Two-Faced Janus

This post, "Two-Faced Janus", was written for my blogspot blog called The Transplantable Rose by Annie in Austin.


The name January comes from the Roman god Janus - usually depicted with two faces- one looking forward and one backward.

Looking Forward: You've all probably heard about Spring Fling, the garden bloggers' celebration to be held here in Austin on the first weekend in April. Pam/Digging and MSS of Zanthan Garden have planned a memorable meeting. You can find details and links on Pam's blog and I'm already giddy at the idea of meeting some of you. Spring Fling is something to look forward to!

Looking Backward: I'd like to join other garden bloggers who wrote January retrospectives - taking a glance over our shoulders at the past year -

January 2007 brought an ice storm to Austin, bending the trees to the ground and turning them into glazed sculptures.

When GardenRanter Amy Stewart brought her book tour to Austin in February 2007, some of the Austin Garden Bloggers were there to greet her. On the 15th of the month Carol of MayDreams initiated Garden Bloggers' Bloom day. In addition to listing the blooms, I broke down and answered one of those "5 things about me" memes.

March 2007 meant spring flowers and wildflowers, a face-to-face meeting with Felder Rushing, the arrival of contest prizes from La Gringa, a book report and the Austin garden festival known as Florarama. My song about the demise of our Arizona Ash appeared on YouTube and some photos of my old garden appeared in the County Clerk's crazy gardener meme.

April was a full month - scanning flowers, a tribute to a grandmother, hanging out with Garden Bloggers and Digging With The Divas. An April 5th post about why blogging is so enjoyable is one that many of you liked. It was a thrill to be honored with two Mouse & Trowel nominations - one for writing and one as the blogger you'd like to have for a neighbor. I pondered a life living near my fellow 'neighbor nominees' - Carol, Blackswamp Kim and Pam/Digging.

In May the posts told of Passalong Plants, the garden, movies and books. To celebrate the arrival of summer the first tomato appeared on a platter and when the Austin garden bloggers met in person, the event appeared in our Austin newspaper.

A trip to Chicago took place in June . My mother and I enjoyed the return of the 17-year locusts while Philo stayed in Austin building garden furniture. Flooding rains made slugs happy in Austin, this blog had an anniversary and a post about Passalong Daylilies let me tell you about some generous friends.

Those incredible early summer rains pumped up the flower power for the July Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day. In July a different meme called for answers, I wrote doggerel for Muse Day, reminisced about our last 3 gardens and talked about the Divas of the Dirt. Philo and I went on the Austin Pond Society Tour and we described how an area of boring grass became the Pink Entrance Garden.

August was hot - we stayed inside for much of the month and I wrote about painting the living room, told about movies seen in dark, cool theaters, and our home gained a name.

There was another movie in September, along with books, the peripatetic passionflower, a wonderful visit from Kathy Purdy of Cold Climate Gardening, a very floral blooming-day post and a song parody doubling as a Garden Muse post and an entry for Rock Flippin' Day.

The environment, red and purple in the garden, photos from the 1970's and the effect of latitude on day length filled the October posts, but the star of the month was undoubtedly the first [and possibly only] Pecan Harvest here at Circus~Cercis.

November brought Harvest haiku, a pretty spectacular blooming-day, the concept of some plants trying to stop other plants from growing, and a tribute to Aunt Phyl and her Passalong Stapelia. Philo constructed a window shelf for the tender plants that had to be brought inside.

December was just a few weeks ago - and my personal favorite was the post about the "Spinning" music video of my song about the Zilker Christmas tree. But the post that got all the comments began with a rant about a manufactured website's use of garden bloggers' posts - with advice and links to Cold Climate Kathy's Help Blog and Mr Brown Thumb. We hoped it was useful, but regretted the need for this kind of advice.

This retrospective may not count as a real post but it reminded me of how many surprising things happened in 2007 - some good and some not. Bet 2008 will be even more surprising - so hold on... it's going to be a bumpy ride.

This post, "Two-Faced Janus", was written for my blogspot blog called The Transplantable Rose by Annie in Austin.