Choice Morsels

  I wish you all a Merry Christmas & Very Happy New Year with this, the best rendition of "You're A Mean One, Mr Grinch," I've ever heard--by Small Town Titans!  Turn up the volume, sit back & enjoy! See you in 2023!

Today's centerpiece garden photo is my flowering Holly Tree! It's always bloomed a little, but this year the bloom is massive! Every branch thick with white flowers1 Those will turn into green berries (you can see some) that will turn red. If I keep watch, maybe I can get a good shot of lots of it full of red berries! (they're edible for birds, so we'll see.) Here's a closer view of one branch loaded with blossoms! Even more interesting is the sheer number of Lady Bugs, flies, Bumbles, wasps and assorted other sorts of bees it's attracting! I've never seen so many Lady Bugs!  (Yellow with black spots) Here's two on one branch. I've always wanted a way to attract them to my garden as they are considered a beneficial insects as they eat other insects. Both the red and yellow Lady Bugs are common in Florida.

 Instead of outside today, I'm going to show you my inside Christmas decorations. For the glow of Christmas lights, I have this wreath I bought and decorated some years ago with M&M lights and decorations.  I still like to put out my "Penguin Village," I call it.  I arrange white batting as "drifts of snow" and arrange my penguin ornaments in the folds. I arranged a couple Penguins with this Holiday card as well.

Hope you had a nice Thanksgiving! I ordered a grocery store turkey & sides, but was disappointed in most of the sides. Just one Garden Pic today: Chinese Forget-Me-Knots They are such a pretty blue! I have two plants that grew from the Dollar Tree pack of Butterfly Flower Seed I randomly planted back in August. I had one before and they don't mind the Florida winter. I hope these with leave seed behind, so more will come up in spring!