A New Year In the Wings….

The oldest nephew is lost somewhere in the world of Halo 4, playing online with a friend who is in Florida, the youngest is playing Natural Selection on his PC – the one with the recent gift of 1 TB [Terabite?] of memory! [I wonder if this improvement is available for memory-failing Uncles?] My sister is busy ‘changing out the clothes’ – a somewhat grueling task of sorting through the new clothes the nephews received and removing the old, to be sent to the local thrift shop in the coming days. Brother in law is anxious to start playing D & D with the boys, while helping Mom with the sorting and keeping everyone fed over the holidays. And me?

Spent yesterday evening sorting through presents, – a wonderful botanically themed selection this year – pillaged the bookshelf, [an annual event whereby a group of unsuspecting bookish-type friends find themselves with new books to read in the coming year! Its like a cookie exchange without the calories!] started the Thank You cards, and sorted through the photographs of the past three days worth of festivities. Oh, and I keep gazing towards the tree which in the coming days will inevitably be stripped of its festive garb and be discarded outside where it will await the wood chipper that will hopefully transform it into a beneficial mulch [that will smell of lemons and oranges] for the garden…. or, it might be kidnapped and put in my room! [So say my concerned family, afraid that I might be soon suffering from detachment anxiety!]

 And of course, now is the perfect time to work on a couple of new Power-point presentations to add to the library for what I hope will be a busy ‘talk circuit’ in the coming year! The radio show has come to an end, at least for the time being….. I am eking out the possibility of doing an internet show in its place, with the possibility of YouTube episodes being available by late summer. Fingers crossed! Here is wishing my follower friends the very best for 2013!

A light blanket of snow overnight, windy and cold. But meanwhile indoors…..

Agave ‘DL’ is all sharp barbs and fabulous powder blue. I worried that she suffered being outdoors this summer where she was almost drowned on that rare occurrence of rain – one must remember to check for drainage holes in the fancy new pot – but has since bounded back. And then I spotted this……

Not the greatest photo, but those delightful green buds belong to none other than Cypripedium formosanum – a recent investment from Fraser’s Thimble Farms. I  must get it transplanted in the coming days and get some fish emulsion fert for it.