Hi Carol,
Stay inside, stay warm, stay safe, and cuddle up with a few rose catalogs to enjoy! It's snowing here too; just started. Predict an inch and then turning to rain.
Jim

HEHE. Last night my normally quite neighborhood was full of screaming kids (and adults) having snowball fights. Me and DH, being transplanted NYkers, just looked out the window and said 'oh, snow'.

Today it's ICE. I didn't go to work, I'm working from home. All of my roses look like they are covered with ice, I'll try to get some pics later.

I'm glad I left my pines staked from after the last ice storm (when they were literally ripped out of the ground) because they are covered with ice, but still upright!

More snow Friday night Carol!

Carolina,

I've fedexed the huskies for you and Bill, so they can lick up the snow and they double up well as blankets.

Carol

That's a lovely pic, I love the look of roses in the snow. :)

Rain and drear over here.
Don't the tea rose leaves do wonderful things when holding snow?

Carol, it sure is pretty but this is a close to that kind of weather that I want to get (LOL). I know about freezing rain, sleet and snow in the south, ain't pretty!
Stay warm!
Hamp

It's beautiful Carol. We get snow here once or twice in the winter, the kind that melts like yours. Even though it's pretty I feel like I could do without it.

Hey Jim, how on earth have you been? They are saying 3 inches for your area....

Bet, I was so delighted that we didn't get any ice that the snow was a pleasant surprise. More snow Saturday?? Not good, I have to drive down I-85 to work Saturday.

Fang, I will watch for the truck. Beau didn't quite know what to make of it. When he stepped into the snow he would lift his legs up real high like he didn't want that stuff touching his feet. :-)

Thanks Krista, sadly some of the roses are lying on the ground from the weight of the snow. WRS in that photo is sprawled over the deck railing.

Ann, I can't believe it missed you. Rain would have been just as much if not more welcome. The snow was so wet and heavy, it has bent some of the roses to the ground. I hope none of the canes are broken.

Hamp, I know you don't like it but it is kind of pretty. Of course, the nut cases here will not slow down when they are driving in this mess and there have been wrecks everywhere. Sooooo glad it wasn't the ice that they predicted.

Pam, me too :-)

Carol

I looked out at my backyard and it looked strange. The tall loblolly pines are compressed because their needles are so long and get so full of snow/ice that they look like popsicles. Then I realize that my butterfly bushes were lying on the ground and that's why everything looked so weird. I've got to cut them down short soon anyway.

Unusual weather is bad weather because you aren't set up to deal with it. Your two inches of snow are as paralyzing to you as two feet of snow would be to someone in New England. No apology needed, and no snickering from someone here in California who recently endured strong wind and two whole inches of rain!

Rosefolly

Snow reminds me of Norman's family cat who every year during the first big snow storm would go to the front door and ask to be let out. No problem she was a Siamese. Faced with the fallen snow she would about face and march to the back door and ask to be let out there...sadly there was not much difference in the weather between the front and back door. Stay warm, cookie and keep an eye out for the other lunatics on the road. They are not used to driving in snow.
la

I would never laugh at you buddy. Driving on ice is horrible!

I know exactly what my Beau looked like because that's what Cookie does when I put the booties on her. I only do it for walks because of all the road salt and she gets used to it fast, but it's danged funny at first!

Carol, seeing you rose makes me wonder about the canes. A silly question, but do roses in your zone have the canes harden off for winter, or are the canes as they are in summer? If the canes don't harden off, I can imagine that the weight of the snow would really be hard on them.

Bet, at least it was just your butterfly bush. Isn't it odd to look out and see your huge bushes sprawled on the ground??

Paula, you are right. The SCDOT tries to keep up with the road situation with their limited resources but living between a couple of major interstates, that is their first priority and the local roads get done whenever. So a few inches of snow or ice brings everything to a screaming halt here.

LA, that is so funny. The snow melted on the roads for the most part but there's a lot of snow left in our yard and it is still pretty to look at.

Jackie, please oh please take a photo of Cookie in her booties! LOL. I can just see it. We put a "coat" on Beau one time and he refused to leave the house with that thing on. I think he was embarrassed. As soon as we took it off he went outside. Smart dog :-)

Krista, when the snow came the Teas and Chinas had red bud eyes everywhere and some of them were pushing new growth. They do not know the meaning of dormant. I usually lose a cane or two (sometimes a few) when we have ice or snow storms and I have had roses lifted out of the ground but they have all survived so far.

Carol

Carol, that's why I top my roses after the first freeze. Luckily I finished tying back my two climbers last week, otherwise I'm sure I'd lose some of them. What did look really funny is my junipers. They were flat!

After complaining about the drought all year, now my soil is so wet, the butterfly bushes are up out of the ground. I think I can save it, but if not, I've got a few volunteers I can put there.

Glad you enjoyed it

No laughing....well can I at least chuckle Carol? ;)

It is rather pretty....especially when it melts by noon.

Nothing would scare me more than driving in a snow/ice storm in the South. I keep picturing one of my nearly 5ft. Aunts down there, barely visible above the steering wheel of one of their monster sedans, getting closer and closer in my rear view mirror! Yikes! ;)

Not laughing at all, Carol. I know what that unusual weather does to the roads down there! Up here, snow is just the usual, but ice is a different story. Ice is just plain dangerous no matter where you live...that's when I call in to work and say "not comin'!" I bet your roses will be fine, though, with no broken canes in the bunch. They're green and they're pretty resilient. So just enjoy the view (if it's not gone already) and pat Beau for me - he's a smart dog, LOL!

Anne

Carol, I was in LA once for work and it was raining. You would have thought the world was coming to an end everyone in the office ran to the window and worried about driving home. I was flying back that evening and someone asked me 'do planes take off in the rain'?

LOL, Bet, that is funny but I totally understand it. Rain must seem as foreign to them as snow is to us. Your butterly bush should be fine. I had to put one of my Tea roses back in the ground twice (same rose) after ice storms and they recovered.

Anne, thank you for not laughing :-). I dread ice more than you can know but the snow was kind of neat. Beau says thank you for your support.

John, I see that you know exactly what I am talking about....and they are bearing down on you doing 80 miles an hour....

Joseph, I wish it would hurry up and snow up there so you could take some photo's of "snow in New York"

The weather folks say we will be getting another couple of inches on Saturday...unheard of!

Carol

We had snow and some ice here, mostly rain though (for which we are grateful).

I worked from home yesterday - loved it: (i) got a ton done in a room with a fire and classical music playing - the environment is just so much nicer.

Did a quick walk around of the roses - not enough snow or ice to cause any damage.

Baxter did his usual jump through the door, skidded, popped back up into the air and landed sideways, all fur on full fluff, back arched. He walked around a bit shaking his paws and then came back in. He did not request a trip outside for the rest of the day. Southern cats are not much for snow.

More snow tomorrow. At least it will ease the drought.

Carol your snow was pretty. I guess if you don't see it often it is pretty, but I have seen enough of that white stuff already this year to last me for the next 10! Yikes, it is piling up more all the time. My roses are buried and protected at least, that is the only good thing I can see about all this cold, wet, miserable stuff. LOL Oh, Buddy loves it. When I am out shovelling he likes it when I throw a shovelful of snow at him! He will stay out till the snow sticks to his fur and makes little balls, he comes in the house and all you can hear is clonk, clonk, clonk, the snowballs stuck to his fur. He sticks his nose in the fresh snowbanks as if there was some delicious treat waiting 6" deep, it is a sight to behold. At least one of us enjoy it. Wish he knew how to shovel. LOL

Take it easy driving. I drive in it all the time and am used to it but there is always a fool on the road who wants to go too fast for the condition.

I hope your roses recover and just think it is a 'cool' shower.

Valerie

Valerie, that is obviously the difference between a northern dawg and a southern dawg. Beau wants no part of it. I like the snow for about an hour and then I am ready for it to go away. I wouldn't like dealing with it for weeks and months on end. Don't know how you do it, my friend. The roses are grateful for any moisture they can get.

Jody, that is hilarious. I can picture Baxter doing that. We are supposed to get 1-3 inches of snow again tomorrow. I found two fairly large broken canes on the roses today. Most remain bent forward like the snow is still weighing them down.

Carol

Carol..that is lovely!!! I love the snow (easy enough to say from down here).

Mari

OK, more comedy fodder for you northerners...today the metro Atlanta area is under a 'heavy snow alert'. I read the details and the 'heavy' snow is 1-3 inches.

Still, I'm sure it will be chaos!

Carol,
Seeing your post and responding made me think of our get together in Asheville, thought of Richard whom I can never catch on the phone so called up and there he was; talked for a good 45 minutes.
Jim

The first thing I saw in your picture were the overhead wires. We may have similar temperatures, but in December when we had sleet, we also had what we thought was blue-green lightening. Actually the power lines were falling and "breaking" the transformers. Almost our entire city was without power, and we were without power for 5 days while it was freezing. A gas fireplace does put out heat, but not that much.

I hope that as soon as you get out, you can stock up on some things for emergency. It is awful to live in areas like ours and have these storms.

Sammy

Here are some snow pictures from today:

Kitty gets a taste of the snow (he didn't last long out there)

{{gwi:220619}}

Winter wonderland (I really like the way the butterfly bushes look buried in snow)
{{gwi:220623}}

Wow....you've got a whole lot more snow than we have just south of Charlotte. Cool pictures though. I like the one of the cat. If my indoor (and very spoiled) Henry went out he'd probably have a heart attack and expire right there. After all, he's the King of Climate Control!

It is snowing at the moment and about 37 degrees. I don't see it sticking anywhere as of yet. But the weather geeks have been in a wad for days now doing their best to cover the Winter Blast of 2008. ;-)

Carole

Guys - it was minus 5 here last night and will be again tonight. Right now it is a toasty 5 above. Unfortunately there is no snow cover to help keep my poor roses warm. It's so cold even the birds aren't very active at the feeder, and my cat Tabby is so bored lying in the kitchen chair waiting for them to show up. We both have cabin fever so bad. Will spring ever get here?!!
-terry

Jim, me too :-) We had the best time that day didn't we?

Sammy, between the ice storms and the hurricanes and everything else, we keep emergency supplies all the time. We were without power for a week a couple of years ago. Not fun.

Bet, it snowed all day today but it didn't stick to the ground here. Supposed to get down to 19 degrees tonight so the roads should be fun traveling in the morning! It was pretty at your house!

Carole, aren't they funny here? Winter blast 2008? LOL.

Terry, I know we sound like wimps but it doesn't take much of this stuff to bring everything to a screaming halt in the south! We aren't accustomed to this type of weather, thank goodness! You guys are tough up there!

Carol

We just watch the snow on the weather maps south and east of us and I watch the mountains and imagine CarolFM getting the interesting stuff.
I hate this cold weather. Single digits predicted for here tonight. Five cats in the hobby room around the woodstove (which is roaring). Cat billiards: for every feline action, there are four disequal but opposite reactions.
But the ontly thing that makes this vaguely tolerable is that this cold will take some cold from the poles and the more cold that slops out of the polar regions early, the less there will be up there, just waiting to repeat the Easter freeze of '07.
I'm not sure how any plants survive exposed frigid temperatures.

It's a good thing I took those pictures when I did because most of the snow on the trees disappeared about an hour or two later. But then it started snowing again.

We also had a fire going all day. It was nice. Glad I didn't have to go anywhere.

Okay, as you know sympathy is not my fine suit when it comes to winter ... share the pain. However lucky you as it is short lived.

Us Canadians are more riveted by how the Beaufort ice shelf has snapped for the first time in winter with the development of the new shore ice due to too much heat in summer thinning out the shelf. It was only -9 C up in the Arctic archipelago near your Point Barrow. This they tell me is bad as now the exposed water will heat up the Canadian Arctic and cause fierce storms ... I am having a hard time with the bad aspect in the interpretation ... roses in Ilaquat in 40 years sounds interesting. The animation is interesting in the second photo.

Here is a link that might be useful: snapping Canadian Artic ice shelf

Carol and Buford, your gardens look lovely. We got quite a bit today, and judging by the pictures on CNN, we got more than Atlanta, but I expect theirs might have lasted longer. By sundown, ours was gone. Now, it's time once again for the politicians to start screaming we are going into the ice age. This happened back in the late 1970s after 2-3 years of drought, it was followed by winters with snow and ice storms and we got tax deductions for insulating our homes against the coming ice age. :)

LOL Patricia..I remember that!.. I wonder if they will give us tax deductions to insulate against heat with global warming. Actually..wish they would make up their minds so I can get an idea which zone I will be in in ten years..8 or 12 :)

Mari

Carol---please be careful driving on the ice---It can be dangerous---I remember well the years I had to drive to work sometimes twice a day in all kinds of weather.
---I'm lucky to be retired so I can just snuggle in the watch the snow.

The snow pictures are lovely.

Take Care,
Florence

A two day blizzard has erupted here. Two feet of snow which drifted. It's five below. My husband had to tow my son in his little hot car to the road for a highly important video game party. We doubt he's coming home again for a month.
This is the first real winter we've had since the 90's, I think. This weather is head ed straight for John in Minnesota to nail him with that lake effect.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:220614}}

The snow and ice are gone but the temperature is in the teens. What an odd year we have had weather wise and the coming year appears to be setting up to be unusual, as well. Record breaking heat, record breaking cold, snow storms.....

Riku, those are very interesting photo's. It's hard for me to see the fracture, I'm not sure what I am looking at but the implications are frightening.

Ann, I wish you had my weather :-)

Patricia, you got snow? Wow. My pansies that usually bloom all winter here have fallen over, frozen solid.

Bet and Pandy, it's hard to know what to expect anymore!

Florence, thank you dear. I was very careful. I just take it slow and hope no one runs into me :-) I agree it is pretty but I'm glad it is gone.

Kayla, now that is a snow storm! Stay warm and stay safe. Hope your son shows up before spring :-)

Carol

Yes, Carol, we got lots of snow (for us). In fact, enough the neighbor kids were building snowmen. I think they predicted 3-6 inches but not sure what it was. We did seem to get more than North Alabama, Birmingham and Atlanta. Strange, but true. It rarely snows more in Central Alabama than in Atlanta and Birmingham.

That is a lot for you guys! I think it is so beautiful but I am happy we live in an area where it disappears quickly! I bet those grandchildren of yours were amazed and had a ball playing in the snow.

Carol

Riku that is just plain scarey.
We were forecast !snow! here this week and 30 degree temperatures but that has flipped over and now it's hanging in there at 40 and rain for the next two weeks--if only it snows in the Sierras so that the resevoirs are full for next summer's watering. I hope you are all staying warm and driving sensibly.
la

The roses ( and their owners) may get the big test over the next three days. Temps up (hovering around freezing) with ice, snow, freezing rain.
Single digits the last two nights, I don't have the heart to go down and see how cold it got next to the species garden...it's ususally five degrees colder down there....R. laevigata recovered from the late Easter Freeze last year, but this is at least fifteen degrees colder.
Let's hope the ice melts and adds to our ground water quickly.

Carolina your wish is my command! lol

Aw mom! I don't wanna wear the boots!!

{{gwi:220626}}

Oh okay. I'm used to them again. But I DID manage to lose one in the driveway already -ha ha!
{{gwi:220629}}

Jackie, what a good idea and how funny is that. In the first photo she has the same look on her face as Beau did when we put that coat on him :-) Thank you, dear!

Ann, Bill and I were talking about that very thing today. I wonder what will be left after this week? Now they say more ice tomorrow but hopefully nothing major and hopefully the temps won't drop as low as they say.

Carolina

Oh, LA if you'd had a few inches of snow that would have been news worthy :-)

Carolina

I sent pictures of the snow to my sister who lives outside of Chicago and she said that we (Atlanta) has more snow then they do! Go figure.

Oh, Jackie O, that poor dog looks so embarrassed!

We have 4 kitties, live in NJ so they do see at least some snow every year, but it's the same story --- I open the door to let out, the head turns & he looks up at me, "Did *you* put that stuff out there?" Sets the paw on the white stuff, draws it back and comes back inside.

15 min later, tries again --"It's still out there!"

Eventually Nature calls loudly enough and he resigns himself -- each paw gets a shake as it is lifted from the snow. If it lasts long enough they get used to the idea but it is never popular. I think as they age, it gets less & less tolerable to them.