merry christmas

Between Nutcracker, Covid, working with Sally Sue, and an unusually busy
work season, this Christmas has come and gone in a flash.

One family tradition is that my Dad gets to pick the meal, as our day
is divided to celebrate his birthday in the evening. 
This year was spaghetti & turkey meatballs at my house.

My house is far from perfect (peep the bookshelves) but I'm going to enjoy
coming home to this cozy tree for a little bit longer. 

pond project - december 2022 adventures

I have always had big plans for my view of the pond.  My house sits up  on a small hill, and the deep southern porch is one of my favorite features.  When I moved in, there was no front yard, and the hill had grown up to the point you couldn't see the pond from my yard.  Over the past 11 (!!!) years, I have done some work to improve the view, but it turned out that my Dad's plans were even bigger....and dare I say it, more impactful.

Dad's plans called for heavy machinery, and he surprised me by bringing "Sally Sue" to my house.  Sally Sue is a combo Backhoe and Bulldozer, and I like to say that she built interstates in a previous life.  For the past few weeks, Sally Sue has been working and living at my house.  She has made easy work of removing dead trees from the pond and clearing around both the pond & my driveway.  She has dug new drainage ditches around the pond and fixed some major potholes in my driveway.  The brush piles are growing, and Sally Sue will be a big help when we burn.  

     

Blogger is a pain, but switching to a new platform is harder.  Captions would read: Before view from the porch, and after some clearing out by hand.

After working with Sally Sue

I still have quite a to do list for Sally Sue before she leaves... clearing more around the pond to improve the view, pre-digging some holes so I can amend the soil and plant hydrangeas this spring, transplanting magnolias & native bushes, planting some evergreens, and taking down some dead Oaks from around the property.  It's a lot of work, but very much worth it! 

december bloom day 2022

I have a bloom in December!  I bought my first Camelia this year (it's still in a pot, don't judge), and I have blooms!   It's so nice to have blooms this time of year, and I'm looking forward to planting it in a prominent spot near my driveway this spring. 

recovered from drafts//new plants 2020/2021 - house plants

Looking back on 2020 & 2021, I'm not at all surprised that most of my new plants were houseplants.  So much time (too much time) was spent indoors, and I did my best to bring the outdoors in. My spare room is slowly becoming a sunroom, and I love it. 

My favorite new houseplants are the cuttings from my Grandmother's sun porch.  There's the quite prolific all green spider plant, as well as a some smaller variegated versions... all pups from the same mother plant.  The crown of my cuttings has to be from my grandmother's Mistletoe Cactus, rhipsalis.  This one took more work to root, and was a slow grower at first.  It seems to have taken hold though, and I'm looking forward to year two! 

I have a new aloe plant from my mom, and it's doing much better than my previous aloe plants.  Friends visiting from out of town brought me a little poinsettia from friends, and it is living it's best life. I also picked up a prayer plant from Ace Hardware, and it's doing very well hanging in my living room. 

That pretty much rounds out the new houseplants from 2021.  There were some air plants and a miniature orchid that didn't make it, RIP. 

march bloom day 2022

Happy Bloom Day!  Thanks to a nice snow this weekend, my daffodils have lost their blooms, and the the hellebores are the stars of my garden right now.  I quite enjoyed the snow this weekend.  It was my favorite kind of snow, a fluffy 3 inches, and the ground was warm enough that the roads were dry and clear. Enjoy the hellebores! 

PS:  It's been quite a while since I've posted here.  I like this corner of the internet, and hope to be back more often!