Winter Solstice or Winter Soul-stice

Really, I like snow. People who know me, know that I really LOVE snow. But come on….50 hours of snow? At least we are guaranteed to enjoy a white Christmas.
Much of North America is experiencing an early jolt of winter, officially, it’s ‘early’, since the storms started Friday, and ended last night…..winter solstice was this morning at 7:05 AM. EST. OR there abouts. Clearly, winter is here. I livd in Worcester Massachusetts, which is about one hour west of Boston. Friends have been calling from Florida and California, asking about the big ice storm we had last week ( before all of this snow was dumped on us), they were worried about the greenhouse. We did lose power for most of Thursday night, but the temperatures we’re just above freezing, so no damage was done. I had teh tank of propane filled hours before this storm on Friday, and today, Monday, it is half gone. It’s a 100 Gallon tank, so basically, it has cost me $100. a day to heat the greenhouse when the sun is not out, and the temperatures are near 0 deg. F. It doesn’t get much worse than this. I love snow. I love snow.

A lovely yellow needled Japanese Spruce, Picea orientalis ‘Skylands’

A Japanese pine, with snow.

The greenhouse when the temperatures are near 0 Degrees F. I try to maintain the inside atmosphere at 40 Degree’s, but I am having problems with the furnace still, a combustable air quality issue ( i.e. too many plants means too much moisture), so it explodes on a ten minute rotation. Ugh. I need to order a new one, but not sure how they can install it in a day’s time. So each morning I sneak a peak outside to see if A: all the glass is frosted over right to the peak, meaning that it froze last night, or B: Hope to catch a glimpse of steam rising from the flue or C. See if all of the glass is blown out of the greenhouse in a gas explosion. I love snow, really I do.

As the snow continues to fall, deep and fluffy in the near zero temperatures, I keep hoping that the greenhouse will make it until the sun comes out or the temperatures rise to at least the 20’s. F.