Our Nixa, MO Yard – February 2023
/February started out bitterly cold – with sleet/snow that stayed on the ground for days. I bundled up and ventured outdoors with my camera to document the situation in our yard. There had been some freeze-thaw cycles already, but the concrete and rock covered beds were still very white. A downspout had dribbled water than had frozen before it could escape. In the yard, the grass bristled through the whiteness; I left footprints, but they didn’t go very deep. The yard was pristine; our Missouri yard (and neighborhood) is not a deer highway like our Maryland house was. The iris leaves in one bed seemed unfazed by the cold (hope that continues to be true!).
I went through the house to go out to the front because all the gates were frozen in place. I was surprised that mine were the only footprints on our sidewalk; with schools closed and the bitter cold, people were not taking walks as usual.
I was intrigued by the round seed pods on one of our larger crepe myrtles. The wind and gravity had emptied some of them, but others still contained the seeds from last fall. The seeds were ready to scatter…they fell out easily with a nudge of my fingernail.
