Anyway, Dec. is a month of chaos for most of us - and especially for the Train Station, with the Santa-NO-Train this year followed by the Ker Place event - an enjoyable yet exhausting day - and then there is doing all the stuff one seems to have to do this time of year - even if you are a Buddhist and "don't do Christmas." Right. Try living in this country and 'not do Christmas!'
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| Wake me when the presents get here, OK? |
Then, to
complicate things this year, the weather decided to get weird on us. I have
lived here for 50 years now. At first it took a lot of getting used to when it
did not snow at all – back in the day, as they say around here, we used to put
snow tires on our cars. Maybe they still do up north, I don’t know. But I did
it faithfully around Thanksgiving. That is also when I put the covers on the
air conditioners to help keep the cold winds from blowing thru and into the
house. This year, the a/c covers were on earlier, and even tho I no longer use
snow tires, we have had 2 little snows in early December! Unheard of!!!!! I was
once told it never snows before Christmas! Well, we are setting a record (in MY
book) for cold, nasty weather this year, probably to make up for not having any
autumn to speak of. We were still using the a/c after my birthday in Sept.
Anyway, the
point of all this rambling is the camellias have taken a beating a couple times
because of the cold. Yet the warmer fall seems to have changed the blooming
pattern – many of the later bloomers are opening now and then getting ‘burned’
or frost bitten by the temps in the 20s. Most surprising of all in Yule Tide, normally
a very understated bush even tho it is large… the blooms are small but a
beautiful deep clear red, filled with bright yellow stamens, but somehow
usually going unnoticed by passers-by. This year it was covered with bright
blooms – and then the temps plummeted. I was afraid it was finished for the
season. But, no, it came back with even more blooms than before. A local grower
who drives past my place numerous times a day stopped by to comment on it,
asking where I got that huge bush, it looked like Yule Tide, what was it, and
how did I get such a large bush out there – he assumed it was newly planted in
that spot because it had gone unnoticed for 25 years.
My favorite camellia is either Aunt Alice, a red variegated variety,
or my first love, Pink Perfection, a spring bloomer. Both have bloomed tho Pink
P has only opened a couple blooms and they have been tinged with frost bite.
I found the most beautiful poinsettia at Thomas’ Gardens
yesterday. I had to bring it home. Some part of me feels it is not Christmas without
a poinsettia. I had hoped to find some
winter pansies, but they were real beat. So I came home without any – sad to
not have some but relieved that I would not have to go out in the cold to plant
them. I did buy another birdfeeder – a tiny one for chickadees. It is so cute. I
have 11 feeders in the redbud so far. The
restaurant is open!
This week is Solstice… may you have a Buddhaful winter
season!
