Update:  January 4, 2000

Winter:  Sleeping Beauty

 

For the most part the garden is in hibernation for the Winter. I was good this year and did a little bit of Fall clean-up. And actually did it in the Fall, rather than letting it go 'til Spring as in previous years.
I find Winter in the garden fascinating.  Above ground things can look pretty shabby. Leafless plant skeletons stand bent or broken by harsh weather.  Many herbaceous perennials have disappeared completely, their leaves long since dissolved away to become part of the soil. Yet the garden has a unique beauty as it sleeps. Colors are muted and the absence of leaves reveals hidden textures and shapes. It's at this time of year that the Harry Lauder's Walking Stick looks it's best.

And although dormant, the garden is very much alive. Beneath the surface roots are growing, bulbs are breaking, and perennials are spreading. And even now, buds are swelling on the branches of some plants. Each plant waiting for it's own silent alarm clock to awaken it and begin a new season of growth.

The Alfred Hitchcock Memorial Bathroom has achieved some degree of fame.   This Fall it was featured in an article in the local newspaper, the Everett Herald and in subsequent weeks the article was picked up by several other local papers. This got the attention of one of the Seattle television stations and on November 28th my bathroom and I appeared on the local evening news.   It had to have been a slow news day.  (Click here for the Everett Herald article.)

Each year I've lived here, I've made a ritual of planting something in the garden on the Winter Solstice to mark the turning of the season and the return of the sun.  This year was special. A few days before I had gone to a nursery and purchased a small Winter Hazel to be my Solstice Plant.  The
day before the Solstice I selected the site and prepared it for the next day.  That evening I was looking at several Winter Solstice Web Sites on the Internet and learned that the precise moment of this year's Solstice, the moment when the sun is at it's southern most point, would occur on Dec. 22nd at 7:32 a.m. Greenwich Mean Time.   Subtracting 8 hours would make it 11:32 p.m. of the 21st in my time zone. I looked at the clock...it was 11:26.   I made a snap decision.   The hole was already dug so 6 minutes was enough time to put on my coat, fill the watering can with rainwater and set my Winter Hazel into the earth at the very moment of the Winter Solstice. Many of the nearby houses glowed with seasonal lights. It was calm and quiet. And the bright full moon shone
through a thin veil of fog.

I'm so glad I have a garden.

 

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