Resilience

As I have mentioned before, I tend to plant things for winter interest as well as for enjoying during what most of us consider the growing season. One of the things I enjoy most about this is watching the patterns of shadow on the snow.


Here my Harry Lauder's Walkingstick (Corylus contorta) shows its twisted form and catkins. I have two varieties of this shrub. This one, a plain green leaved variety and another which has red leaves in the spring. This one is in the front yard and I am going to have to move it as I'm tired of explaining to passersby that it isn't sick that it is supposed to be contorted. (Harry Lauder was a Scottish entertainer in the first half of the 20th century...and I loved his "Wee Highland Laddie" when I was a child).

Another winter wonder is the Hellebores. I have several varieties and it isn't for nothing that they are commonly called "Lenten Roses."

Here, you can see the little buds of the flowers getting ready to open. They will open soon, probably by the end of the month. This particular one is Helleborus foetidus (stinking hellebore) and I love it's sharp pointed leaves which are like stag's horns.




















I also love how the shadows play on the snow, casting dark blue and lavandar lines. This is a baby Acer Sangu Kaku (Coral Bark Maple).


We've had a lot of snow for SW Ohio....well, we've had three snowstorms with no melting in between, which means that I have snow up to my kneecaps in my back yard. One of the things which is heartening about looking at a garden in the winter is the resilience of the plants.

The hellebores go on making their bid for regeneration and prepare for their flowering, even in the middle of what most people think of as a wasteland.



Grasses bend under snow and are covered, but given some warm days, they too will once again stand tall.


On Thursday, I am having to practice my own resilience. Last week Thursday, I went for my 4 month visit to the oncologist. This Thursday, he called me with my tumor markers. Tumor markers are substances which are produced by specific tumors or by the body in reaction to tumor cells.

Usually, since I've had breast cancer twice, it is in the 20s. Two visits ago it elevated to 40-something. This was a little alarming, but usually if my markers rise, they will go back down again. This time, my markers were in the 60s. That, coupled with the "area of concern" on my pelvis indicates that in all probability, the cancer is back. Well, heck.

So now I have been switched to a higher aromatase inhibitor--something which prevents the tumor cells to "hook" into the food supply in my normal cellular structure. Tamoxifen is an aromatase inhibitor; I've been on a higher level one called Arimidex for years. I am now put on Aromasin. I just about croaked as when I went to pick up 14 tablets to tide me over until my mail order drugs come, it cost me $164.98.

I took it last night and this morning have a stiff shoulder. Heck, opening the window with my opposite arm even hurt. This might be a side effect of the Aromasin as it can cause joint pain...or I may just have slept on it incorrectly. Who knows?

Next week, I'll start another regimen: IVs of Zometa which is used against bone metastases. I think he said that I will start out getting that once every three months and that the infusion only took 15 - 20 minutes.....a heck of a lot better than the 4 hours I was there with Aredia.

I asked him if this combination might be sucessful in killing off the cancer and he told me that yes, it was possible, but because cancer cells are our own cells gone awry, you never know unless you try. This made me feel a little better as the two strongest types of chemo available for breast cancer patients, I've already had and obviously have failed on. There is no more chemo for me, except to use down the road to alleviate pain. So, hopefully somewhere in my DNA is an enzyme for a super ball, and I'll rebound once again...or at least be like my ornamental grasses, lifting my bent head.

At any rate, even like this picture, the sun shines bright against a dark sky.

Snowbow! Or Rather Snow Halo!

We have a lot of snow here...and more is coming. When people say Ohio, they think midwest and they think a lot of snow. However, in south west Ohio, we don't get so much as we're about 3 hours from the Great Lakes. However, we were the originators of the storm which blanketed DC and the mid-Atlantic states. The moist air from the Gulf came up and met the cold air coming down from Canada...and that point of hitting is usually at about the intersection of Interstates 75 and 70...about 10 miles from our house. Anything north of I 70 gets a lot more snow than south of I-70.

For the last four days, my daughter has been out of school. I have about 2 feet of undrifted snow in my fenced in back yard. The drifts in the front are fairly prodigious. Because we are so flat and so much of the area is farmland, drifting on north-south roads causes problems.

One thing I like about living here is being able to watch the ever-changing horizon and sky. On the way home from my weekly quilting gathering, imagine my pleasure when I saw a snowbow. It isn't a very good picture I'm afraid, as I had to get to a place where I could safely stop the car, and by that time, it had faded a bit, and certainly the Church of the Nazarene wasn't exactly the most photogenic of buildings (its a modern cinder block constructed church without a lot of grace or elegance...purely functional).

Snowbows are winter rainbows. They form just as rainbows do, light is reflected off ice crystals in the air. You don't see them too often though and that's why I was so pleased to get this one for you. NOTE: Ok...so snowbows is what we always called them....I double checked and discovered that they are actually called "snow halos" and are seen when you are facing the sun. Rainbows reflect light off the rounded water droplets and usually have the sun BEHIND you when you're facing the rainbow... Sheesh. Whoda thunk? Here's more on Snowbows and Snow halos

This is what our driveway looked like on Saturday morning....before we got an additional dump of about 8" to 10" of snow.

It was fairly treacherous as it stared as sleet and very wet, slushy snow, then the temperatures dropped. The wet snow clung to the trees and then froze, creating wonderful diamonds and permanent snow cover on the trees. Usually in this area, the snow is very dry as it is cold and the air is dry. We laugh as we often just have to sweep the snow off our driveways rather than use the snow blowers.








A shrub in my back yard with icy jewels.



















A silver maple which is truly silver on our neighbor to the west's property.