Saturday was so mild and beautiful, I felt like it was late April instead of almost December! But our weather is very unpredictable...when I woke up this morning it had been raining and most of the snow was gone. By the time I had finished chores, however, it was already back to a winter wonderland! 

I have really fallen in love with herbs this year! Half of the pleasure of gardening for me is in all the fragrances. Even today in the snow, I can brush my hand against some lemon balm, or catnip, or lavender, or oregano, and just breathe in the scents! It really lifts my spirits on a dreary day! Needless to say, I'm planning to grow many more herbs next year! 

Oregano after the snow this morning...

I think Sweet William is so beautiful in snow...

And now finally, my vase! These are just a few sprigs of oregano and horehound. I found out that the horehound seedheads will stick to gloves like burrs! 

I found this vase at a thrift store last month, and have been looking forward to using it. Since I've started participating in IAVOM, I find myself looking at vases whenever we shop there! :)

So there's my winter vase! You can see what other gardeners have arranged today at Rambling in the Garden. Have a great week! 

I hope you all had a blessed Thanksgiving day! Ours was nice, but very busy. After an unexpected snow squall last night, today is so mild and beautifl, I almost forgot it is almost December! I spent a few delightful moments in my garden enjoying the fragrances of my herbs. It's amazing how uplifting that can be! 
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And now, as promised in my Close-ups post, here are some nature photos I've taken over the last couple of years. Again, not anything professional, but we do have some beautiful scenery, and I love to take pictures! Sorry that the pictures aren't in any sort of order. I was going to organize them, but the computer is being so slow today, I just gave up! 

Here is a beautiful sunset we had after a rather dreary rainy day...

A maple tree on our road, lit up at sunset...

When we got this camera, my sister and I were amazed at its zooming power, and had a lot of fun photographing the moon! 

These are probably some of my favorites...this was a very cold morning last February. There was hoarfrost on everything, the sun was shining...it was just beautiful! I took the camera and went cross-country skiing!

A moose crossing the potato field early in April. I wish I had brought the camera with me on a run last month, because there was a huge bull moose crossing this same field! They are particularly impressive in the Fall, when they have their antlers.

Some pictures of Mt. Katahdin, the highest mountain in Maine. One day I hope to climb it! 

An attempted close-up of the Knife's Edge, taken from the scenic lookout on I 95...

My sister took this picture a few weeks ago from the road. I was amazed at how well it came out!

Lupines bloom along the roadsides here in June...

A wall cloud over the potato field last summer...

The view at the end of our road after a shower. That's broccoli growing in the field.

Typical scene at the end of the road in winter. This was actually was taken late March after a very mild winter!

A beautiful October day...

A couple more sunsets. I think my sister may have taken the first one. 

The snow was piled so high we could no longer see the field last February!

Harvesting oats in the field next to us...

And thats it for now! Going through all these pictures, I realized I have quite a few pictures of my four energetic golden retrievers that are cute, and some are very comical! So I may share those with you sometime in the near future, even though this is supposed to be a GARDENING blog! 

I would have waited until Thursday to post this, but wanted to get this recipe out there in case anybody wants to try it. This cake is a Thanksgiving tradition in my family. It is delicious, and it's even vegan! 

I am so thankful for all my readers here! I love sharing the joys of gardening with you, and always enjoy reading your thoughtful comments! HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!! ​

And we have more snow! Yesterday was quite blustery and wintry. However, I think this will melt, since it is forecast to rain tomorrow. 

The herb garden continues to be my favorite at this time of year...

The vegetable garden. I never did quite finish cleaning it up, but at least I have a little bit of a head start for spring! I like how the wide raised beds look under the snow.

A couple of pumpkins I forgot to bring in...oops! 

I couldn't find any flowers today, except for a few frozen heartsease. But I wanted to share this picture from last November of a Stock flower in the snow. I was doing some kind of last minute work in the garden, not expecting to see any flowers, when I was surprised first of all by a wonderful spicy aroma coming to me on the breeze, and there it was! We have had more cold temperatures this year, though.

Do you have any pictures/stories from your garden that you would like to share? I'd love to see them! If you would like me to consider publishing them here on my blog, you can send them to me at:
elizabetabrown@gmail.com 
I am looking for ways to keep this blog interesting and inspiring throughout the winter months. Any suggestions are welcome!

Just a quick post with a few pictures I took last week, but haven't had time to share. As you can see, we had our first dusting of snow. The ground is frozen solid now and it is probably only a matter of a few days before the snows come to stay! But for now, I'm enjoying the last heartsease flowers and some herbal foliage! 

I'll be back with some more pictures soon. 

As you may have noticed by now, I take LOTS of pictures! Photography is one of my favorite hobbies. I'm far from being professional, but our camera has a wonderful setting for close-ups, and I use it often in my garden. So here are some of my favorites from this year...

I almost added some nature and animal photos as well, but decided to save them for a future post. Hope you enjoyed these close-ups anyway...as usual, I told myself I'd just post a few pictures, but got carried away before I knew it! I also tried to pick one favorite, but it's as impossible for me as choosing only one favorite flower!
Which is your favorite?