
Today those packages have reached their destinations, we're almost ready for Christmas and who needs the oven to keep warm when the thermometer reads 69F?


Instead of another session with the leaf rake, I'd rather take notice of the flowers today. After a couple of freezes the survivors are the tiny flowers - white oxalis buried in pecan leaves

Creeping phlox in the front bed

Deep rose Gaura unstoppable in the Pink entrance garden

Seedlings of cilantro and larkspur sprouting near starts of Lunaria

Cold changed the roses- magenta tones appeared on the buds of the Mutabilis rose

Cold deepened the pink of 'Belinda's Dream'

and turned 'Julia Child' buds from butter yellow to orange sherbet

The coral honeysuckle still holds on to old leaves turned yellow even as new leaves and buds unfold.


The floweriest part of the garden is on the north side of the shed

The stems of the paperwhites Narcissus flopped down in the cold, but most of the individual blossoms remain intact

Only a few flowers of Camellia sasanqua 'Shishi Gashira' are left to drop rosy petals

But the new Camellia japonica 'Morning Glow' is just now beginning to bloom - two flowers are open today.

How odd to live in a place where something like this blooms for Christmas!

However you celebrate, Dear Friends, may your days be merry and bright.
Annie