Tag Archives: winter

Goodbye …

“Selah Ridge and 1890’s Flume”
Heatherwood Winter

Our historic irrigation flume is no more. It saddens my heart. This week a construction crew started tearing down the flume to convert our irrigation source to a buried pipeline. One of the first things that attracted me to this location was the surrounding ridge and the historic irrigation flume background. Over the six years that I have lived here, there is hardly a day that goes by that I do not gaze upon the hill and flume. I start each day in my office, writing in my journal. I always turn to look out my window over the Heatherwood landscape and up to the flume and ridge. From our living room we look out over the patio again to the ridge and the flume above.

As we designed and developed our Heatherwood landscape, we created multiple view windows that framed the flume and ridge. Several of our garden “sitting rooms” faced the hills and flume. It was a wonderful “borrowed” background for Heatherwood.

Now the above portion of the flume is gone. We were lucky enough to talk the contractor into salvaging a small portion of the flume and bringing it down to our property. We will carefully place it and build a special garden around it. It will be a little remembrance of the area’s history and the special image of the wonderful background that use to be.

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Winter Perspective

“Winter View from the Perch”
Heatherwood Japanese Garden

Standing above our stream and waterfalls gives me a wide perspective of our Japanese garden below. It is very quiet and peaceful up here now that the main stream has been shut down for its winter rest. When I am up here, my mind wanders from enjoying the openness of the wide perspective to focusing on little vignettes and details. Many times I lose track of time as I peacefully dream over the landscape. Winter snow adds a whole different feeling.

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Winter Textures

“Meadow Grasses & Perennials”
Heatherwood Meadow

The golden brown stalks of our ornamental grasses blew gently in the breeze during a recent snowfall. Their motion inhibited light powdery snow from sticking to stalk heads. In contrast the stiffer stalks of the spent rudbeckia reduce motion and allow snow to build up on the flower heads. The various textures and different shades of brown caught my eye as I walked through the meadow. There is always something to see during my strolls.

A recent heavy snowfall has matted down many of the grasses. Many of the stalks now lay on the ground.

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Just a Pretty Picture

“Lebanon Cedars”
Heatherwood Winter

Everything just seemed to come together when I created this image. The morning mist had lifted for a clear view of the sky and hillside above Heatherwood. Blue sky peeked out behind puffy white clouds. The sunlight was filtered creating soft shadows across the landscape. The “Pretty Picture” was just waiting to be created.

This image was taken from the roadside leading up to our home. One of our design criteria was to provide view windows across Heatherwood for walkers along the road. This is one of those views.

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Ready for a Barbecue?

“It Is Not Time Yet”
Heatherwood Patio

It is not time yet to go out to the fire pit and have a hotdog/marshmallow roast. We now have about 15-18 inches of snow here in Eastern Washington. The high level of snowfall has created a lot of work in our Heatherwood garden. While the plants are resting we still need to shovel and plow snow from our driveway, upper patio, and side walks. We also need to sweep the heavy snow off the drooping branches of our juniper and cypress trees (we have over 70 of them). That keeps up pretty busy.

These snow and cold winter months are a good time to sit back and contemplate how we want to see our Heatherwood garden develop over the coming years. It is a time to read and look at books, magazines, and the internet to get new ideas. It is a time to visualize what can be and start planning projects for the coming year. And on nice days, it is a gift just to walk around the garden and enjoy its winter beauty.

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Winter Hat

“Hokkeji in Snow”
Heatherwood Japanese Garden

Our Hokkeji Japanese Lantern with its winter hat welcomes us into Heatherwood’s snow covered garden. A crabapple with its winter apples provides a little red tone in the background. As the apples soften, they will provide winter food for the local birds.

Our winter garden work has stopped for a while. It is time to take a little rest and just enjoy the garden as it is. Now we are planning for our 2022 landscape projects. Ideas flash through our minds as we envision the evolution of the garden. The start of planting season is just three months away.

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Back to Reality

“Chief Joseph in Snow”
Heatherwood Winter

In yesterday’s post I said that I needed a change from the winter weather and reflected back to warmer times early last fall. Now realism has set in, and I have to get my snow shovel out and clear out the snow. But putting first things first, I had to go out and take a walk around the garden with my camera.

One of the first things I saw was the star of our winter garden. Most of our colorful perennials and shrubs were covered with snow, but our reliable Chief Joseph lodgepole pines still stood out in the winter landscape. They set the stage for the rest of the garden.

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Brrrr!

“Frozen”
Heatherwood Japanese Garden

Brrr … We are ending the year with an arctic blast! The temperatures are dropping into the single digits and the highs are hovering around 20 degrees. This year, I have left one of our two waterfalls running into the pond to keep the pond aerated for the fish. A side benefit is a beautiful water-ice feature to accent our winter Japanese garden landscape.

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Sunburst

“Autumn Joy Sedum and Blue Fescue”
Heatherwood Meadow – Winter

I started my daily walk down to our Heatherwood meadow. I looked down and there my image was. I saw a burst of golden rays radiating out from a spent Autumn Joy sedum. My imagination flew as I visualized the morning sun bursting out over a grove of trees on a hillside ridge. What a great way to start a morning stroll.

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Layered

“Layered”
Heatherwood Meadow

Heatherwood’s meadow plantings have been designed to produce layers of color and texture interest throughout the year. The above winter vignette is composed of yarrow, rudbeckia, penstemon, and ornamental grasses. They provide varying shades of brown, textures, and shapes creating beautiful winter interest.

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