We are experiencing a serious winter in our part of Michigan this season. It’s only late December, and already the winter-we-have is approaching the awesome winters-of-childhood-memory in terms of cold and snow. I have said to Jimbo, inaccurately now it is revealed, that I would hazard that in the last two weeks, we have had every type of snow for which there is an Eskimo word. Now that that urban legend has been erased for me, I’ll rephrase my claim:
We have had every type of snow that I typically use to talk about snow.
And that includes:
blizzard
flurry
frost
granular snow
hail
ice
icicle
new-fallen snow
pack
pellets
powder
sleet
slush
snowdrift
snowdust
snowfall
snowflake
In other words, it’s very snowy. We’ve probably had 18 inches of snow over the last two weeks, although some of the rainy-er snow has mashed down the snow that was already in place.
What does this bode for the gardening season ahead? I’m not altogether sure. Some further research is in order.
Meanwhile, the effects of winter on the garden include freezing the lid of the compost container so firmly in place that I doubted I would be able to get it open. The next day, I headed out again with a brimming compost bucket and a pitcher of warm water. I coaxed the black plastic pieces apart with generous amounts of water and pounding. I settled the lid back on in not-so-tight of a connection, so that maybe next time I trudge to the back of the barn in the dark with kitchen scraps in hand, I will not return to the house with said scraps and a grumpy mood again.
