My Garden in January

 Not much of anything exciting happens in my garden in January - but when you see the photos you might understand why!

Yes, we have had another snow event.

It began falling around 9am on Tuesday and continued most of the day. I'm surprised the final level was not higher given how long snow fell. But that's okay.

 It was chilly out front.

 Just before I took this photo I saw a small bird fly in to take shelter in that orange birdhouse so I was glad I had not brought it inside for the winter. I'm not sure I will be able to keep it up by the spring time as it is beginning to fall apart. But then again, maybe I am looking at it with a more critical eye than the birds do.

 This morning when I raised the blind this is what I saw. Outside the temperature was about 5F or minus 15C. But the sun was out, the snow plows had worked all night long and the road was clear so things could have been a lot worse. We reached a very warm (not!) high of 15F or minus 9.4C.

 Can you hear that little bunny saying "Enough of the cold stuff. I've had it up to my ears with this weather."

 As the snow was beginning to fall I decided to make myself a snow measuring stick. Finding somewhere to install it that was in the open was not easy. but this looked about as good as it was going to get on short notice. As it was getting dark last night the level was up to 5" but I just took this photo around sundown today and the snow, being very powdery, has settled somewhat. I like the green-man's wide open mouthed look of astonishment at the cold weather.

Since I can't garden outside I'll show you my tiny little inside garden. I'm not really one for pot plants - I don't have good windowsills or other places to put pot plants and with the central heating it does not produce a good environment for most plants. But my mother-in-law, who loves to have african violets in pots in her kitchen window, had given me this about 15 months ago. A friend who was here in the summer told me my plant needed repotting and it had these very long leaf stems because I wasn't giving it enough light.

So I re-potted it into a bigger pot and moved it to my front window. I have to keep alert because this is a west facing window and these plants are not meant to like being in the sun. So once the sun comes in during the day I move it aside out of the sun. But look, it still has the very long leaf stems. I guess that is the way it is going to be. That plant stand it is sitting on is about 9.5" square so that will give you an idea of the size of my plant.

Anyone want to provide me with words of wisdom about this?

I hope you are warm and safe if you are on the same side of the equator as me. And, for my friends in Australia who might be reading this I hope it makes you feel just a little cooler as I understand you are having temperatures of the opposite extreme.