Surveying the Damage

The mountains of snow are steadily retreating, making me long even harder for spring. It's been a very rough winter. I've been reminded just how important my food storage is and just how punishing that pretty white precipitation can be. The roof of my friend's barn collapsed, nearly killing her alpaca herd in the process. My husband and my father worked for hours saving the roofs of both our houses. It took weeks before we were able to reliably navigate our driveway without the aid of heavy farm equipment. The wildlife here has suffered too. I actually had a falcon stake out my bird feeder. And when the bird seed ran out, the birds were desperate enough to empty the cat food dish on my back porch, one piece at a time. One morning I came outside to find a fox standing on top of my duck pen, staring hopefully through the 3-inch vent at the two frightened ducks inside it.

Now, as spring's official beginning is right around the corner, my thoughts are turning to my poor plants. I took a little stroll today to see the condition of things as they emerge from the melting snow.

 

Our lean-to, hoping to be a shed when it grew up, gave out under the weight of it all

 

Already damaged by the initial snowfall, my poor abelia took the brunt of the rooftop snow removal

 

 This was once a massive forsythia--now flattened

This snapped off metal stake used to support a wall of honeysuckle

  

 I have no idea how much of this azalea hedge will be left when this snow finally melts

  

One destroyed ivy arbor

  

This cedar tree was removed from the land my church was built on--transplanted here on the day of the groundbreaking

  

There is bamboo debris everywhere

  

 My poor flattened euonymous

 

My wiegela--the hummingbirds' favorite--half broken off by snow from the roof

So, apologies to all you snow lovers, but I don't want to see any more of the stuff for a very long time.