Gardening, anyone?

Jazzy, wow, what a photo for New Mexico! Here I am in Ohio and we are expected to have record breaking 70 degree temps today! Last evening it was so mild, DH and I sat on the back porch without wearing coats and with the Christmas light on! That's something I've never done in December before! We were chatting with that neighbor next door, and another neighbor was actually cutting his grass! It's a bit weird but I am loving getting Christmas shopping done in the mild temps. We're taking a walk thru town this morning.

I was at the grocery store yesterday and saw beautiful Purple poinsettias! I'd never seen them in that color before. I may return with a camera to snap a photo of them. They were really gorgeous, and I'm not even a "purple" person. There were blue ones, too, but the purple really caught my eye.

Our weather seems to be stuck. The forecast for the week is temperatures in the 40's and rain. They try to use different words for the rain, showers, sprinkles, storms, but it's all wet. Perhaps we're like the Indigenous peoples in the arctic with lots of words for snow. Hard to sleep last night because the wind was blowing hard. I'm glad we had our enormous trees trimmed last summer.

Albuquerque is one place I've thought about living. I love the Southwest.

Mid-December and it's raining here, warm enough to sit outside on the porch with only a sweater! Keeping a sharpish eye on my plants, though I'm not sure what I'd do about it if they did start coming back. Stand ready with pruning shears come spring, I guess.

Beautiful gorgeous photos Jazzy.

Strange weather in the Chicago area too. Low60s. El Niño year. The last El Niño I remember it was65 degrees on Xmas eve and it hit 80 in February. It's nice to have a mild winter for a change.

Twohobbies- I have some of those in my front rock garden, but they are long frozen over. It is very cold here right now, walked outside today when it was in the low 30s for a high (ouch). My cheeks hurt. Nothing blooming here anymore!

A friend in NJ was posting pictures of her lenten roses blooming last weekend. I have heard cherry blossoms have been blooming in places too. Not good for the trees when the hard freeze comes again.

Enjoy the mild winter, although it sure must feel as weird as the freezing cold does to us here in the desert!

Hi, ^..^

My X-mas cactus only has one bloom.

Gram started the rooted X-mas cactus cutting over 46 years ago. I almost killed the plant by over watering 16 years ago. Always had an abundance of blooms.

I cannot get a rooted X-mas cactus cutting to live long enough to become a plant. Rot at the base of the rooted cutting. I now have rooted cuttings trying to live in cactus potting mix. I would love to grow many plants!

South.

We are overrun with Xmas cacti. DH cannot resist rooting every little piece that breaks off. Teka, yours looks like it could be an older one. The Post Office cactus looks like it just came out of a greenhouse. I think they like a lot of light. The ones in the basement under the grow light have a lot more blooms than the ones in the windows upstairs. Some of ours bloom at Thanksgiving, others wait until Xmas. No idea why they're different.

near Charolles, France

Happy New Year Friends! I was out in Palm Springs over the holidays and visited this neat place called The Living Desert that features gardens and wildlife from desert environments here in the US and Africa. Such a cool place and probably only saw a third of it. A bit less to see this time of the year with flora blooms, but still got a couple good shots to give you a sense of the place.

Oh, just Palm Springs, huh, Jazzy? Lol. Such differing beauty there compared to Ohio. Great photos.

Split beans, also love the France photos and how cool the road lined in hedges looks.

I went grocery shopping at Walmart a couple days ago. Imagine my delight as I turned a corner and saw an entire length and width of shelves stocked with FLOWER AND VEGETABLE SEEDS!!! We have had a mild winter in Ohio, but those seeds were a wonderful, welcome, exciting sight.

Split-bean and Jazzygirl, enjoying the lovely photos.

Jackbirdie, hope the photo was only misplaced.

I'm not surprised that 2016 flower and vegetable seeds are already in the stores. I received the 1st Spring 2016 flower and vegetable home gardening catalog before Thanksgiving.

Sunny and 23*F in the North Country.

I love country gardens. This one is in a reserve for rare farm animals in Warder, Germany.

Welcome splitbean and thanks for the beautiful photos. How lovely.

Jazzy those are some beautiful arid scenes too. They are also beautiful in a different way.

I am enjoying big fat fluffy snowflakes today. I saw our neighborhood fox running around. Against the white, his red fur was beautiful. Phone was dead so no photo-of course.