Garden Bloggers Bloom Day -- November 2017

It's already the middle of November, which means it's Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, when garden  bloggers around the world show off the flowers in their gardens. There's truly very little still flowering in my garden, but there are a couple of things, which I ran around like a mad thing photographing last night around dusk, braving a cold wind.

One of the fancy leaf Begonias in my greenhouse is flowering. They're pretty unremarkable flowers.

The last tuberous Begonia flower -- single rather than double, which I think from my reading means it's a female flower

Cyclamen hederifolium

Mahonia 'Soft Caress' in the pot ghetto

Arbutus unedo 'Compacta' -- this is the most heavily laden with flowers I've ever seen it. The hummingbirds have been all over it recently

And it sports both flowers and berries at the same time

And that's it!

Carol at May Dreams Gardens hosts Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. Check out her post here.

First Snow!

We got our first snow over the weekend here, just a dusting really, but it counts. It started on Friday as slushy rain, and on Saturday and Sunday we got spotty on and off snow that stuck to the grass and garden but didn't affect the streets, at least around here. On Monday morning, it was still hanging around out there, a perfect photo opportunity, so I took my camera out there to see what might make an interesting picture.

Snow on the grass in the back garden

Can you see the path through the grass at the very top of the picture above? I didn't make that path after the snow fell, by walking through it. I made it last week, before the snow fell. I've been working on a project in the far back corner of the garden and walking back and forth over the grass, flattening it somewhat. Interestingly, this difference in the texture of the grass caused the snow not to stick in that area, creating what Nigel called "a fairy path."

Here you can see the "fairy path" much better

This was early for such cold weather around here. According to the National Weather Service, this past weekend was the coldest weather for this time period in 44 years. The coldest day on record for the first week of November was 38 degrees on Nov. 6, 1945. The snow, while not record-breaking, was unusual. The Seattle area’s earliest measurable snowfall on record was Oct. 27, 1971.

Snow on oakleaf Hydrangea

Water droplets and snow crystals on oakleaf Hydrangea

The snow pancaked the Panicum

Sedum 'Autumn Joy' with a snow cap

Snow-laden Tetrapanax looking like a multi-headed dinosaur reaching its heads down to eat

Snow melting on Tetrapanax

Snow and water droplets glinting on pine

Crystallized snow on Horstmann's Silberlocke Korean fir

Strangely, we still haven't gotten a frost. The temperatures overnight, and while it was snowing, never actually went below freezing. All my frost-tender foliage like Dahlias and tuberous Begonias is still strong, lush and green. We might get a frost tonight, we'll see.

Now the snow is gone, completely melted, and the temperatures should go up to the 50s again by Wednesday.

Wednesday Vignette

Hope everyone had a spirited Samhain.

For my Wednesday Vignette, I'm sharing a couple of shots of spider webs, one of them occupied. Two Cross Spiders have been living in this bed just outside my window for the last month or so, moving occasionally when their web gets damaged, or maybe when the mood strikes them. One recent misty morning the webs stood out because they were dew-covered.

How can November be here already?

Anna at Flutter & Hum hosts Wednesday Vignette. You can check out her post here.