Still frozen.

We've continued to have below normal temperatures here. Last night was down into the teens which is very unusual for this time of year. The freezing weather has pretty much finished off any remaining blooms and buds on the few plants that normally would be blooming. The hardy fuchsias and roses will usually bloom through December, but not this year. I was hoping to have a few flowers for bloom day next week, I think maybe the Daphne 'Summer Ice' may be about it.

I was able to get more good pictures yesterday of the Anna's hummingbird that has been visiting. She's been either in the apple tree or the feeder all day yesterday and today. Another one has tried to join her, but she isn't feeling in the sharing mood I guess. I did some reading on how Hummingbirds survive in freezing temperatures on this website. Apparently the hummingbirds perch on a branch at night and fluff up their wings and lower their body temperature from about 102F degrees to 54F degrees. They appear dead while they are sleeping, but as they wake up their body starts shivering to raise their body temperature back up. I also found that this process is called noctivation.

'Gold Cone' Juniper was planted about a month ago, I was hoping it would get some more time to settle in before the really cold weather got here, but it looks good. I noticed some new blue-green growth on the tips recently.

The Sarcococca ruscifolia doesn't seem the least bit affected by the freezing weather. It's flower buds continue to grow alongside some berries left from the Spring.

It hasn't drooped or had it's leaves curl like the rhodies and Camellias have.

The Corsican Hellebore is the only Hellebore that's not lying flat on the ground. The rest (H. orientalis) had started to send flowers up, but they look like they need a little warmth to perk them back up.

The pond and waterfall are mostly frozen still. The fish aren't moving much, but every so often one takes a very slow swim across the bottom of the pond. I tried to upload a video of one of the fish swimming, but it was taking much longer than usual so I finally gave up.

This little Chickadee was walking across the ice this morning while the Juncos figured out that standing on the waterfall rocks was an easier way to find unfrozen water to drink. The weather is supposed to get a little warmer, up to 40 degrees!

We've been really busy lately getting ready for Christmas. I've been trying to do as much blog visiting as I can work in around shopping, decorating and baking along with the usual things going on around here. I love seeing what's happening in everyone's gardens now that it's winter. It's fun seeing the variety of weather going on now too. Some parts of the world are getting to see Spring flowers while many of us have seen cold weather and snow. So I may be slow to get around to visit, but I'll be there. I hate to miss anything.

Adventures of a Hummingbird.

One of the first things I noticed when I looked outside this morning was that the hummingbird feeders were frozen solid. The temperatures were down in the 20's last night, so cold and dry there wasn't even frost on the plants. I felt very guilty when I noticed a little hummingbird sitting in the branches of the apple tree trying to warm up in the sun. Feeling bad for this one and the others that have been visiting and also seeing that the Fuchsia flowers had been killed by the cold I brought the feeder inside to "thaw". After about a half an hour it was out hanging again.

Not more than a few hours later after returning from errands I saw a female Anna's hummingbird drinking from the feeder. She was very brave and stayed there even while I was watching our dog Gracie who was seriously thinking about stepping on the frozen pond.

She found a good close and sunny spot to rest on between drinks. If you look closely you can see her beak is open. I wonder if she was thanking me for getting her food?

She later flew up to the apple tree to take in the view of the Cascades from over the neighbors fence.

Another reason I'm glad the neighbors limbed up their Cedar trees, another view to enjoy!

I'd gone back to watching Gracie and heard lots of noise and looked to find that a flock of Bushtits had flown into the yard. After hummingbirds I think they're the smallest visitors we get. They always come in big groups and especially love suet, but discovered the bark butter feeder recently. The hummingbird was quite concerned they were after her food and made lots of noise and protected her feeder.

The Bushtits are very friendly with the other little birds that visit our feeders and usually will be the first to leave if they are getting too crowded. I love how they all tried to find a spot to eat from.

Here are more of them on the suet feeder, lots more were resting in the trees and plants around the pond.

Eventually they left and the hummingbird went back to the trellis to rest. I can't believe how close she let me get. I was probably about 8 feet away and I'm sure I could've gotten closer, but I didn't want to scare her. I didn't do any cropping on this picture or any of the others.

As I was going back inside she flew back to the branches of the Cedar trees. I'm going to bring the feeders in now on these nights where it will be below freezing to keep these birds fed. Anna's hummingbirds are winter residents here and so I try to do my part by having a food source for them. In the end I was rewarded with the best pictures I've ever gotten of one.

On Frozen Pond.

Sweet Pea and I were up very early for her first basketball game of the season today (her team won, Yeah!) and we noticed such a heavy frost it looked like snow. The streets sparkled with frost as the headlights shone down on them. When we returned home hours later I was surprised at how much hadn't changed since we left. Frosty roads and yards everywhere. The moon is still out and huge! How I wish I had a camera that could capture what the moon looks right now.
Our backyard gets the most sun in the winter so I expected most of the frost to be gone, but was surprised to see half of the pond still covered in a layer of ice.

I'm so glad I got the pond cleaned out recently. The water is so cold now it hurts my hands when I reached into the water. Once it's Fall I quit topping the pond off with water so part of the ugly liner shows now. One thing I wish we would've taken more time with in installing the pond was making sure the liner was put in better.

The fish are all at the bottom of the pond, but still swimming around. They look so vibrant "under ice".

The Water Hawthorn (Aponogeton distachyos) blooms are sitting above the ice.

I love this fern that grows by the pond. I can never remember what it's called. It stays evergreen and the new growth has an almost "furry" texture. If anyone knows I'd love to find out.

A frosty closeup of the same fern.

Geranium 'Wargrave Pink' finally gave up blooming this week but still looks pretty with a little frosting.

Heuchera 'Harvest Lemon Chiffon' has really nice yellow foliage. It takes part sun and I'm a little concerned it's going to get too much sun where it is now. Guess today isn't the day to move it :)

We are having record lows here in the Seattle area right now. Highs in the mid 30's and low's in the lower 20's. I don't think the frozen pond will be thawing out anytime soon.