First Pictures - A Winter's Garden

Unfortunately, we've had almost no snow this year.  I like snow.  I miss snow.  I think it's beautiful.  But there is also beauty and intrigue in winter when there's no snow.  And so on the first really nice, warm day in a while, I took my camera outside to take these pictures.  Hope you enjoy them!  (These are probably the "least nice" of my garden pictures.  They get better after this.) 

My Royal Raindrops crabapple tree

I love the tiny red apples that hang there all winter.

 

 

 

A dried hydrangea flower

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another hydrangea

 

 

 

 

 

 

Coral bells, still beautifully colorful

 

 

 

 

 

 

Purple coneflower seed-head

 

 

 

 

 

 

Butterfly weed seed-pod

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rose bud that never made it

 

 

 

 

 

  

Lilac buds that the deer haven't eaten

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sage (herb)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Garlic chive seeds . . . I'll regret it later that I didn't cut these off before they spread seed everywhere

 

 

 

 

 

 

Japanese anemone

 

 

 

 

 

 

Close-up of dried hydrangea flower petals

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lamb's ears

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rhododendron (Azalea?) buds - I never did figure out which one it is

 

 

 

 

 

 

 And then the next day it rained:

 

Bonica rose hips

 

 

 

 

 

 

Crabapple

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunflower

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ornamental grass 



 Kiss Me rose from last year

 

 

 

 



Honeysuckle 

The same coral bells, but even prettier

 

 

 

 Rain-dusted sage

Peony seed pod

 

 

 



Fungus on a fallen log

 

 

 

 

And some of my garden statues:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This little guy was all by himself on the shelf at the store. 

He looked so lonely that I had to buy him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

My two favorites:

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love that this frog is so thankful for one little fly

 

 

 

 

 

 

And these are two pictures I took almost 17 years ago outside our first apartment.  

Snow had coated the crabapples and it was beautiful.

 

 

A little bit closer:

 (I miss snow!)

 

 

And this is the crabapple when it bloomed.  It's the white one in the foreground.