I listen to A Prairie Home Companion every week. Garrison Keillor cracks me up. This past weekend he gave some advice concerning the snow storm. He cautioned against taking photographs in case one needs to adjust the story for retelling.

As soon as we pass the first of February I am into a new garden year. The light has noticeably changed and the sun is getting stronger every day.

As promised last week, I did some reading about Heavenly Bamboo. For starters, there is no relationship with what we know as bamboo. It is from an entirely different family, Nandina domestica. It is very common in the Pacific northwest. The semi-evergreen mid-sized shrub is pink in the spring, light green in the summer with large clusters of white blossoms and a lovely bronze purple with red berries in the fall and early winter.

So much has happened since the last column, I hardly know where to begin. Last Friday morning was lovely, awakening to a snow-covered world. I love how even an inch of the stuff covers a multitude of “sins.” I speak only metaphorically of all my sorely neglected garden chores.

I lack even the most rudimentary carpentry skills. Apparently, I also have an unwillingness to learn or to take any type of advice or “constructive criticism.” I will not attempt to describe my latest project concerning raised cold-frames. My friend Marie said if a real carpenter stopped by the garden she wanted to be absolved of any responsibility for the project. At any rate, I’ve now been searching the woods around my house, saw in hand.

Here it is a week into the New Year and I’ve managed to break all my resolutions. Next year I shall resolve to make none! The light has noticeably changed in the evening. The mornings, however, are still annoyingly dark until almost seven. Every night it is just a bit later when I close up the hen house. It’s good I do have an ironclad rule to shut them in at dusk as I had an enormous raccoon on the deck last week eating the end of the cat’s supper. It seems weird that they have yet to hibernate. Have I mentioned how much I loathe them?