etc. etc. AND HEAVEN. Never, ever any of that horrible white stuff called snow.

I can see the receiving door for the kitchen in the building I'm in if I run over to the printer/fax machine. Also a smidgen of field before the highway and the parking garage.

Strangely it just takes the sight of the field (such as it is) covered in snow to make me wistfull for cross country skiis.

Snow..... I want Arthurm's view!!!

I just see the stuff Arthurm doesn't want to see. On top of that it's really cold. I've never gotten into that notion of planting a garden for "winter interest". For one thing, who in their right mind would be outside looking at all this interesting crap and secondly it would probably just get buried by the stuff Arthurm doesn't want to see.

All complaining aside, to me there is nothing more lovely than fresh fallen snow. I live in a wooded area and the trees covered in snow are a sight to behold. You literally can hear a pin drop! The most recent snow we had was PERFECT, I wanted some black and white 35mm film to take pictures. Try finding that anywhere on earth! :)

skiiiiiiiiis.....*sigh*

If that white stuff would hide the ugly building, I'd take it every day.

Well, Kev, I do plant for winter interest. :) I have three lovely stands of Pennisetum, and some Paniculums...tall ornamental grasses, with the twisty shapes of Harry Lauder's walking stick, and some shorter heads of Sedum autumn joy I didn't cut down. Match that with some Japanese maples (just babies at present) and the red twigs of Siberian dogwood and the grey fence in the back ground, with a light dusting of snow...and my bird feeders with twitterbrains flitting from pillar to post...the soft charcoal grey of junco's and the olive drab of the winter plumage of Goldfinch's with some bright splashes from the cardinals...and you get the picture. Unfortunately, my computer has me with my back to the front window...sigh...

Lisa, that sounds lovely.

Lisa,

Sounds familiar, we must live in similar areas ;-)

I also have some snap dragons that are still green? Hell, we've been down to 0 with 4-6" of snow a couple of times and they keep going. I've also got pussy willows in a vase that are rooted and blooming, need to tranpslant those to dirt soon.

I'm really looking forward to starting some annual seeds, I'm getting the itch... Last year among other things, I did wave petunias (1st time I ever saw seeds in a big box store, 12 seeds for $1.79 or $2.49?) and made baskets for family and friends, it felt good.

On another note, are you doing the MVOS February 16-17? Last year there were a couple of new vendors and I picked up some interesting (for Dayton, OH anyhow) stuff.

Bob (just down I75 @10 miles)

That does sound nice, Lisa. Since I decided to put up a bird feeder I've been keeping my eye out to see what kinds are still hanging around here. Simple answer: none. Since I'm not home during most of the daylight hours I can't really observe constantly, but even over the weekend when I was home all day I didn't see one bird. No evidence the feeder's been touched, either. It's like they've all disappeared in the last few weeks. I used to see cardinals at least. Hard to miss those!

We had about 5 mins of the Stuff that Arthur Doesn't Want To See today at around 115pm. I am totally envious of everyone's view, and for good reason....

{{gwi:133582}}

Hey, I LIKE that view! The street isn't so great but that building looks pretty cool all shrouded in smog. :)

Out my window I see a huge amount of work that needs to be done in the yard. Our huge ice storm left me with a surfeit of branches and twigs. In the fantasy world I often live in, I'll use them to make rustic yard decor. I see a shed that needs to be destroyed. A gazebo at the end of an ill-defined pathway. I see the patio that I wish was covered with a sunroom. A deck that I wish was covered with a pergola. Blank areas of weeds that I wish were covered by a meandering water feature. And...squirrels. grrrr (not at the moment)
-MB

Mr B do you have dreams about cute strillels? Cannot visualise Rustic Yard Decor???????
I agree about Komi's view. Not the Taj Mahal but not too bad.

The sitting down view now is all grey, a cooling southerly wind is blowing and the palm trees in the distance are bending. I do not know why people insist on planting them. It's not Miami or the Bahamas, it's here.

I suppose we all have our little pet hates.

My beef with this window is that no sun comes in. NNW is a useless kind of a thing. My old window had morning sun streaming in :(

Rustic decor...lol.

Arthurm, I will take the Jacaranda view any day-esp the purple ones, love 'em. Palm trees are boring! Snow, may be for a few days, no more. Need the cheery bright warm days. No wonder I am here in SFL- the hurricane country.

One of the suburbs here in Minnesota had a restaurant called The Pickled Parrot. Very trendy for awhile. In keeping w/ the Caribbean theme, there were 18 palm trees around the property. The suburb's powers-that-be said the palm trees didn't fit the theme of what the city's about. Big hoopla. Finally, the city said the trees had to go.

It sure was weird to see palm trees in the substance-that-shall-not-be-named.

Whitecat8

Here is a summery picture for those in the frozen north. In theme too. Photograph by Petrichor. Have to put that in because it will be reported again that this Arthurm character keeps stealing his photos. Anyway, the snake is harmless, about a metre long and was photographed in his back yard.

The leaves belong to a "white Cedar" one of the few Australian Native trees that lose all leaves in winter.

{{gwi:133584}}

Lord that snake is beautiful! I've only seen one snake my entire life in the city. No frogs, no toads, no salamanders either. Just squirrels - lots and lots and lots of squirrels. They're nasty, but I think we all know that already.

Arthur, thanks. All of a sudden, the air in the house is friendlier to the lungs. The leaves look kind of like one of our elm trees, which also loses its leaves in winter.

Good-looking snake. I used to catch snakes when I was growing up - the non-poisonous ones. Killed a copperhead one time and left a lot more alone. They taste more like chicken than anything else - well, except maybe frog legs.

Kevin, you gotta at least visit the 'burbs. Think of it as a field trip. You can see frogs, toads, rabbits, snakes, kingfishers, green herons, cattle egrets, great blue herons, deer, turtles... Nice balance to all the squirrels.

WC8

So, i thought i'd look up the weather for somewhere in Zone 4. Current temperature is -9F and the forecast is fair. Cloudy, warm and Humid, sunny, thunderstorm, showers etc, i can understand , but fair when it is -9F. What does that mean?

As far as looking like an Elm Tree, that is as far as it goes with the White Cedar. It is a "Tropical Tree" from NW Australia and Southern Asia that loses its leaves in the dry season.

I thought this thread was largely food free, but any excuse will do. I can assure you that the snake is still alive and did not end up in the kitchen.

Currently I'm at -10F/-23C with a wind chill of -25F/-32C and on Monday it's supposed to be 30F/-1F. I guess that's a meteorologist's idea of being fair.

"but fair when it is -9F. What does that mean?" - I think it just means there's nothing weird in the atmosphere happening - no wind stuff, mostly sunny, clear, no rain, no snow, no frogs dropping from the sky. It has nothing to do with temps. I can't believe they are actually talking about rain next week. I just love these swings in temps. It makes life around here so exciting.

Like, "fair and sunny," which has zip to do with temps.

Right this minute, it's +6F, and there's not a cloud in the sky - you know, it's fair. :)

Kev, I saw that about rain next week, too. We've already had the January thaw, so what's the deal? Or maybe it's what you say, Shady - only fair that the Arctic blast be balanced with balmy temps.

Arthur, that snake's too handsome and benign to appear on a dinner plate. Glad you didn't get any ideas from my story. No telling what the angry snake gods do to you.

WC8

Reminds me of my brief stint in the North Atlantic. We characterized sea conditions using the Beaufort Scale. Seasickening days of 8 foot waves and the ship lurching like a roller coaster were charmingly classified as "fresh breeze."

I remember learning about the beaufort scale, but no one explained that one to me.....

so... I thought La Maison de l'Orchidee was quite cute, but now that I know it's not in Australia but in France, all of a sudden it seems rather bland....

Petrichor's photos are a real gem.

Hi again all...I've been making draperies. :( I'd much rather be putting my sewing talents to much more creative things than making Warm Window roman shades to keep out the cold night temps we've been having...I got half of them done last year, and now I'm back at it.

If I could figure it out...I'd post a picture of some of my winterviews...I'll have to figure that one out.

Bob: I'm going to be in CT w/dd that weekend...which is a pity because it is my birthday weekend and I usually can treat myself to an orchid, but I must admit, I've got a nice little collection now--a size I can handle easily and it's going great....I EVEN FINALLY GOT ONE OF THOSE DANGED PAPHS to rebloom. YEEEHAW! I've got a couple of LCs in bud--and I only managed to snap two buds off, and will have one spike with 5--count em--5! blossoms if I don't accidently snap any of those...and one of my Oncids is getting ready to bloom and the Ency. oh sheesh...how do you spell it...the cocliata? no...the octopus orchid...is getting ready to do it's thing....a little baby I got, and it's all growed up now....;) AND...I've finally figured out how to handle the Cuban chocolate orchid...put it in a clay pot filled with a mix of LECA and diatomite and sit that in a shallow saucer which holds the run off and let it sit there... :) I've got it under lights and I have huge P-bulbs and I think...cross my fingers....that it is going to bloom too. That was a compot I bought about 2003 or 2004...yeeeehaw! That's not counting the Blc. and the Col. Wildcat "bobcat" I have in bloom right now.

So...have fun for me and buy something nice...or just look and breathe in the possibilities of spring.

Anyone else think that Komi's picture sort of reminds you of a zigurat? Angkor Wat? Something like that?

Hi Lisa, Yes, it did, but where or what is the zigurat? Cuban Chocolate orchid??

Komi. you have to realise that us mere mortals are just working with ordinary tools. Petrichor has a you beaut camera with a sooper, dooper lens.

I think the orchid shop is lovely even if it is in France. Photograph by Peter Meyer not Petrichor. Here it is without the need to hit the link.

{{gwi:133585}}

Epi. phoenicia. :) or is it Ency. now? I got confused...which was changed to which and not all were changed...and hey, I can barely remember the old names lately and here the Taxonomists are making me nuts....and I suppose it would make sense if I knew the reasons for the shift, but.....

Arthur, did I spell it wrong? One of those pyramidy like things in what was once Mesopotamia....

phoenicia should be luscious in bloom!

Perhaps that's what the masons were trying for. The thing is rather hideous IMHO. That wide angle lens makes it look quite a way away, but it's actually just across the intersection right below me, and completely dominates my view.