I was out perusing the yard looking at all the work I have ahead of me... planting new beds and moving the veggie beds and pots into the former dog pen. Saw a few blooms either hanging on from Fall or newly opening. The weather is nice and the sky is clear and it's warming up. I hope it's just a teaser, as we still need lots more rain and snow in the upper Sierras. Winter's not over yet!

Here's what was blooming:

AVANTE GARDE - a florist rose that I got from Carltons several yrs ago. It died all the way back to the ground this past summer. But just as I was about to dig it out, I saw a small red bed emerging from the bud union, and it took 4 months for this lovely bloom to arrive. (didn't catch it before it blew to this stage tho, due to the rain...)

BILL WARRINER

EXCITING - another florist rose from Carltons...

KAREN BLIXEN

PARFUM DE GRASSE - a bloom leftover from Fall. Looks like one of the Mcgredy hand-painted roses!

PUMPKIN PATCH - Believe it or not, that's what this one is! The cold temps brought out this cerise color! Rather interesting.

RADIO TIMES

And this is what was formerly known as the dog pen. We had to build this "fortress" of wire fencing and chicken wire to keep our son's and his girlfriend's dog Riley in. He was supposed to be a black lab/pit bull mix, but turned out the be more like a black lab/great dane. He was huge and could jump over our measly 4ft fence like it was nothing. Climbed over and out of this fencing before we put the chicken wire along the top, making it over 7ft high. He was a pain in the butt. Our poor dog Kya hated him. He barked constantly. Our son and the girlfriend split up last month and she took Riley with her to SoCal, but he continued to be an escape artist where she moved to and sadly he had to go to the pound. But thankfully he was adopted in less than a week. I just hope his new family treats him well and can break him of his bad habits! Yesterday, my husband cleaned out the pen and filled in the holes the dogs made, and now I plan on putting about 30-36 potted roses at the back half of the pen and big giant nursery pots along the sides to grow tomatoes and peppers, and we'll move the wooden raised beds from above the property (where there was less sun) down to here to plant squash and other veggies in them. The wire is perfect to keep the deer out. And with Kya now able to return to roaming the entire yard, she can shoo the deer away as well. I can't wait to get out there and get the veggies growing.