Whiteout in the Garden

My last post showed you some quite colourful photos of the garden that I took in mid-December. However, just a few days later the garden looked like this with the first snow of the season.

The garden looks so different with a scattering of snow on it; colours are lacking but textures really comes to the fore.

Plants are transformed into icy white patterns.

The birds are grateful for their easy-to-eat patio lunch...

...once the plants have been stripped almost bare of their berries.

And then they create a little bit of art with their delicate footprints in the snow.

I think the garden looks quite enchanting under a coating of snow. It has the power to transform ordinary things into something much more dramatic and interesting.

However, the snow has kept on coming...

...and coming.

...and coming.

And yesterday we had even more snow; so now the garden is a complete whiteout. The pots in the photo above are nearly buried now, the garden bench has a cushion of snow up past the arm rests, the pond has completely disappeared, and most of the plants are now just white fluffy mounds.

I'm astonished at how much snow we've had in the past two weeks, and there's more to come according to the forecasts. It will be interesting, come spring, to see how the plants have fared. There will be some broken branches due to the weight of the snow no doubt, but it's insulating properties should protect the plants from the low temperatures and hopefully they'll survive to grow another year. Watch this space...