Snow.....

Winter Woes....

From the Beginning, Dear Readers, I have been planning to include Snow on one of my Winter lilac shrubs. Because I live in the North, and Some amount of snow is inevitable at some time during the long six months of Winter at these latitudes. I am sure that if you know snow the way I do... a deep acquaintance for all of my life.... you will know that there is no such thing as just plain snow! There is light fluffy snow, heavy wet snow, icy pellet snow, perfect snowflake snow, sleety mixed snow, crusty corn snow, sugar snow, concrete ice snow and so on. Some snow sticks to everything, and some just blows away or melts the minute it touches anything. So when it comes to adding "snow" to one of my lilac shrubs, I realized I was going to have to decide what kind of snow I was making in order to get it to look right. If I was trying to make heavy wet snow, it would need to bend all those branches.... if it was going to be just a dusting of snow.... it would not lie smoothly along the branches.... and maybe would not stick to the stems either. Could I make it somewhere in between? And could I find the right kind of "snow"?  I tested a number of different "snow" products and was not entirely satisfied with any of them. But before I even got to the snow, I needed to add some of those "suckers" I had mentioned in a previous post. If you look closely at the above picture, you will see four (only four for now!) additional skinny stems at the base of the lilac. I added the buds too. And then it was time to get brave and make snow!

I am using DecoArt Snow Tex....

It is not very easy to apply!

It has to be dabbed on and doesn't stick right away

(sort of like real snow!)

But once it sticks and dries it is solidly attached.

I tried to build it up from the bottom.... 

working up the main stems....

Imagining where it would land....

I am not done yet, it is a slow process!

I needed to test it in The Folly Garden....

Parts of the shrub are under the roof overhang

 and would not get as much snow...

 only of it was blowing in as it fell.....

(I apologize for the poor lighting... night has fallen in RL)

But if it is snowing... 

we need to make it look like it is snowing!

(Another thing I didn't think of....

 what the "blanket" of snow would look like

 next to the snowy shrub....)

Especially if you were trying to look closely....!

(Perhaps I can find better "snow blankets" for the rest of the landscape...)

And certainly, I didn't even finish adding the snow to the branches..... 

(I had to go make dinner.... the Vacation Time was all run out!)

 

And if your Winter is anything like our Winter this year, Dear Readers, 

you will have seen plenty of snowstorms which end with sleet and rain... 

making a serious concrete-ice mess!

(Not very pretty to copy in miniature.)

So It's not perfect... but it is a start!

Oh, and I almost forgot to show you blossom number Forty-five!

(Or is it Forty-six?!!)

And here it is in the box with the rest of them!

Well, Dear Readers, Winter in The Folly Garden 

may not be going quite as I planned....

But that's often the Way of Snow.....

A Slippery cold frozen Beautiful Mess!

Winter Woes are here...