solstice, green, exclamation point

the solstice was earlier this morning so it is "offically" winter in the back yard...

although the "uneasonably mild" temperature might mislead you...

there has been precipitation this month it's true...however it has all been liquid...oh there's been a few snowflurries in the air...but only flurries...as of today we have, if i am not utterly mistaken, broken the record for tha latest measurable snowfall hereabouts which was 20 december...that stands no more...

and the only precipitation in the forcast is more of the same...

the national weather service seems excited about it

it is reminiscent of last year when the snows came late and then february seemed to bring snowfall daily...which was too late for the winter wheat...ans this year's wheat is looking somewhat thin as well...snow is a necessity for winter wheat...

the rye, seemingly more cold hardy ( perhaps because it is less "improved" through artifical selection? ), is in much better shape...

and while we are talking cold hardy, i will admit more brown has crept into the asparagus since the last post...still a lot of green though...not time to cut it back just yet...plants live in event time, not bureaucratic time...just saying...

there is brown out there...some dessicated bean pods left purposefully ( like some of the teosinte seeds out of the 2805 i harvested that i scattered around ) just to see what comes up next spring...

and mooseberry is mulched for winter...yet there is a lot of green still evident as well...

the yucca out by the mailbox for instance...

and some herb ( i am not the herbalist here...zea and allium are more my style and we will get to the allium in a minute ) in that planter on the south side...

onions...

garlic...

and even though they are not blooming or bearing fruit the various berries have left the chlorophyll fully on display even at this late date...we will see how the winter goes and how the wheat does and when the asparagus finally calls it quits...it has only just started and there are already concerns...there are always concerns about the vagaries of the weather and as they become more anomalous in terms of past "normal" they will probably increase...we will simply have to give it time in order to find out...that i am not sanguine about outcomes should come as no surprise.