Life in a blizzard

There's nowhere for all the snow to go. The mailboxes are buried after the snow plow goes through, and my little free library is completely surrounded by snow. This is the view outside the front door because I don't want to go outside. The front step is shoveled (thank you, hubby!), so you can get the idea of how the snow is piled next to the house. Thankfully, I have school online today, and I had stocked our shelves so we don't need to drive. The roads are looking better now, but last night there were in drifts in our side street. 

Above is our first batch of snow (4 or 5 inches), and below is the deck cleaned up. When we get a lot of snow, it's better to clean in batches. 

The wind blew the additional snow into drifts, even on our deck. 

It's hard to tell how many inches we got because the wind has been blowing so fiercely. 8? 12? Update: 15 inches! The photo below shows how the snow blower cuts a swath through the snow. I'm glad to be cozy and warm indoors today. 

Seed Geraniums

Seed geraniums are a beautiful bargain. I used to splurge on one magnificent geranium each summer. The colors and textures of the special varieties have many clever variations so it's tough to choose. However, the prices have really risen, no surprise there. In past summers, I noticed that the "cheap" geraniums did just as well, if not better. I bought these seed geraniums at a discount hardware store on sale. I didn't get much of a choice on color because they were picked over, even though I checked at the store frequently. But no matter...they look good!

Above are three pots with one geranium each. I used dried grass clippings as mulch. Even though some people have an aversion to red geraniums (Why? Red is a great color!), the bright red mixed with the pinks look good. I bought these nine plants (about $1.25 each) for the cost of one or two specialty plants ($5.99-11.99). If a gardener can afford the pricier plants, that's great. For those of us on a budget, these are a "pretty" good deal.