This week has been crazy. An initial forecasted slight chance of snow showers turned into a snowstorm last Sunday that killed our power Sunday evening through Tuesday afternoon and threw my teaching schedule off for the week. The official measurement in town was 5.5 inches, which was the third largest snowfall in Nacogdoches since 1900. But, at our house we got 7.5 inches on a flat surface, and 8 to 8.5 inches at open exposures in our yard.
It’s funny. When I planned my writing schedule out earlier this month, I wanted to do a reflective blog post for this week on visiting a botanic garden in the snow. I planned to start it out saying that I enjoy looking through snowy pictures because we never get that much of the frozen precipitation in Texas. It seems Mother Nature wanted to prove me wrong and keep my computer from having a charge so I could work on that post.
Even with the hectic nature of the past few days, I enjoyed every minute of the snow and spent hours out playing in it and documenting all I could. I love the white stuff and the magic transformation that it brings to the landscape and garden.
And, in perfect timing, I ordered a drone with some Christmas money that came early last week to start getting more aerial photographs of our property and gardens. So, enjoy these photos I took this week as a winter wonderland descended on our 2.5 acres here in east Texas.
SUNDAY 10 JANUARY 2021
At the beginning of the snowstorm, I took the drone up to get some photographs of the accumulation. However, I soon realized that the drone was getting too wet, so I paused flying it and picked up my DSLR.
Focusing back on subjects on the ground, the birds were going crazy at our feeders. Northern Cardinals, Purple Finches, American Goldfinches, and more species flocked and fought over seed. I kept throwing more out to try to keep up with the increasing precipitation.
Once the snow really began to accumulate, our new gate stood out. Note the perennial seedheads in the foreground as you will see what this area looks like tomorrow.
Another photograph of the gate with our garden chairs behind.
I decided to leave our Christmas lights up a little past Epiphany so that just in case it did snow I could get some shots. Soon after this photograph, the lights blinked a few times, and I rushed in to start dinner. Fifteen minutes later, our power went out for good.
MONDAY 11 JANUARY 2020
The snow fell until 11 PM Sunday night. We woke the next morning to find everything covered in white. The few areas that are still dark green are where branches broke during the night.
Using the drone, I was able to get some photographs of the landscape around us. Here it captured the sun shining through the breaking clouds.
A nearby pond surrounded by snow was a nice juxtaposition of the solid and liquid phases of water.
A shot of the pine forest that backs up against our house.
The pines seemed to be coated in gobs of sugar icing.
The dingy blacktop provided a beautiful contrast against the pure white snow.
Looking over the fencerow toward our patch that houses our vegetable, cut flower, and propagation beds.
Here’s a more direct view down. You can also see the diagonal swale that runs through the middle of it as well as our double fence.
A photograph towards our patch with the perennial beds in the foreground. (But, Jared, you think, I don’t see any perennials. Yea, because they were all flattened! I was amazed to see a couple days later that even Pycnanthemum and Andropogon would bounce back up.)
This shot in our patch looks back on the vegetable beds.
I’ve long thought I would never need to worry about snow loads on my floating row cover and hoops. I was wrong!
In the patch one of the few plants that wasn’t flattened by the snow was my Salix chaenomeloides 'Mt. Asama'.
The snow decided to have a seat in our garden chairs in the patch. The height of the snow really gives you perspective on the depth.
In a way, we got a second snow the next day when the accumulated snow in the tree branches would fall and send the white stuff flying again. I love how the cold snow and warm marcescent foliage of this Acer floridanum contrast.
Our evergreens took the snow hard. We lost all three of our Prunus caroliniana (pictured here), which to me was a good thing since one was half dead at the base and they seed around prolifically. I was also surprised to see so much damage on our live oaks. During the snow, at times I could hear trees all around us popping every 30 seconds or so as they succumbed to the snow loads. Even in the house Sunday night, some cracks were loud enough to hear through the walls and the hissing fireplace. It was like a monster was roaming around outside.
TUESDAY 12 JANUARY 2021
By Tuesday morning, I had put photography out of my mind because we had no power, no hot water, and no idea of when these niceties of life would be restored. But, freezing fog was forecasted. I took my camera to town with us, and I’m so glad I did. Right down the road, we found the fencerows covered in hoarfrost, a phenomenon I’ve rarely seen save for in the Appalachian mountains. Here a still standing Tridens flavus is coated in white.
Barbs on barbs…
…and needles on needles.
Even small trees like Juniperus virginiana were coated in hoarfrost.
That Tuesday evening, with our power back on and a chance to finally take a breather, I built a gardening snowman. The snow was a little dry the day before, but now it was the perfect packable consistency.