Looduskalender

Winter seems to be here! It has been below 0 degrees C for two days now and my garden shows signs of frost heave. There are two leaves clinging to the tree though! Here is a photo of a Downy Woodpecker in the tree:



From my bedroom window I now have an unobstructed view of the North Shore Mountains. You can see Simon Fraser University on Burnaby Mountain and Mount Seymour.

Today is Sunday, December 13 and we have a very deep frost. It has been below freezing all week, even in the day, which is quite unusual for Vancouver/Surrey, as we are classified as a Temperate Rain Forest! Every tree is bare, the garden is a mess, and my little bird baths are frozen solid:

This looks so icy cold ... thanks for showing!

I spoke too soon about not having snow....and tomorrow's forecast is: Major winter storm with heavy snow expected for the south coast beginning late Monday.



The pink ribbon around the tree indicate the council are to cut it down (it has been completely dead for almost a year.)

I should have taken pictures of all the frozen water here and I guess they are threatening us with that same snow storm Monday night.

Hope it does not get too bad for you Helen or Alice.
Helen you have a wonderful view to the mountains.
Do the council come into your garden to cut the tree/s when they decide it must be cut ? Or do you have to request it ?

macdoum wrote:Hope it does not get too bad for you Helen or Alice.
Helen you have a wonderful view to the mountains.
Do the council come into your garden to cut the tree/s when they decide it must be cut ? Or do you have to request it ?

I live in what is called a Townhouse in Canada. It means I own the inside of the house, but not the outside of the house or the garden. There is an elected council for the houses in my complex, and they decide about tree cutting, etc. I could have requested the tree cut down before, but lots of garden birds use it for a perch and I kind of liked it. But, alas, finally they noticed it was dead and I fully expect to come home one day and find it gone! It was the gardener who killed it last February - he pruned it as the new leaves were coming on and then we had a terrific cold spell and that was the end of the tree.

hdarbysh wrote: ... But, alas, finally they noticed it was dead and I fully expect to come home one day and find it gone! It was the gardener who killed it last February - he pruned it as the new leaves were coming on and then we had a terrific cold spell and that was the end of the tree.

Aowww, Helen, don't say so ... 6 clipped hornbeams, 50 years old, in my street were drastically cut (down to flagpole look) only the other day, and to-morrow it will go really cold after 2 days of snow.
On top of that, hormbeams are bleeders, dripping sap at least as badly as birches from unhealed cuts in spring. We may have spurting fountains then ...
Some money obviously had to be finished off by park department, what with the lack of snow up to now and end of budget year in sight, hence sudden & unseasonal "tree-care".

Your tree: you couldn't have masked the deadness with ivy or honeysuckle or something?

What a pity the council's gardeners do not seem to know as much about caring for trees and bushes.
Here I am always surprised at the way the C/gardeners prune the rose bushes.!! Down to almost nothing......yet the rose-bushes survive. We have severe winter here and advice is to prune a little and do the rest in April.?
Trees have to be done before frost..
I hope the Hornbeams do survive.

Today is December 20 and to my surprise I found some bulbs coming up in the garden:

The temperature is back above freezing. The sky is very grey though.

The dead tree, all decorated for Christmas!

hdarbysh wrote:Today is December 20 and to my surprise I found some bulbs coming up in the garden:

This is happening around here too.

Back to below freezing temperatures. Here is a picture outside my window this morning around 0800 hrs showing a very heavy frost:

macdoum wrote:What a pity the council's gardeners do not seem to know as much about caring for trees and bushes.

Actually, they are probably better off not knowing too much or caring. Because trends, policy and budget wouldn't allow them to do a proper - proper, if you care about the individual trees and their fate - job anyway.

macdoum wrote:Here I am always surprised at the way the C/gardeners prune the rose bushes.!! Down to almost nothing......yet the rose-bushes survive. We have severe winter here and advice is to prune a little and do the rest in April.?

Roses - and most bushes - do survive that, quite well. Only we have to live with them too, and hopefully enjoy them. So the rational city policy of cutting everything to ground level yr 1, then letting it grow, to reasonably nice by yr 3-4, increasing wilderness yrs 5-8, ground level cut again by yr 9 or so leaves just a little bit too little of enjoyment...
Sorry, Helen, we are occupying your topic, and straying off-topic too !
Here in Stockholm we had drizzle during the day, -15C is promised for tomorrow. Skate rink roads!

That's OK, Lilis! I like to see people chatting!

We are back to LOTS of rain

hdarbysh wrote:We are back to LOTS of rain

Here too, fields and parking lots have become lakes and my roof has begun to leak.

A snowdrop!



And the Bleeding Hearts are coming up:



It is as if winter has forgotten us. Last week it was well about 11 degrees C. We have no snow on our local mountains .... and the Winter Olympics will be here in 20 days!

I have been hearing news reports about What will happen to the Olympics if there is not more snow and cold.