Woods fill up with snow

The woods are transformed, towering tree trunks dusted with snow and the bare branches weighed down and forming fantastical shadows on the undulating ground. 

The smooth greenish grey beech bark glistens wetly after a snowfall, reminding me of a seals skin, and the tulip poplar's bark is lined with snow tracks, caught in the furrowed brown ridges.  

A light powdering of snow that changed the landscape. Contours are smoothed, clutter disappears and the winter garden becomes magical.

Gardens with good bones shine, the usual detail is erased and the bare bones are exposed.  Trees, hedges and walls, garden pergolas and garden structures are clearly etched in the landscape and the usual stars of the winter landscape take back stage.   It is the only time of the year that I really yearn for topiary.  In a few years the front garden will benefit from clipped box balls and stark yew hedges that are currently in their adolescence.  

Grasses start to look bedraggled, the tight green of the taxus cuspidata provides balance to the billowy whiteness of a snow drenched landscape.