I'll raise you two inches of snow, Annie, and a thin coat of ice...
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Your garden structure is lovely, even in winter. Really pretty winter scene in your garden. Can you see it from your windows? Love those urn planters. Those are unusual ones. Me like! They add so much character to a garden, don't you think?
My daughter in Columbia said they got the same thing - a good snowfall with an awful ice coating. I hate that. Makes the road a skating rink. That is what we usually get here in Okie, but not so far this winter.

Thank-you Annie, and here I was thinking that my garden didn't look very nice in the snow...however it's not something I'm going to worry much about for now. I get very unique cement planters from a place about 100 miles or so from here. They sell odd lots and 2nds from a factory. Actually we haven't been for several years, but we used to go up quite a bit, and they got to know me and would save them for me. The urns you see and the pedestal were probably all about $25 for the batch!
I like your colorful chairs! They are my favorite kind of chair.

Wow! What an awesome find - a place that sells unusual cement planters...and so cheap! How did you ever find that place? :)

Our snow-powder is all gone this morning. The clouds are gone and the sun is shining, but it is only 17 degrees F out there! Gads! I think I spoke too soon or cursed our good fortune on our lack of icy weather. There's a nasty ice storm in the forecast for this weekend.

My metal chairs - I found those back in the 80s at an illegal dump along a back road. We were out looking for rocks when we found the dump. There were 4 shell chairs and one square-backed one. My kids and I hauled them out of the rubble. One of the shell chairs had a broken and rusted out leg support at the center of the back where the hoop curves around. I brought it home anyway and we used it for a long time - it was sturdy enough to support the wee ones. The shell chairs are from the 1940s. I think the other is from the late 50s or early 60s. They are such a comfy sit, and I like how they rock a little - or I guess they actually bounce, but you get the same pleasure as rocking. They don't make chairs to last like that anymore. Where's the profit in that? (grrrr)

~Annie

You have so much variety, I wouldn't worry about a thing when it comes to changing your garden. The pic with the chairs is a real good one.

Annie I love looking at pictures your garden in any season, it brings back memories of another garden so long ago where I spent many enjoyable hours. I so wish I had pictures of my grandpa's garden to show you how similar yours is to what his was.

Annette

Love the bright chairs! Add such a nice pop of color when nothing is really blooming. Your arch in pic #2....is that the one you mentioned making recently in your other post? Looks nice. What will you grow on it?

-GGG, sooo envious of your lovely urns. Was looking for one at a frou-frou shop in town and all they had was metal ones. $60 for one under a foot tall without a drainage hole. Geez!
CMK

Annie, love the motel chair pic! Did you paint them or have them powder coated? We had a couple for years on the screened porch. I used to touch up the rusty spots with Miata Blue ... it was a perfect match.

When I was a kid in the Pre-Plastic fifties, most people who had them in their yards had them painted Caribbean Blue or Flamingo Pink, or white. They looked awesome with Pink Flamingo yard birds, too. LOL
The Caribbean look was HOT back the 40s and 50s.

I kept them painted white until this summer. I painted them in these cool tropical colors and I just love it.

Motels used them because they lasted and don't blow over in high winds (hurricane chairs) LOL

The "powder" is snow.

I've hunted those chairs down for years, I think I have at least a dozen now. And two of them actually DO rock! A friend found those for me. I love all of them, they are so comfy. They suit our 50's rock house and cottage-y natural garden style perfectly.

Last summer, when we were gone for the evening, we came home to find two more metal chairs sitting on our driveway. Never have discovered who left them, no one will own up to it!

Good choices! I meant powder-coated as in painted.

Here is a link that might be useful: powder coating

I have a modern version of your chairs Annie, on our back deck with a small table. They are more blue than purple and we'll take them in for powder coating one day when we take some other stuff in (my 50's dining room chairs are almost ready for re-chroming). We are also going to look for a new glider and a 50's/60's yard swing with canopy. A friend gave me a 50's cement flamingo last year! They are so hard to come by (the original ones).
We found the place we buy cement goods at because it's across the street from the flea market!!

What neat chairs and I love the colors! Does your gazing globe stay out all winter? It doesn't crack? Cheddar Jack is such a beautiful kitty. Is he a good hunter?

Cheddar Jack looks just like my cat Ginger. THey could be twins.

Hope you're enjoying the winter and the break from the garden. I know I am!

Masswitch,
You are so fortunate to have chair angels who make deliveries! Wow!

I have a forties(?) stationary glider. Nothing fancy but so comfy to sit upon and a nice glider-rock. It's just like the one my Grandparents had in California - pretty certain it would have been from the 40s. I was born in the early 50s and their glider was old when I was little. They also had a big bench swing that was hung from A-frames.
Mine was pretty rusty. I just repainted it in November. I chose my favorite color that I use for the house and garden, Antique Billiard Green. Can't find cushions to fit it though, and can't find sheets of foam big enough to make my own. All the new seat cushions are for settee sized seats or smaller. This glider seats four good-sized adults or six-to-eight very wiggly little ones. (lol)

Thanks for the LINK about Powder Coating, Natalie. I couldn't afford to have it done, at least not now, but it sounds awesome! The paint on my chairs is already starting to chip a little. Will have to sand and repaint in late spring. Ugh. The colors I chose are my grandkids favorites. One for each kid. They were thrilled! I need more chairs, though, as my family has grown. There are six grands now. But two of the girls both like purple, one of the boys likes blue, another lime and another likes orange, so even though I don't have enough chairs, I have all their favorite colors. Don't know what color will be the new baby's favorite, but he is tending towards red so far. :)
I am on the lookout for more chairs.

GG,
Today it is sunny and much warmer, like mid-spring. My kind of weather in winter. Going out to take care of the wild birds and chickens here in a bit - in my short-shorts and flip-flops. Weird weather, but I love it. Going to add more mulch around some of the more tender plants, like my precious Gardenias, so their tootsies don't freeze-dry-burn.
Glad for the reprieve in the weather so I can get out of this house for awhile. :)

I am not a winter person. Oh, I can find ways to enjoy it, and even appreciate it, but don't really care for it, no, no, not one bit. The snow is pretty while it is falling and accumulating - glad for the moisture too, but overall I don't do well in cold climates. Nope.

Take care everyone and be careful in this wintry weather, wherever you are located. Remember - Global Warming means that first the Earth's temp will rise, causing major flooding, severe storms, more rain, more snow, meaner hurricanes (typhoons) and more widespread tornadoes in places where they never happened before with devastating results. The weather patterns change resulting in inland drought and coastal flooding. The Ice Caps and ancient glaciers are melting at a phenomenal rate and that will dilute the sea salt in the oceans. The salt in the ocean is what causes the ocean waters to rise and fall, creating the ocean currents. Without the high levels of salt, this action stops. As a result, the Gulf Stream that keeps the Northern Hemisphere warmer will cease to flow. When that happens, the bottom will drop out and the northern Hemisphere will plunge into an Ice Age. It has happened many times on earth before - certainly nothing new, but man's pollution in the atmosphere is boosting that to happen at a much greater and quicker rate. We might not be causing it, but we sure as hell are amping it up and making the effects much worse! We are seeing this process happen right now.
~ Off my soap box now.

~Annie

Annie, that's a soapbox worth standing on. And btw, my name isn't Natalie or Natal either for that matter. I choose not to use my real name online.

Guess what! I'm so excited! Next week we are going to look at some vintage porch furniture! Two gliders and some chairs! We have a bunch of furniture being held by a friend (more tables and chairs we can use in various places in the garden to picnic or me to do my garden work from) but this is very exciting that we'll have some nice 40's metal furniture!!

Winter came rather suddenly in November here near Seattle. It caught this Japanese Maple in my garden still showing Fall color.
Mike
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