Happy New Year 2023!

 We had some bitterly cold weather a little over a week ago, but it has been getting up into the 50s too! The plants outside are getting ahead of themselves

Leap Day

The sign reads:  When Life Gets Too Hard to Stand, Kneel in the Garden."  

It was made for me by Amy's rehab class at the hospital. 

Since this bench is on the verge of rotting though, 

I could ask them to make another sign for a caption that reads:

 "Cause you sure as hell can't sit on this bench."

Isaac's Home!

Started reading AJ Fickry on the way to the airport to pick him up and I've been obsessed ever since.  I loved it. . . I hope you do too.

Our neighbor's roses were putting on a show this morning.

More from Christmas 2013

We had no idea they could actually get into the stable.  I didn't get a shot, but both Betsy & Kyle can fit into it at the same time.  Kyle even went in thru the window instead of the door!  They make our lives happy.

V and I made divinity this year.  Only took two tries to get a good batch.  We laughed and cussed-- well, I did anyway. V does not cuss.  Ever.  But she said she was tempted to, and so it almost counts.  I can't tell you the number of batches of candy that I've made that haven't set up or got too hard.  So many that I tell myself that it's too much trouble.  But then you make a batch with someone you love and then you share it with other people that you love and they tell you how good it is, and you realize it's totally worth it.

It snowed a couple of times for Christmas 2013.  G dog and Lilla love the snow.  Lilla likes to roll in it, G dog rubs his face in it.  I like to stay in and just watch them.

It's snowing again today and Mark is out cleaning the driveways for us.  He is my snow man.

18 Inch Snow

Snow man by Judson.

These shots were taken before we had the whole 18 inches.  It snowed and snowed and snowed some more.  Mark said he couldn't remember having more fun in the snow :)

Sneak Peek

The other day, during that bee-u-ti-ful near-60 degree weather, I found this little shoot of pansy climbing its way out of the compost pile.  Back in November, we buried a pot of daffodil bulbs with pansies  into the compost pile.  I did sneek a little peek under the leaves to find those pansies in great shape.   Note to self:  next year, more pots in the compost pile:)

Yesterday and Today

This was yesterday:

After just a couple of 50 degree days, 

 heirloom daffodils  ready for action. 

Feverfew, with some creeping charlie that knows no boundaries.

Hellebore buds.

And hyacinth.  Now tell me, 

do you suppose that hole was caused by a slug? 

Well, anyway. . . that was yesterday.  

And this is today:

Won't Be Long :)

Blizzard!

Mark & Lilla

shrub off the front porch

Snow Man  and his dogs :)

welcome sight

Winter Monday

It's beautiful out there.  I read something somewhere that all this white makes every little bit of green seem so much greener.  So true. 

Walking Stick

Yesterday  while I was going through my daily blog tour, I found this new (to me) blog called From The Soil, by a gardener in Champaign.  Great garden inspiration from a neighbor just a hundred miles or so to the east of this garden.  Gardening is taking a back seat to Christmas decorating right now, but I am already feeling a case of spring fever coming on. . .

Mark helped me put lights on this shrub back when we had a weekend of near-70 degree temps.  We're missing that weather now!  Lori gave me this walking stick a few years ago and I love it.  During the summer,  the leaves are nothing special and totally cover the interesting lines. But it's a star during the winter months, especially when it's covered with snow.

I woke up with a crappy cold this morning.   Mark, my own personal weatherman, tells me it might get down to ZeRo tonight.  This early?  That's not right!?!  But we're hoping for warmer temps this weekend, cause my mom & my sis are coming!  Yay!  Okay, going to make some hot lemonade now.  Gotta get well  so we can enjoy our visit. . .

Good Medicine

Okay, my mama says she couldn't tell what these were, so here's the scoop.  These are early early daffodils, dug up from a Kentucky field,  and brought to this Illinois Garden.  V says the field used to be the site of a slave home that later was part of her father's farm.  These are the earliest of blooms in my garden, and I always  wonder about the woman who planted them--what her name was, what her life was like.   I can't help but think that we had this in common--so happy to see this early glimpse of green.

Here's the Rest of the Story

Over the last couple of days, I showed you some things in the garden that  I thought were so beautiful.  But there are plenty of scenes like this one too--it's a mess out there!  It will be a while before we can get out to clean it up.  Freezing drizzle this morning. . .

January Garden Scenes

Holes by the Artist G Dog

G Dog apparently has set a personal goal of digging a hole every day. Aren't these pretty?

Beautiful Sunday Morning

Waitin' for Spring

Won't Be Long

It's 50 degrees outside, just before 5 pm. I don't know what the high today was, but it was beautiful. The puppies and I walked the garden this morning and this evening. Lots of little touches of green, lots of buds. . . I don't even mind seeing the mud and sticks and old tired foliage that will need to be cut back. It's welcome work.

Ice Pictures

I am thinking and thinking about all the people in Kentucky who are dealing with the ice storm. This picture is from http://patience-please.blogspot.com/. Looks like she lives in Paducah's lowertown.

Yea!

It was nearly 70 degrees here yesterday and I looked the yard over for any daffs coming through. They weren't there yesterday, but I went out to check this morning, and there they were. (Although I probably shouldn't get too excited--there's a winter storm watch in effect.) These came from Mark's grandparents' farm and no telling how old they are. They were in a field, probably where an old farm house stood in years past.