Indoor Gardening

Most of my gardening this time of year is the indoor variety.  Yesterday, I visited a local garden center that has a fabulous after-Christmas sale:  50% off everything in the store.  Since the sale had been going on all week, the pickings were slim.  I did, however, treat myself to an orchid.  I hope I can keep it alive.

I have a whole baker's rack of potted plants.  They spend the summer on the front porch, and the winter in the kitchen in front of the French door.  The ones that don't fit on the rack spend the winter in the living room, so we dodge large fern fronds while navigating in there.  The challenge is to keep everything well-watered while they're indoors, without overflowing and spilling water all over the floor. 

It's nice to have plants in the house in the winter.  Helps with the cabin fever that sets in when the days are short and cold, and there's very little that's green outdoors. 

Long-term forecast

This fall, I read a weather forecast for the coming winter.  The prediction was for a warmer and drier than usual winter.  Really?  So far we've had two snow storms in December, which is two more than we usually have.  The high temperatures have been running about 20 degrees below normal, too.  The ponds are frozen over, and the streets are still icy.  So, let's see how that forecast holds up for the rest of the winter...

White Christmas

We traveled to visit family the week before Christmas.  Our mid-Atlantic loop began last Saturday with a  drive up to Virginia, across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, up the Eastern Shore to Mom's cottage near Rehoboth Beach, DE.  We spent a couple of days there with her, including one day at Rehoboth and one day at Chincoteague NWR in Virginia.  Next, we drove north the entire length of Delaware, to visit my in-laws just north of Philadelphia. Finally, back down to Virginia, to my mom's house in the DC suburbs.  After a lovely visit, we bolted home Christmas morning, ahead of the oncoming blizzard.  We had great traveling weather until the last hour.  We drove that last hour through driving snow, which continued into the night.  After a relaxing Christmas evening watching old movies on TV, we woke up this morning to over four inches of snow.  It's quite the winter wonderland out there! 

This holly tree is in our front yard.  Every spring and summer it's home to at least one robin's nest.  In the winter, it's full of beautiful berries.  Usually in the middle of the winter, we're visited by a flock of cedar waxwings for a few days.  They devour the holly berries and the berries on the Bradford pear, then they're gone, as suddenly as they appeared.  I just hope they come on a weekend, so we'll be able to enjoy the show!