Roses growing on high altitude

Rose report from the mountain village of 1200 meters above sea level

I am back in the tiny mountain village of Alagna Valsesia, which is 1200metres on the southern flank of Europe's second highest peak - the Monte Rosa.

The history of this village and its people goes back to more than 1000 years ago. They were originally german speakers from scattered parts of Switzerland. Even though their geographic culinary is very Italian, the Valser people are very proud of their ancestors tradition and way of life. They really love their rugged terrains.

Despite the waves of modernisation that took place over the years, Alagna and the surrounding villages basically retained much of it rustic charm. During the early 19 century, the Queen Margharita of Italy spent most of her summer months at the foot of the Monte Rosa. The queen must have enjoyed the outdoor and mountaineering, that in 1890 she commissioned a mountain refuge be built atop the punta Gnifetti at 4560m. It became the highest mountain refuge in Europe.

The refuge is still in use today after much restructuring, providing shelter to hundreds of climbers during peak summer months. Scientists from all over the world use the refuge as a base for studying the affects of high altitude on humans.

After many years of coming back to this village, Alagna for me is by far the best out of bounds off piste skiing. There are very few ski resorts in the world which offer 3000m of lift accessed vertical!!

I am here not only for freeride freestyle heli-skiing, but also studying and documenting the roses that are growing around the village at this high altitude.
This year, during the time of my visit, the amount of snow is astounding. You can see how the pergola below bowed down under the weight of snow. I can't hardly see anything except a few taller upright growers hybrid teas roses that are growing against the walls

When not documenting roses, I'm somewhere up there with my skis http://rae-dogblog.blogspot.com/

From the land of the rising sun to the landlocked alpine Switzerland

A dear gardening friend from Japan sent me this photo yesterday. The golden yellow crocus already springing out in her garden. Wonderful news. That is really a short winter compared to mine. Thank you for sending me the sunshine. It cheered me a lot despite a very snowy grey day.

I woke up this morning to a new fresh layer of snow.
I saw our backyard birds flying around in circle chasing each other, defending their territory. It was very entertaining as I stood there sipping my morning coffee and then I realised they were hungry because the feeder was totally covered with snow. One of the suet nut feeder was also missing. Probably buried somewhere under the snow.

I was told the squirrel is likely the culprit for knocking the feeder off the hook but I have never seen this cute furry animal anywhere close to the garden even though we have a few clumps of hazel nuts trees. There was once in spring a very shiny black fur squirrel entered the house and ate the dog's kibbles. He must be very hungry after a long winter and that was the one and only sighting.

While outdoor is so grey, I am glad these eye candy primroses kept on blooming.

In an enclosed area of the winter garden, their sweet smelling fragrance filled up the air. The fragrant is almost like viola odorata.

I bought 10 of them in different colours (a bit like a handful of M&M for the big kid ) and it is still a lot cheaper than seeking treatment for winter blues....

Colour therapy according to http://encyclopedia.farlex.com/colour+therapy

Winter Wonderland

February is pretty much mid winter here and the meteological experts published their December and January reports which confirmed this year's winter is harder and colder compared to the last 2 years.

There is nothing much I can do in the garden other than walking around knocking the snow from flattening and breaking the brances of my garden shrubs and those standard rose trees. It is really the time of year when I really learn to appreciate the beauty of skeleton trees, twigs and watching birds.

I usually refer to this bird as the carpenter because of the hammering against the tree trunk.

I was told by Ken, another one of my gardening friend that this Great Spotted Woodpecker's tongue is approximately two thirds the length of it's body, and retracts into a special cavity in it's skull, and also has an "ear" on the tip which enables it to hear it's prey inside the tree.

Thanks a lot Ken for sharing your ornithology knowledge. I find this very interesting.

More info about this bird http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Spotted_Woodpecker