Beat wishes to you, too, Melissa,and all my forum friends.

Melissa - such good news about you recovering from LC! Made my day.

Meanwhile, Merry Christmas (or whatever) to everyone! We got a Christmas present of rain - so far 2 inches in 2 days, and they say we will get more today, and it is pouring!

Jackie

So good to hear about your recovery, Melissa. Not making any headway here right now. The low light and cool don't inspire me.

I hope you and Bart get more rain.

Happy Holidays to everyone!!! It’s been very mild here but I’d really prefer snow. Gardening is not a winter sport for me nor do I want it to be. I will however play with the compost pile-the dry creek is of course not dry this time of year and it’s full of leaves and twigs (even though it’s already been cleaned out multiple times this year) that will make my compost bin very happy!

Well, today is the winter solstice! The sun rose at 8:16 this morning; a little later than down in the plain; I expect us to get a little more than eight hours of sun today. Now that winter is here, I may officially begin thinking about spring.

It's a sunny (so far) and mild day, and in a little while I'm going out to work in the garden. Thanks to all who checked in. Jackie, congratulations on your rain! We could use some over here. Sheila, I hope you get your mojo back. Jeri, oursteelers, Sheila, Jackie, bart, let me echo Jeri and wish blessings of the season to you all, and to everyone on the forum.

Tomorrow will be a longer day than today: hurray!

P.S. Jackie, thanks.

These days I'm a pretty happy camper,all considered. I'm glad you're doing better, Melissa. Here, it's dry now, but we have recieved good rain-in fact,apart from the disaster of the flood,it's been a fine autumn, the way autumn is supposed to be in Italy,more or less. I'm hoping it will start up again soon, though unfortuneately snow seems off the table, since temperatures are predicted to remain high.

People, I don't mean to be a wet-blanket, but I love this season when it's nice and wet. It fills me with hope for my garden. Though the days are short, it's nice to work outside at this time of year,and everything seems so full of promose. Of course, early spring is probably objectively speaking THE best time of year, but I always feel so threatened by summer, and now summer is still far away (I hope). Our house is decorated pretty gaudily from top to toe to celebrate Christmas ,my DH can take some days off work,my DS is well and his search for an appenticeship looks promising. I am grateful!!!

I wish we would also hear from Ingrid in Southern California, and Lisa who also wrote beautifully.

I will add another Christmas pic to bump this up to see if others respond.

Jackie

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Merry Christmas to everyone who brings me is much joy As my roses! I hope this year is better for all of us and terms of health And drain if we need it Or dry if we want it! We're just chilling out this year Indol spend the winter putting around with my cuttings. They're doing surprisingly well for just having been started in October and November and even December! There outside Having spend the night Gentle rain

Vaporvac, merry Christmas to you, and to all who celebrate it.

Jackie, thanks for bumping this up.

Bart, congratulations on a fall of adequate rain!!! Still dry here, and most unseasonally warm and sunny; at least it means I can get out and work when I find the time. Enjoy the holidays, and how happy for you that your son is doing well: good luck to him in his apprenticeship search. DD is thriving, too: it's a great source of satisfaction.

I've been tied up here the last couple of days with cooking and, apparently, a mild cold, but as of tomorrow I am doing a well-earned NOTHING. Preferably out in the garden.

Happy holidays, everybody! I wish I could make it so for everybody in the world.

Once, again,I wish you all happiness on this day-Joy to the World! Jackie, I love your tree!

I've tried and tried to post a pic, but it won't load, so I'll just leave the sentiment that goes with it:

May your season be filled with sparkle and shine, both literal and figural.

Trying once again. I really had to reduce the quality, but here's to more, more, more sparkle, lol.

Merry Christmas to all.

That's a beautiful tree you have there-my compliments and best wishes!!!

Sparkly, indeed! Hope you had a merry Christmas, John, and are enjoying the rest of the holidays! By the way, have I told you I've--casually--begun collecting fig trees? There are lots of different kinds locally, all of them good. Now, if we could only get some precipitation so that they'd fruit: last year was just too dry, especially for young trees.

My Christmas was good, though I greatly over-did as far as my bad back is concerned. I'll be paying for it for a while. I'm still learning my limits, lol. I hope your Christmas was peaceful and joyful. Did your daughter visit?

Welcome to fig collecting. Besides the classic "fig" , there are red, green, black, violet, striped, honey, fruity (strawberry, raspberry, citrusy, etc), spritely and musky, clove- and cinnamon-flavored figs, and more. Figs are not only delicious, but for something so sweet, they have an amazing nutritional profile. They're loaded with minerals and vitamins, not to mention that all important fiber, lol. You do have to be careful not to over-indulge if you are on warfarin blood thinner. Figs contain vitamin K, which interferes with effectiveness of the blood thinner. But you'd have to eat a lot (like I do, lol) for it to impact you. So don't worry, as leafy greens are actually much worse in that respect.