A Snow Day!

Snow on the cherry tree

Those of us who live in the lowlands of Western Washington may be horrible snow drivers (Unfair national media portrayal of Seattle drivers!), but what we lack in snow driving ability, we more than make up for with our snow enthusiasm!  For the past week, forecasters have been charting, graphing and watching incoming weather data, which showed promise of a snowstorm.  We were warned of a possible "snowpocolypse"!  Or even worse, a "snowmageddon"!!  And we've all watched weather news in the hope that this storm would indeed come together.  I don't think we ever outgrow the school-child wish for a snow day.

People from the midwest and northeast undoubtedly roll their eyes at our snow excitement--much like we make fun of the Southern Californians who panic at the sight of rain.   The 5 inches of snow that arrived overnight was not the 16 inches that was at one time forecast, but it was more than enough to close school.  Plus, fresh snow around our house is beautiful--a winter wonderland right outside our front door.

Views from our snow day...

The honeysuckle arbor and orchard behind

Snow-covered berries on the barberry

Emily, excited to shovel the front path!

The garden fence topped with snow

The orchard

Ashley and Sophie

Heavy snow bending the branches of the Mahonia 'Charity'

Grace, trying to decide between building a snowman and starting a snowball fight!

The goats venturing out into their snow-covered yard

Sweet Pea nibbling on a Christmas tree

Winter Birds and Blooms

Mahonia 'charity' in full bloom

I love feeding the birds.  Actually, I should clarify...I love the idea of feeding the birds, but I don't actually do it.   Oh, I have bird feeders in the garden--seed feeders, hummingbird feeders...and I even have the bird food (tightly sealed from rodents of course).  But transferring the food to the feeders?  That doesn't always happen.  It's on my to-do list, but feeding the wild creatures tends to fall down on the list, after the feeding of three children, four goats and one rabbit.

I realized years ago that if I wanted to keep birds in the garden, (and I do), then I was going to have to rely on the garden to feed them.  This means filling the garden with plants the birds love, leaving the perennials with their seedy, spent flower blooms uncut through the winter, and keeping the flower beds on the wild and messy side.  Rarely does laziness work so well for gardeners.  And since I tend to like these "bird-feeding" plants, and because buying plants never seems to fall on the bottom of my to-do list, we have a definite win-win situation.

It might seem like a daunting task to fill a garden with interesting winter plants, but not in the Northwest.  Here, we have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to great plants for all seasons.  And of my many favorites, the Mahonia, 'Charity' is near the top.  Not only does this plant cheer up the winter garden with luminous spires of bright yellow blossoms, but it also does double duty as a no-fuss hummingbird feeder.  So, even though I forget to fill my feeder with sugar water, I still have plenty of the delightful Anna hummingbirds overwintering in my garden.

So long as it's not stormy, January can be a very soothing time to spend in the garden.  And if you find your garden in need of some winter color with bird appeal, I highly recommend adding this plant.  For a more detailed description of 'Charity' Mahonia visit this link to Fine Gardening.