DECEMBER CATCH-UP

BETTER THAN DECEMBER KETCH-UP! Or at least I hope so!
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!'

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!