On the Third Day of Christmas, Mother Nature Gave to Me ...

a truly glorious day!

I keep telling you that if you do not like the weather in Central Virginia ... just wait five days.  And this time it was really worth the wait.  It's the kind of day when the 18-year old next door has the top down on his car and people wanting to stroll around the neighborhood are having to get starting times to control the crowd.  68 degrees in the garden - right now!  Glorious.

Finally got the last of the fall clean up done and put the garden to sleep today.  

The sun is so low in the south, that at just past noon, there is already shadow nearly across the whole yard.

It's not as pretty as in June, but it has a calm stillness that I enjoy.  Nothing left standing today except grasses and evergreens.

But if you look closely there's lots going on....

Remember my obsession with ranunculus?  It's all the fault of my blog friends who also are floral designers [you know who you are].  I didn't know anything about ranuncs until i started seeing them in your lovely arrangements, and then my quest to grow them began.  Have planted them year after year hoping for a bloom.  One year I planted four dozen and actually got - drum roll here! - one, yes one, blossom.

Last March Big Blue Box store had them in planters.  I bought many pots and used them in lots of my big planters - a full two months before the normal time to set out planters in these parts.  Thoroughly enjoyed them for about a month and then they went dormant, and i put new things in the planters.  So imagine the thrill I had this morning when I saw this:

and this:

Cannot imagine that they will survive the cold to come into bloom, but i've been hoping for a lot of years and don't plan to stop now. 

Mother Nature didn't stop there, either.  The mini-rose that has struggled for years [until i replanted it in organic potting soil and started a regular feeding schedule - duh!] has a dozen tiny buds opening.

The blueberry is covered with buds for a bumper crop next spring.  [Remember that the most i have ever gotten is half a handful, so "bumper" is a matter of perspective!]

And, would you like a bit of arugula!  It seems to love the cold weather, and tastes just fine.

Or, how about a bit of cilantro?

So far, no signs of the camellia blooming this year.  We had a hard freeze right after the buds came out and they don't seem to have ripened at all since then.  The helebores are late, as well, but i see lots of new growth coming up, so maybe they will adjust, too.  One can hope!