A Glorious December

This guy just bloomed. Note the small bud top center.

     What a great month! Usually December crashes down like the blade of a guillotine, leaving behind  frozen hoses and clogged gutters.  This December has so far been as gentle as a kiss. A few colder days, but the average temperature for the first half of the month was 10 degrees above normal. Today we are in our worst cold snap so far, but it is supposed to reach 50 degrees again next week.

     Our Knock-Out Roses are the only bloomers left, but they are still  sputtering along, as you can see, and the Rhododendron are a bright healthy green with large buds that bode well for next spring.

     We ate the last of my pantry-ripened tomatoes on Sunday, and picked the last of our cold weather crops before this last freeze. We pulled the spinach at the beginning of the week and our last shopping bag full of Swiss chard yesterday.

This Swiss chard is now in the fridge awaiting dinner.

     All that is left in the garden is our parsley and a little bit of mint.

     The warm weather also allowed me to get all my garden clean-up chores finished up well before the holidays. I even got the wreath my Mom sent me up on the house before she demanded visual evidence. Now I can concentrate on my eating.

     I wish all of you the best during this holiday season.

Scott