{"id":23934,"date":"2016-03-04T00:01:25","date_gmt":"2016-03-04T08:01:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/?p=23934"},"modified":"2016-03-04T00:01:25","modified_gmt":"2016-03-04T08:01:25","slug":"a-midwestern-flower-garden-beautifully-dead-in-the-dead-of-winter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/a-midwestern-flower-garden-beautifully-dead-in-the-dead-of-winter\/","title":{"rendered":"A Midwestern Flower Garden — Beautifully Dead In the Dead of Winter"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"rudbeckia,<\/a>
In summer: Yellow and pink rudbeckia, purple spiked liatris, echinacea.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"A<\/a>
In winter: Faded remnants of last summer’s glory. Photos by Barbara Newhall<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Barbara Falconer Newhall<\/em><\/p>\n

We were invited for lunch, and yes the lunch was lovely, and so was the company. But I couldn’t wait to grab my trusty point-and-shoot and head outdoors to see how my favorite flower garden was faring under a half foot of snow and temperatures below zero.<\/p>\n

\"Animal<\/a>
Photo by Barbara Newhall<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Apparently, my hosts — the gardeners — were willing to leave their flower garden\u00a0to fend for itself during the chill,\u00a0late\u00a0winter weather of the northern Midwest: the only footprints I spotted in their garden were animal tracks, and there were plenty of those.<\/p>\n

Frozen north though this was, there was no shortage of wildlife criss-crossing the yard and the lake beyond, my hostess told me: Squirrels red and gray, chipmunks, rabbits, mice, voles, racoons, mink, deer, coyote and red fox. Also, bald eagles, great horned owls, cardinals, woodpeckers,\u00a0goldfinches and chickadees.<\/p>\n

By the time my point-and-shoot and I were finished with our chilly ramble through leafless trees and faded flower stalks, the animal footprints had company — the clumpy\u00a0tracks\u00a0of a\u00a0well-shod\u00a0human.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
In winter the flower garden’s view of the lake opens up as trees lose their leaves and the dense underbrush dies back. Photo by Barbara Newhall<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"An<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Barbara<\/a>
Animal tracks: Small, furry\u00a0crittters and one big mammal\u00a0with\u00a0a camera.\u00a0Photos by Barbara Newhall<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For more photos of my favorite garden in summer, go to “Point-and-Shoot Heaven — Photographing a Garden Just Before Dusk.”<\/a>\u00a0For a glimpse of my not-quite-so-splendid garden go to “My Rain-Battered Garden — Nothing is Forever, Not Even Those Poppies.”<\/a><\/em>
\nNext week: The woods in winter<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

I couldn’t wait to head outdoors to see how my favorite flower garden was faring under a half foot of snow and temperatures below zero. Read more.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23954,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[34,403,405,1636,55,88,89,82,31,475,1637],"class_list":["post-23934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-a-case-of-the-human-condition","tag-dont-miss","tag-flowers","tag-gardens","tag-midwest","tag-family-stories","tag-nature","tag-nature-photography","tag-on-the-funny-side","tag-photo-ops","tag-snow","tag-winter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23934\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}