garden!!!
Yeah, it's only January, but ! Things are blooming!

This is my hellebore, aka Christmas rose, although it never blooms in time for Christmas. Every summer when it gets ratty-looking and takes up space I'd rather be full of something else, I tell myself I'm going to rip it out. Every winter when it does this I absolutely refuse to. Isn't it pretty?

Species crocus I planted a few years ago. The Dutch crocus in the front flower bed (see below) are still just tiny sprouts, but these in my back flower bed always bloom ridiculously early.

My freshly cleaned-up front flower bed (I usually clean it up sometime around Halloween, but last fall was something of a zoo and I didn't get to it before the weather switch flipped to cold and rainy for November). The dead foliage is gone, the perennials are cut back and the dead annuals yanked, and now the teeny bulb sprouts can breathe and grow and -- hopefully -- bloom in another month or so. The colorful little spots are the primroses I bought and put in the ground after I cleaned everything up. They look so cheerful.
We have had the warmest January on record this year (thank you, El NiƱo), and I even saw a plum tree with a few wispy pink blossoms on it when I was at the library yesterday. Amazing.
Oh, and the sun is now officially not setting until after 5 pm (considering that it was setting around 4:15 pm on the solstice, that's real progress). I need to start thinking about my annual wintersowing project. Actually, probably do more than think about it. And soon!

This is my hellebore, aka Christmas rose, although it never blooms in time for Christmas. Every summer when it gets ratty-looking and takes up space I'd rather be full of something else, I tell myself I'm going to rip it out. Every winter when it does this I absolutely refuse to. Isn't it pretty?

Species crocus I planted a few years ago. The Dutch crocus in the front flower bed (see below) are still just tiny sprouts, but these in my back flower bed always bloom ridiculously early.

My freshly cleaned-up front flower bed (I usually clean it up sometime around Halloween, but last fall was something of a zoo and I didn't get to it before the weather switch flipped to cold and rainy for November). The dead foliage is gone, the perennials are cut back and the dead annuals yanked, and now the teeny bulb sprouts can breathe and grow and -- hopefully -- bloom in another month or so. The colorful little spots are the primroses I bought and put in the ground after I cleaned everything up. They look so cheerful.
We have had the warmest January on record this year (thank you, El NiƱo), and I even saw a plum tree with a few wispy pink blossoms on it when I was at the library yesterday. Amazing.
Oh, and the sun is now officially not setting until after 5 pm (considering that it was setting around 4:15 pm on the solstice, that's real progress). I need to start thinking about my annual wintersowing project. Actually, probably do more than think about it. And soon!