Hamamelis Diane

This Witch Hazel is a fascinating plant that bloom in late winter. It glows like fire warming the souls when there's nothing else happening in the garden. They have a spicy fragrant which I can't quite connect. The petals resemble tiny strips of ribbons decorating the bare twigs. The strips of ribbons petals unfurl on warm days, and curl up when the temperature drops only to unfurl again on another favourable warm day.The leaves are green and boring all summer but this shrub puts up a marvellous show in autumn turning into an eye catching golden red. First bug I saw this year, maybe a night moth or something. Very tiny and skinny. Must be hungry after a long winter sleep.

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/

Talking in my head

A few of my gardening friends in the US and the UK already sprung into spring and started their gardening activities. It will be another month here before the ground warm up and ready for plantings. We usually get snow up to the first week of March. 4 more weeks....and that feels like light years!!

I really feel like I'm slowly decomposing under piles of snow. Its getting a bit depressing with too many grey and sunless day. This picture below was taken during the early days of winter. There was still some colours at the beginning of winter. At the moment everything is just twigs and sticks.
Today, the weather is not really that bad, it started frosty grey but the sun came out this morning though it is frozen cold out there. This week we had a record freezing temperature since years. This will make the spring arrival even later than usual.

I went to check the forsythia to see if there are some fat buds unfortunately they too are still very sleepy. No signs of crocus or early spring bulb poking out from under the snow blanket either.

"Kaboom the cat" helped digging in the snow searching for some signs of spring

While the cat is busy working in the garden, the dog is having a great time in the snow. Read my other blog - Pooch: I'm not a toy dog. I'm just a midget!

The wild birds really brought some life to the very very sleepy garden......This is (don't laugh) Long Tail Tit or Aegithalos Caudatus, a very tiny bird and oh so sweet looking.As I put down my thoughts into words, I realised my gardening activities meant much more than a place I dig around and plant things. It is not only a place where I chill out amongst my plants collection but also a place I could connect myself to many many things in life.

The thing I missed most is the outdoor freedom, sights and sound of nature, surrounded by trees, wild birds singing, buzzing bees, all the insects, pest and slugs that eat up my seedlings and plants, far far away from honking noise, no hustle bustle shoulder brushing or getting my feathers ruffled the wrong way, no Q&A, no worry if I'm being politically correct or not, no staring into the closet and asking "what should I wear today" because the garden plants really don't care if I'm dressed up to the nines or not. It is my backyard and I can be as sloppy as I want.....and the birds don't care either
The other thing I missed most is TALKING IN MY HEAD. Sounds like a crazy thing isn't it? Maybe I am a nutcase! This "talking in my head" happen only when I'm doing something in a repetitious way such as pulling weeds or digging a planting hole. Going on the tread mill is also a repetitative movement but somewhat its not the same feeling like "talking in my head" while I'm toiling in the garden.

Some people talk in their heads while driving but I can't do that because my brain function differently to stay alert and concentrate on the ever increasing numbers of speed cameras that's popping up like mushroom all over the place.

There are others who talk in their heads while walking as walk is a repetitive movement but not me probably because my eyes are busy enjoying the surrounding views. Walking the dog can be a good time to reflect whatever that's in my mind but also that doesn't work because I have to constantly follow the pooch to make sure he doesn't roll on some stinky stuff. I still don't understand why my dog really like that "canal number 15"

Apparently, a lot of people talk to themselves whether loudly or silently in their heads. This is a big relieve to know. I thought I was going nuts or something but Nut is also ancient Egyptian goddess of the sky!

Interestingly, talking in the head is actually a sign that the person is sorting out his/her thoughts, kind of mentally organising their mental notes etc.

I don't feel too weird about myself anymore since I read this article
http://health.yahoo.com/experts/depression/12522/does-talking-to-yourself-mean-youre-crazy/

Clearly after 3 months of winter, and now the 4th month.....my lifestyle is getting a little bit crammed in the winter jackets and indoor heating. I'm entitled to get a little depressed and affected by the long dark grey days of winter. I probably would be in the loony bin without my glass house winter garden.

I think its about time I head south for some sun.....

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