Snow pansies, in the snow

I blogged awhile ago about planting snow (or icicle) pansies this fall.  The guy selling them at the Yakima Farmer’s Market said they’d bloom in the snow.  I wasn’t sure about that, but they were pretty so I bought some to try.  I planted them in a half barrel, and now that we’ve had our first snowfall, which set a record for the amount of snow this early, I can tell you that my snow pansies really are OK in the snow.

Here’s what they looked like last night, after a day of snow:

Oh, you can’t see my pansies?  Neither can I.

The day warmed and the sun kind of came out.  As did the pansies.

So far, so good.  We’ll see how they continue to fare as winter sets in.

Squirrel work

Along with a bucket of carrots, I also brought home a pail of hazelnuts from work.    Hazelnut trees grow well in Oregon and Washington, and I am always happy to bring home any that are surplus.  So along with hitting the carrot jackpot, I also hit the hazelnut jackpot.  And the shallot jackpot, but that can be another post.

Enjoying the autumn sun, I sat out on the back deck and gently used a hammer to open the shells to remove the hazelnuts.  Lots of mess.  Good thing it was outside and I could just sweep all the pieces away.

All that work.  Here’s the reward:

Time to get baking some hazelnut biscotti.  Here’s a good recipe from a fellow blogger.

http://noshings.blogspot.com/2011/02/hazelnut-biscotti.html