One Sweet Bloom

One sweet bloom is all it takes to warm a mother's heart on Valentine's Day. This little beauty was a gift from my son.

My grown up sweetheart surprised me despite our discussions on the commercialization of Valentine's Day and our decision to ignore it. He sent me an awesome E-Card.

Hope your Valentine's Day is filled with sweetness and love.

Under the weather

I have really been out of things this week. My community went through horrible storms and multiple tornados on Tuesday. We are all in a bit of a shock.

I drove home from work through three tornados. I reached my own community, heard another weather alert for another tornado. I was a few miles from home. I considered pulling over there and going in a store but decided to try to make it home. The storm reached my house as I did about three minutes later. I could not get into my home as the wind was blowing so hard, it was holding my storm door shut harder than I could pull to open it. Then it was gone as soon as it came.

The intersection where I almost pulled over took a direct hit from the tornado a few minutes later, destroying several distribution warehouses and a gas station. It was one of several sites throughout our region that were destroyed.

We were lucky. My home received no damage other than a 12 hour power outage. My prayers were answered and my loved ones are all accounted for as safe. Now I pray for those who were not as fortunate.

It is amazing, though how tornados work. The wind was blowing so hard I could not open my door yet my birdfeeders and an antique lantern hanging on the same porch on large cup hooks stayed on their hangers. Go figure!

Is it Winter or Spring?

It is amazing me how inconsistent the temperatures have been here over the winter. I say winter meaning the calendar months of December, January, and now February. Is it Winter or is it Spring? It is hard to know.

The temperatures here have been ranging from below freezing to the sixty degree range. We have had more days over 60 degrees than we have had cold days. Our norm for January is most days being in the 40-50 degree range. It is making determining when it is safe to plant what or how long I have until Spring to get certain things done difficult to judge. Can I go ahead and plant some bulbs I did not get in the ground in the fall and need to plant in the spring? Is it too late to plant some garlic for a winter crop or too early to sow some cool weather lettuce and peas?

Most things in the garden are holding to their winter pattern, but I still have a lot of green grass. My lavender plants have continued to grow and to bloom throughout the winter.

Tomorrow is Groundhog Day. Maybe this means that Puxnatawny Phil will hang around a while. An early spring would not be such a bad thing.