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The first major cold front of the season blew in November 21st and two days later brought a blanket of snow. I had to kick up the setting on the heater in the greenhouse to keep the temp up to 42 during the two coldest nights which were in the low 20s. Today we may have reached 40 degrees outside and the greenhouse was at 50 most of the day.

The cold-hardy cactus outside have shut down for the winter now, insulated by a covering of snow anywhere from eight to twelve inches deep and more in some places. For those of you in the far North, that doesn’t sound like much, but for those of us who grew up on the Gulf Coast, that’s a boatload of snow. And when we have snow, it always seduces me outside to take pictures. So I thought I would just share a few scenes with you.

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All of these pictures were taken the day before the snow hit. Today they are completely covered; the cactus bed looks like small rolling hills of snow. I didn’t even bother to walk out there for fear of stepping on a plant covered by the snow.

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The cactus that I brought home from Wyoming should feel right at home. I’m sure their relatives still in Wyoming stayed covered in snow all winter.

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You can see the Wyoming cactus nestled in the rocks in front of the wheelbarrow. This picture was taken Saturday.

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And this picture of the wheelbarrow was taken Sunday after the real snow hit.

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But in the greenhouse plants are blooming and doing just fine, thank you very much.

So enjoy the icy beauty of winter and cheat by checking out your greenhouse when cabin fever sets in.