December 19

I bought  a $5 bulb at Wal-Mart just before Thanksgiving. After less than four weeks this stunning amaryllis is in full bloom. 

December 17

The unseasonable warmth of our weather is making my lacecap hydrangea think it's spring.

Corn Day

There's not much leeway in harvesting corn if you want to get it at its peak of freshness. Dale told me Friday that Saturday was the day, so harvesting corn was what we did. We picked early, set aside what we thought we could 'put up', and shared the rest with some friends and neighbors. It's work--but satisfying work--to fill up the freezer with our own garden goodies.

Fruits of Our Labor

Our winter gardening efforts are paying off. I picked a small mess of sugar snap peas on Monday along with a cabbage, some side shoots of broccoli and a handful of strawberries. I added the snap peas to a scallop/ mushroom/alfredo sauce I was cooking and served it over angel hair pasta for our supper. Delish! 
I used the cabbage to make slaw for our salad supper at church on Wednesday night. Rather than the traditional coleslaw I typically make, I used an apple coleslaw recipe I found on the internet from Food Network http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/wolfgang-puck/apple-coleslaw-recipe/index.html  This sweet and tangy salad combines apples, cabbage, carrots, onion and parsley among other things with a poppy seed honey dressing. Definitely a keeper.

What A Beauty

Several years ago Claire Trammell gave me a rooting of a New Dawn rose from her yard. I left it in the pot for the first year and then planted it at the bottom of an arbor we have at my perennial garden the following year. New Dawn is an old fashioned, pale pink, climbing rose that blooms profusely around Mother's Day and then sporadically during the summer and until frost. It's an easy-care rose, unlike hybrid tea roses, and doesn't require much attention. True to the adage "first year they sleep, second they creep, and third they leap" the plant has covered the entire curvature of the arbor. Beautiful! Thanks Claire.

Let's Garden Now!

We've been blessed with a second full week of beautiful spring-like weather and I have the fever--this itching to dig in the dirt. Our large garden still lies in winter doldrums except for the ubiquitous henbit that threatens to overtake it. Dale promises to till it as soon as his schedule allows. In the meanwhile, I've made a long list of seeds and plants that will bring the spot to fruitfulness--in good time. To satisfy my urge to dig, I commandeered a couple of large pots on the deck and planted spinach seeds, lettuce transplants and sweet peas, all of which can take the cold that the remaining winter might dish out.
Signs of spring are sprouting everywhere! Yay!!

Harbinger of Spring

This seems like the longest winter we've had in decades. Continually cold temperatures have kept me inside for months. My yard cries for attention but I'm not about to do any real work out there until the thermometer rises at least into the sixties. However, signs of spring are beginning to show themselves and I have hope that it is, indeed, on its way.
I clipped a few flowering quince branches the other day to force some blooming indoors. They are cheerful harbingers of what's to come.