The First Snowfall
The first snowfall here in WNC took everyone by surprise, including us. I expected a dusting of maybe 1-2 inches, but as I type this it’s estimated we received over a foot. Something I’ve come to learn about the weather on our little mountain top is it’s never done by halves.
The morning the storm rolled in, we had arranged to visit our daughter who lives about 20 miles away–down the mountain and across winding, country roads. Without yet realizing how bad it was going to get, we thought we’d keep our plans and stop by for a little while. I’ll bet you can guess where this story is headed.
After about an hour or two, the snow started to come down with real gusto and we realized we had better get home immediately. Let me tell you, even after having driven through some crazy winter storms living in Pennsylvania for 20 years, this was the scariest drive, ever. North Carolina, and the rest of the south, does not have the infrastructure to deal with this kind of weather.
Several times I feared we were going to roll over in a ditch and for most of it I was just praying to get home because I was so worried about our pets being left without our care. If we didn’t make it back up the mountain, and we almost didn’t, chances were fairly good we wouldn’t for quite some time. So here’s me sending a huge shout-out to the mister whose expert driving skills got us back in one piece. (He used to drive an ambulance back in PA and thank goodness for that practice!)
Now that we’re back home, with the pets all safe and snug and a cozy fire merrily crackling, we’re quite happy and enjoying the beauty of the snow. It definitely feels very Christmasy!
And I’m getting such a kick out of seeing how the snow can transform the garden while highlighting all the hardscapes and evergreens. It’s definitely giving me the drive to get my “winter shrub garden” in place by this time next year. Wherever you are, I hope you are also feeling cozy, safe and snug this holiday season as you dream about spring!
Gorgeous!!! My favorite is the photo with the ornament! We too, got snow this weekend, and it was so exciting to get snow before Christmas! I usually have our Christmas tree’s up by this time. (yes, I do several) But due to a tiling project that took so much longer than we planned, love those DIY’s, I just put the main tree up this weekend. It was so charming to decorate the tree while fluffy fat flakes fell from the sky! it really put me in the spirit. Happy Christmas!
Decorating a tree while snow is coming down….sigh. That sounds so magical, Kimberly! What kind of tiling project? I definitely know what that’s like with renovations. Most of the rooms in our house are complete disaster areas. The joys of home improvements! 😉
We chose to tile basically everywhere there was carpet. Living / Dining room, 3 bedrooms, and the hallway (1150sq ft) thankfully the kitchen was tiled before we bought and we are waiting to do the bathrooms, laundry area. We choose a dark wood look tile in a 6″x 24″. Because this was basically our first tile project, we decided to do a herringbone pattern, cause why not add MATH to the equation. Obviously we were/are crazy and all hopped up on Fixer Upper episodes. lol I will say it looks amazing even with a few oops spots, but it took soooo much longer than expected!!! The mess drove me crazy. Tools, and all that goes with DIY everywhere, my sofa in the entryway with chairs pilled atop it willy nilly, ah playing musical chairs with a house full of furniture so not fun. haha
I meant to mention earlier, because I know your honey and you like old books, I got a set of encyclopedias from the 1920’s at the last yard sale of the season. Total geek out moment, I was literally dancing around, I was so excited! I figured you might appreciate it, as my honey was happy for me, but not too the dancing point. haha
Wow I love that encyclopedia find! You’re right, I definitely can appreciate that. My favorite bits about old books like that are the illustrations. I bet the ones in your encyclopedias are amazing. By the way, I am so impressed with your tile work. To start out with a herringbone pattern? I bow down to you! 😉 Remind me to pick your brain when it comes to tiling our bathroom. We’ll need all the help we can get!
Definitely, if you have questions about tiling, just ask away! We learned a lot of tips and tricks, that they just don’t tell you on the “How To” sites! It still took quite a few calls to our respective dads for those how on earth do we handle this bit of wonkiness aka what on earth were the previous owners thinking and now how do we lay our floor around it. haha
Haha! We have the “what on earth…?!” experience every time we try to fix some aspect of our home. I’ll tell ya…we’ve seen some crazy things. Hope you had a wonderful Christmas!
Jealous!! We haven’t had proper snow for three years in Kent, UK.
What are you planning for your winter garden, Laurie?
Hi Alison! So funny, right before I saw your comment my husband and I were saying to each other, let’s move to England. I’d much prefer an even milder winter. 😉 Winter garden…I’m so glad you asked! I have been dreaming of doing something like this for years and I think we might finally have the space for it. I’d love to do layers of conifers, perhaps a paperbark maple in there, shrubs with berries like viburnum and winterberry holly, maybe some species roses for their fantastic hips, grasses with the long plumes to catch the winter light, dogwood with the bright red branches, some witch hazel for their winter flowers, underplanted with hellebores and a carpet of wintergreen. And then put a bench in the middle of that so I can sit on a winter’s day with a cup of tea and take it all in. Doesn’t that sound lovely? Hopefully this will be the year to get started on it!
Utterly lovely. I planted cornus ‘Siberica’ a couple of years ago and it is stunning now. I’m looking for an excuse to add ‘Midwinter Fire’.
Wonderful! Midwinter Fire is spectacular. I just put in (last autumn) Cornus stolonifera ‘Neil Z’ PUCKER UP which has a beautiful shape and thick, puckered leaves but the twigs are not particularly vibrant. Have you ever tried propagating your dogwood? I’ve heard it’s as easy as sticking the cuttings in the ground where you want new shrubs. Might like to try that!
I’ll try that too! Thank you for the tip. It’s funny how I can happily spend a fortune on bare root roses, but resent the cost of cornus, poor things.
Related to this, I have been intrigued by your comparisons between grafted roses and those on their own root stocks. It is really comforting to find that they may actually grow better on their own roots – if I ever have to move, I will get propagating.
Haha are we the same person? I can easily blow through my entire budget on roses but I am so thrifty when it comes to buying other things. I’m happy to hear that you might try propagating your roses. It really is addictive and a great way to increase stock of your favorites. 🙂