Playing in the snowy garden

21 years ago

It has started to snow, just as the weathermen said it would. I usually fret when it snows -- or if there's merely a snowy forecast -- because I am usually on the road at the height of winter, traveling north and south over high mountain passes or stuck in cities where no one knows how to drive in the white stuff. While today's snow is not yet sticking, it is beginning to linger in some of the more frosty places and, as the temperatures drop tonight, it will quickly enshroud shrubs and trees.

But, for once, I am not fretting. I'm sitting by the fireplace with a glass of wine and, as I look out at the snow, I'm smiling because I do not have to go out in it -- unless I want to. I might take a walk later on, through the snowy woods down to the shore to see how many tracks of my wild animal neighbors I can spot in the newly fallen snow, and I may stroll up the hill to the pub for a mug of hot, spiced cider or mulled ale.

During the past two years, I finished several big writing projects and, because I saved up enough money, I decided to take off 2005 to paint, but something funny happened as I looked at the snowy garden: instead of laying out a painting, my mind conceived a book, a simple book about my garden.

What a better time to start a garden book than the height of winter, when snow covers the ground and most plants sleep (except for camellias and other hardy bloomers). Instead of hunting slugs, murdering buttercups and dandelions, or thinning out the somber jungle corners, I will be watching bushtits, chickadees, nuthatches, and wrens as they search the branches of shrubs and trees for over-wintering insects, and I will be enjoying the antics of woodpeckers as they probe the bark for beetles and grubs. Sparrows and towhees will be searching the garden and the roadside for seeds dropped by weeds and annual flowers, and hawks will be dropping by for a quick snack. At night, I will be keeping and eye on the raccoons who frolic in the garden and play tag with the skunks (they have convinced one of the skunks that it's actually a raccoon, and it now runs with the pack).

Snow never stays very long this close to our saltwater shore, but I'm hoping it will stick around long enough for me to get started on the book. After the snow melts, I will keep an eye on mosses flowing ever so slowly over logs and rocks, on unfurling ferns, and swelling buds. As winter eases into spring . . . . no, that's still in the future. I'll think and write about that as it happens. Right now, I'm off to take a walk in the snow.

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Comments (9)

eddie_ga_7a
21 years ago
Your posts are a joy to read and would make good entries in your book. Sounds like you're going to relax and enjoy writing this one. Good Luck.
John_D
Original Author
21 years ago
Eddie:
Thanks. This one is going to be a lot of fun.

When exactly will you be in Vancouver? (I live less than 50 miles to the south.)
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clfo
21 years ago
On the other side of the country, I too am enjoying a snowy day. Today I am blessed that there is nowhere I have to go, no time clock to punch, no schedules or appointments. This morning I decided that even if the roads were cleared, I would not get in my car today.

I went out with my dog several times. He is only a year old, and the snow excites him. He races through it with such joy that I by the end of the walk my face muscles ache from grinning.

I love the way the snow changes the landscape, and forces me to see it with new eyes. I love the way the pace of life slows on a snowy day: fewer cars are on the road, and my neighborhood is unusually quiet.

I've spent the day packaging a proposal to send off to a publisher. Print out the sample chapters, tweek the table of contents, label the slides, write the cover letter. Make a cup of tea and double check for typos. Address the envelope.

It is winter, and I have the luxury of being able to work without watching the clock.
C.L.
John_D
Original Author
21 years ago
A puppy in the snow! What fun!
eddie_ga_7a
21 years ago
John, The Garden Writers will be in Vancouver September 9,10,11 & 12. Come visit us. Meantime you might consider joining our organization if only for this year just to participate in all the functions at Vancouver. There will be lots of garden writers and communicators that you should recognize. It might also give you some material for your book. For more information on the conference visit our website at www.gwaa.org.
-Eddie in Georgia
John_D
Original Author
21 years ago
Thanks, Eddie. I'll take a look at it.
inkognito
21 years ago
"I love the way the snow changes the landscape, and forces me to see it with new eyes. I love the way the pace of life slows on a snowy day: fewer cars are on the road, and my neighborhood is unusually quiet." These couple of sentences conjure up a beautiful muffled image and the dogs antics add a lightness that I enjoyed.
I remember that imploded silence when we had an unusual snow fall in Surrey (England). I woke to it, it was like a Sunday morning with ear muffs on. I opened the back door mainly to check if I was still alive, the door had two feet of snow piled against it.
Now I am a seasoned veteran, this is my eleventh Quebec winter and snow is no longer a novelty for me but I have a dog too and every day is the first day for her. To watch her chase a lump of ice that I have thrown into a snow bank or to see her sliding along on her ear across the ice or leaping into the air to catch a snow ball lifts me out of my mood and into hers.
Thanks C.L.
diggingthedirt
21 years ago
{{gwi:1353960}}

lifts me out of my mood and into hers.

Well put.
inkognito
21 years ago
Maybe we could turn this into a writing about dogs forum I saw on 60 minutes that a dog can sniff out cancer. In dog I trust.