Winter Wonderland

The creek hasn't frozen over completely in about ten years, but it's getting pretty close now. The weatherman snarkily remarked that we should get up to 32 degrees, "for an hour or so," on Saturday; otherwise, it's the deep freeze. So we'll get some extra Triple Soul Cows in before the Olympics start.

I wasted my snow day looking for a lost credit card. I'm pretty sure it's in the house, but I just cancelled it just to be sure. The Flower Lady said it will turn up as soon as I did that, so any minute now....I did find my Blockbuster card, though.

Perhaps you can tell I'm not in a great mood. Let's end on a cheery note: a different shade of white, from a springtime visit to Longwood some time ago.

Ready for Christmas

Wreath. Assorted evergreens with Leyland cedar, winterberry, holly, magnolia, pine cones and Kentucky coffee tree pods.

Salal leaf wreath.

The tree. With Kentucky coffee tree pods instead of garland.

Up top, a dried bird-of-paradise leaf and a dried antherium leaf. Kind of look like angel wings, don't they?

And, of course, the Christmas kale.

 

O Christmas kale,

It's you we hail,

On snowy day,

You bloom away!

 

Merry Merry!

 

On the home front, most of December has looked like this:

Very beautiful, but we haven't had the chance to do much outdoor decorating. For one thing, there are still leaves to be cleaned up under there! But the Flower Lady has finished our front porch wreath. She taught a class at the local arboretum, and they got to use greens fresh cut from a variety of species to make their wreaths. The ladies were all natural, they didn't even use much ribbon! I'll get a picture up when we install it, but what you really need to appreciate it is Smell-o-vision-- it smells fantastic!

 

To close, an unusual piece. Dried roses spray painted, arranged with Key lime stem. The FL made it at Thanksgiving, but I told here it was good for Christmas, too.

Lo, how a rose e'er blooming...

 

 

 

 

It was supposed to be a wintry mix. I went for a walk just as the wintry mix, a.k.a "snow," started. I came back an hour later. This is my hat:

One thing I noticed on my walk-- snowbirds actually seem to enjoy chasing snowflakes!

The Flower Lady went out to the local arboretum to teach a class on holiday wreath-making. There was supposed to be twenty in the class. Zero people showed up. They evidently listen to better weather forecasts than we do! She is not back yet, but she is driving an all-wheel drive with a suitably outdoorsy name, so I'm not too worried. If I were a good husband, I'd shovel the walkway from the garage and get a wood fire going.

On Thanksgiving, over the river and through the woods to sister-in-law's house we went. This was our load of arrangements to take on our little journey, along with a bottle of red for my brother the carver-in-chief.

The poinsettias make a nice segue into Christmas!

Happy Thanksgiving!



No matter how late Thanksgiving is, it always seems to be early! Happy Turkey Day!

The Flower Lady and I went out to O-hi-O last weekend, and I would have to say the Spectacular Multihued Autumnal Display is pretty much over for these latitudes, except for this beautiful sweet gum we found in the churchyard.

We went out there for a surprise Red Hat party, which turned out to be an absolute shock to the intended victim, our sister-in-law. All I can say is, I don't think I could be as gracious as she was, if 50 people showed up uninvited in my living room on a Saturday night! And before you give my brother-in-law too much credit for pulling it off: he held the party a month early.

The Flower Lady made this corsage in silks for her, in keeping with the theme. We all wore red hats in sympathy.

"All the Leaves are Down, and the Sky is Blue"

The Flower Lady made a new wreath for fall, just in time for some very Novemberish weather. We've had wamer Thanksgivings than the day we've had today! October was certainly beautiful, though, a bit wet but still lots of sunshine through many colorful leaves (bright yellow, mainly). Now the leaves are coming down in earnest, and yours truly has commenced serious raking. Hope your coming days are spent in similarly rustic pursuits!