Welcome back and Happy New Year!

I’ve been AWOL for the holiday-travel-birthday-holiday-travel-holiday-birthday season. (Technically, the last birthday isn’t over. Our 7-year old daughter and 12 little friends will be tumbling and eating pizza and cookie cake at the gymnastics center tomorrow afternoon!) But tonight is close enough!

I have so missed blogging. And I miss visiting other blogs, too. But I have to swear off entirely or I will get sucked into the vortex. (You know the vortex, don’tcha?!)

Sometimes life interferes with gardening and blogging, but boy I feel it. I miss the creative outlet and communing with nature and my blogging buds. I’ve been itching to garden, too, but our deep freeze is making that unlikely — this week, at least!

So I walked through the garden before last night’s 24F freeze to see what I could see.I know you will NOT believe this, but this is a Winecup that is STILL blooming from last Spring on the Rock Path! We have had frosts and light freezes already, and yet it still survives!
These are Daffodil bulbs peeking up to see what’s going on out here.
This is the very sad Agave desmettiana variegata. It did NOT fare as well through the light frosts of earlier Fall. In fact, it looks like mush. And last night did it in. Chalk one up to a lesson learned. I did not know it was so tender. All the other new Agaves in the garden this year seem to be weathering the storms ok.
This is my salmon and pink Acapulco Agastache – dead on top, but already bursting with new foliage from the base thanks to some recent sunny 50F days.
This Aralia is officially dead now. Totally wilter – I wonder if it will come back? Do you know?
This is the giant bowl of radishes, lettuce and Swiss Chard that I picked before the freeze. We ate the chard tonight with some bacon and balsamic vinegar and had radishes to eat by themselves. I pulled a 1015 onion and they are nowhere near forming bulbs. Think they are gonna bite the dust. Strawberries seem ok so far.

If they’re right (the mysterious “they”), tonight will be the true test if it gets down to 19F. (But then again, they said it might not get above freezing all day today, and I hit 39 and very sunny late afternoon here, so go figure!)

Be warm. Wherever you are, I’m sure it’s cold tonight!