The leaves are still wonderful.

and it’s still snowing in Philadelphia! The mayor has closed down the city – all bus service is stopped, highways closed and Philadelphia University is planning on starting at 10:00 in the am.

We’re driving down the Delmarva peninsula and it is still cold, but I hear it’s already over 50 degrees in Virginia Beach. So that’s good! Here the ponds are frozen and the fields which will soon have green things growing are all brown and stubbly but the sky is full of birds in “V” formation—I wish flying to Canada but that won’t be until around March. Yeah, I know, in Philadelphia, I still have to deal with Feb. and March but the days ARE getting longer and stuff is starting to grow. Really!

Get’s me making plans for my garden— the catalogs have been coming for almost a month now and we have been having snows that melt slowly watering the ground so I hope there will not be any dry spells this summer to turn my world into a dust bowl.

My back yard has a place that needs seeding but other than that it’s pretty ok—just maintenance and veggies. But the front – under the living room window, is a shady place that is just a mess of pacasandra and a stunted azalea bush that need work. There’s a project to think about.

Or perhaps along the side walk—we could revisit that as well. I like to plant seasonal things along my way from the house to the car. Then, if I’m busy at work and don’t have time to wander my garden, I don’t miss the changes.

My street used to belong to a house on Germantown Ave. which was built in the 1600′s. Properties facing the avenue were long and narrow. Narrow on the street side but long enough to accommodate gardens, orchards and stables. During the Battle of Germantown, revolutionary soldiers had to hop fences as they chased each other through these narrow yards.

Land was subdivided after the Civil War and it is now a neighborhood of Victorian homes where stables or carriage houses have been turned into coveted homes. There has not been any livestock kept here for many years, (although Luke does keep chickens, but that’s another story). So a misplaced deer is a big deal.

Open gate and Classic Hair Pin Fence

Asymmetrical Gate and and Maxwell Mansion’s Fence*

Strong Graphic Fence and Gate

Circular Gate and its Fence

Fence Posts

* Maxwell Mansion is a Victorian House Museum in my neighborhood.

I have a love/hate thing about little cement critters. There is a garden stand in Lancaster called Hoover’s which sells all sorts of cement garden things—they also sell good oatmeal/raisin cookies along with lots of plants. We always try to stop when we are in the area. They have lots and lots of cement garden things all over their parking lot. Over to the right are some tables with smaller pieces—bunnys, frogs, squirrels and . . . turtles.

First I bought a sheep and that’s the sheep I photographed every day in spring of 2007. I also have a small gnome named Monty after the movie. He exists under a holly tree, covered with ivy.

I really don’t like cement garden things—maybe a bird bath or so but little critters. . . So I hide them under bushes etc. I have this small bunny and a squirrel but I realize I’ve collected a lot of turtles—as things die down in the fall I find more and more. Perhaps I’ll post some pictures of them—and come out of my cement critter closet.

Then about an hour later it got very dark and started to thunder and then hail!

Here is another image of the hail from my front porch.

The line snaked up and down tiny streets in Germantown—some home owners sticking their heads out wondering what was going on and others placing speakers with music outside for the folk in line. It felt like one big party.

Obama Rally in Germantown, PA from Beth Emmott on Vimeo.

Afterward we went to Cafette, a wonderful restaurant in Chestnut Hill for lunch—it was a sparkling sunny day so we ate outside—many people at the café had their rally “Germantown for Obama” stickers on—we bought cookies to take back to Ilene and Robert’s house and ate on their deck not wanting the beautiful day to end.