Choice Morsels

I'm little better today. Sitting is a bit more comfortable, but still I can't stay here all that long. Today's Garden Pic is a December photo from just before Christmas of my front bed where I have some "garden art" pots filled with either Hens & Chicks or Chinese Stonecrop: All that clover-looking stuff is Shamrocks. How they came to be here I don't know. They just moved in here one spring many years ago and here they remain. They are a most charming grown cover and I try to spread clumps of them around to other shady beds. The pink flowers are Vinca's. I like those because the reseed themselves abundantly. And the wispy, grass like leaves among the Shamrocks to the left are Dutch Iris leaves. All  the spring bulbs have their greenery up at this time of year.

       It's temperate out today and that time of year various garden and flower bed tasks are calling! Today was edging one of the front beds, which included dividing a day lily. I need to pick up some bark mulch this year and, with a fresh foundation of that, I can add mowing mulch on top the rest of the year. My flowers have apparently decided it is, indeed, spring: Dutch Iris heads are coming up and an Azalea bush in back is blooming! I've also started seed indoors in one of those plastic-tray planters for tomatoes, flowers & basil. Today's Garden Pic's are my newest garden project addition: A pair of stacked pots filled with succulents! I saw the idea in a garden magazine.  It requires two pots, one larger and one smaller. The large one is filled 3/4 with garden soil, then the smaller pot is set inside against the back, so a space is left in front. It is also 3/4 filled with garden soil. After that, using additional garden soil, ...

Welcome back! Just before starting this I was reading a travel/leisure article-photo series about the worlds, "strangest bridges," such as the bridge in China with a huge Ferris wheel in the middle. Of course, I scrolled down to look for witty user comments and the first one I read made me burst into laughter:  Someone wrote: " It's all fun and games till those bridges come alive and form into Decepticons." (I suppose you have to be a Transformer fan to get that.) Anyway, on to Garden Pictures: First up: a shot of  the "teacup" portion of my garden. This is one of several teacups I have with Hen & Chick succulents installed in them in a bed running along a retaining wall we put in a couple years ago. I just added the pea gravel around all of them only a few weeks ago, because I like how it enhances their looks. It also helps prevent rain from washing the soil out of the cup! Next pic is of my Christmas Cactus laden with bloom bu...

  It's been cool here in north Florida---upper 57 to 64 at night, still up in low 80's during the day, but not humid. A/C has been off since the 1st. Just don't need it. Opening the doors and using fans in the evenings is enough. Soon I'll be getting out the winter long sleeved shirts and putting away all my summer shirts! We do have autumn here---but since it's the cold that triggers tree color, deciduous trees in our region, such as cypress, maples, sycamores & scrub oaks, don't show color until near the end of November into early December.  But when they do, they look quite attractive dotted amidst all the green of the pines. A guy from New England at Bible study the other night had a funny nickname native easterners call tourists who visit their region to see the fall color: "Leaf Peepers ." I laughed. I'd never heard that expression before! In our region we call northerners, including...