MAGGI!!!!!

[Kristl Walek]

Maggi,
I have not been here for so long (winter tends to be like this for a seedswoman), that I did not realize that you had given me such a sweet and colorful descriptive under my profile....thank you.

And for those you posting about Hellebores and Galanthus already finished, etc. etc. etc. know that I am keeping my winter picture up--until such time as the real picture changes---it is snowing, to add to the 3 plus feet still on the ground, and I don't expect to see any Galanthus in bloom for another 3-4 months!!!!!!!!!!

[Carlo]

Ahhh, Krystal,

Surely you jest. Galanthus have begun their flowering here (despite the fact that they are now BURIED under this morning's fluffy snowfall)--you won't have to wait three months.  Witchhazels are blooming as well...

[Maggi Young]

Kristl, I admit I do enjoy making these little additions to see who notices. I think it makes the Forum so much more personal, somehow.

I had thought that we were getting nearer to spring here with quite a lot of plants making a move to flower but today there is a vicious cold wind and nasty hail showers with heavy rain..... not too nice at all.  Your plants will at  least be safe tucked under their snowy blanket.
Just one thing, I know you will be SO thrilled when your spring DOES arrive... and we will be really pleased to see your photos when it does... just one thing to ask... please don't show us too many more snowdrops.... Never hold back on the ericaceae, though, will you?

[Maggi Young]

Carlo, I fear you are living dangerously.... you suggest to  someone in Ontario, Canada from your NY, USA garden that winter is nearly over.... well, you are a braver man than I, so to speak!

[Kristl Walek]

Ah, Carlo, I would never jest (at least not on line) as I could not stand the public ridicule of being exposed as a jester....

Last year, the earliest spring on record here, the Galanthus bloomed in late April---and there was barely any snow that winter.

This year, the precipitation never seems to want to stop---although it has been the mildest winter on record.

Kristl

[Carlo]

HA!

By my reckoning that's TWO months, not three or four. Hang in there...it's on the way...

[Kristl Walek]

although I do now realize that February has gotten away from me---so I should say "the Galanthus will not bloom for another 2 months at best"

[Maggi Young]

I could not stand the public ridicule of being exposed as a jester....

Luckily, this is a fear that has never troubled ME!!




Carlo... by the calendar it may only be a couple of months but I understand Kristl perfectly... it will FEEL like at least four  

[Kristl Walek]

just one thing to ask... please don't show us too many more snowdrops.... Never hold back on the ericaceae, though, will you?

I actually have to enjoy the Ericaceae in the wild here, in the few bogs where they thrive in my part of the world,  which is predominatly limestone.

[Kristl Walek]

The view out my door, February 22, 2008, to match my profile picture.
The building in the distance is my seed office. It's a lovely, short walk from the house, although it feels miles away during a blizzard or when the coyote are yipping (very) close by.

[Maggi Young]

Kristl, are you moving from this pretty place?

[ChrisB]

I remember February in Toronto, a lot further south than Kristl gardens, so cold waiting for the streetcars... and the moisture in my nose freezing while I waited... now that is cold.  And although the shortest month, it always felt like it was the longest somehow.  Too much digging out of driveways to get the car out, too much clobber to wear, and too long a winter for me.  After 23 years I came back here to a more gentle climate.  I wonder how long it is going to remain so though?  My sympathies Kristl, but you know it will suddenly be spring for you, and the ice and snow melts are a wonderful sight too....

[Kristl Walek]

And we think of Toronto here as the "banana belt".....but now global warming is taking care of all the extremes in any event; it's a truly frightening thing!!!

Maggi, I think you must be a member of Alpine-L (the only group that knows about my heart-wrenching realization that I will probably have to give up this property). Yes, it's been a depressing on-going process of 3 years, which began with my (wash dirty linen in public) long marriage falling apart and trying to tend the (6 acre) gardens and running the business alone. Add to that aging, financial stresses (more dirty linen, etc), and here I am corresponding with real estate agents in western Canada. There may be some miracle yet, so I am not closing all the doors to the idea of staying, but it seems unlikely. And besides, I don't buy lottery tickets! It does tear you apart to leave a garden that has been long in the making.

Chris ran back to the UK after her Toronto experience, but I mind the summers here much more than the winters, so have been yenning to move to a cooler, drier summer climate. The fantasy has been Alberta---but no one can afford anything except an outhouse there, if you want to be near the Rockies. So, I am presently looking at properties in northern British Columbia, right in the mountains (slightly milder winters, much cooler summers) and spectacularly beautiful areas. The idea is that with a wider range of species available for seed collecting (including all the Rocky Mountain alpines), and a smaller, less expensive property, I will be able to carry on my seed work without as many pressures.

Oh sigh.

[Maggi Young]

I am not an Alpine Elf.... I'm  more a lurking pixie 

I can sympathise with the Alberta difficulty.... my (Canadian)sister has recently moved from that outhouse you mention to a retirement home and wonders how she will survive. I have suggested going into hills to be eaten by bears, but no luck yet.

[Kristl Walek]

I have suggested going into hills to be eaten by bears, but no luck yet.

Well, strange you should say that....because at the end, that is my wish exactly, although I would prefer to be dead before the eating began...

Who was it (Woody Allen??) said "I am not afraid of dying, but I would prefer not to be there when it happens"

Living with bear is a realty in the wild parts of Canada. The part of northern BC I am looking at has both black and grizzly (at the alpine elevations). Should make for interesting seed collecting. I remember being in the tundra areas of the Yukon on a seed collecting trip, always with the rented vehicle doors left wide open and within sight, thinking what a benefit it was that grizzly bears preferred open space, so you could at least see them coming (it's black bear that make me nervous).