It’s another snowy morning here.  We are getting more snow… again.  So in the midst of this very snowy and cold winter where I should be skiing instead of sitting inside the view outside is what counts!  If you are outside walking, hiking, snow-shoeing, cross country skiing or maybe ice skating, let the fresh air deep into your lungs and soul!

How often do we plan our gardens while we are outside?  I think the most important view is the one of our gardens from INSIDE!  Where do you spend the most time looking out? Your kitchen, your living room, your office? Make that view count and make it inspire you! We spend months looking out so the trees, shrubs and structures we install in our yards really stand out and shine on days like today.

An icy beginning

One of my favorite movie memories is from Yentl: A Piece of Sky (Barbra Streisand) and for me it captures this idea of looking outward from ourselves and always moving forward.

“It all began the day I found…

That from my window I could only see

A piece of sky

And even though it seemed at any moment I could fall,

I felt the most,

Amazing things,

The things you can’t imagine

If you’ve never flown at all.”

Never stop exploring and growing. Reinvent and Rediscover! I always wanted to be a photographer and gardening led me to it.  I had the great fortune to meet a photographer who guided my instruction and has become a fabulous mentor. Find inspiration and strength to take you where you want to go. Don’t stop until you get there and then start on another path of discovery.  I have never stopped looking forward and wanting more for myself.

Of course, when it comes to my gardens there is always another fabulous plant introduction to find a home for in our own little corner of paradise, another color combination to try! What will you introduce into your garden this year?  Look outside today and if you don’t have some key structures to provide winter interest consider planting some this summer.  Funny, but we have so much snow my “winter interest” plants and structures are mostly buried.  I have a Kousa Dogwood that looks like a few stalks projecting out of the snow not a tree. My roses are almost completely buried, and some are!  I can just about see the Viburnums, Salix integra “Hakuro-nishiki’ (Willow) and Azaleas. The Chamaecyparis pisifera ‘Filifera’ (Japanese falsecypress) is just sticking out from under the Acer palmatum ‘Bloodgood’ (Japanese Maple) and the Betula pedula “Young” (weeping white birch).

Acer palmatum ‘Bloodgood’

Never take nature and the day for granted! Find the beauty in everyday! A new blanket of snow, the promise of spring just a month away, the “snowflakes that land on your nose and eyelashes” or the icicles hanging from the gutters.  Go grab a few potted bulbs to enhance your inside experience.  Smell spring! Let it envelop you.  Put some on your desk to enjoy all day! Light a candle, make a fire.  Enjoy every season for all it has to offer.

Here is what I am looking at today and a few teases of spring! “Somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue!”

Hyacinth

Now some spring inspiration:

Tulips

Cytisus canariensis

Freesia