It is Ohio, so it’s any ones guess. For now, we have good gardening weather, if only the Holiday preparations allowed any time for it. I did manage to continue sprucing up the yard a bit and the kids prevailed upon the husband for the Christmas lights outdoors. Mostly they put them up themselves ( I have a big boy who can do that!). I have a wreath on the door and a few little outdoor arrangements made up of Christmas tree trimmings. We bought a Douglas fir this year. It was slim pickin’s in the lots this year…at least where we ventured. I hope that next year I will be more “together” because I would really like to do the “cut-your-own” tree again. I also thought about maybe buying some baby trees in the spring and making a small lot of trees here. Of course, if they even survived, who knows how long before they would be ready to cut. Plus by that time I would be attached to my Christmas grove… and who knows how misshapen the wind out here would make them…. oh well, I talked myself out of it;)
I hope we do get snow, it makes a good blanket for my plants.
I looked out my window at the sharply blue sky and the orange of the pyracantha berries fairly shouted “alleluia” at me. It was one of those gorgeous little surprises that the garden can give. People usually concentrate upon flowers for their garden, and berries are under rated- but during the winter they have center stage and are so pretty! This year my Prairiefire Crabapples and the pyracantha are the most beautiful. I like the cotoneasters, but they aren’t as showy this year as most. The deep green of the ivy and the evergreens is always important in my garden in winter. I leave the hydrangea heads and those of the sedums to catch the snow. And this year left much more than that!
I think it may well be a green Christmas this year. What is the saying on that? “A green Christmas makes a fat churchyard.” oooo. shivers. That was in the days before Vitamin c tablets, and Elderberry syrup and plentiful fresh fruits in the grocery. Drink fluids! Wash your hands! Be cheerful! … and may your Christmas season be bright :)
[edited to add]
I found some other Christmas sayings… not at all gruesome, and maybe helpful.
“A clear star-filled sky on Christmas Eve will bring good crops in the summer.”
“If sun shines through the apple trees upon a Christmas Day,
When autumn comes they will a load of fruit display.”
“Snow on Christmas means Easter will be green.”
“A green Christmas; a white Easter”
“If Christmas day be bright and clear
There’ll be two winters in the year.”
“The nearer the New Moon to Christmas Day, the harder the Winter.”
This sort of folk wisdom is often based on “phenology“, the study of natural phenomena
Technorati Tags: Christmas sayings, phenology
