Warm Sunshine and Bright Blooms

  It seems as if the weather is the topic of choice in most conversations these days.  This is evidently true nationwide since friends from all over are telling me stories of this harsh winter.  I count my blessings each day since we have been spared the worst of the storms.  A few icy days do not compare with the mountains of snow and ice north of us.  Here, the weather is fine (for the moment!).  Michael and I worked outside the entire day. He started building my long awaited greenhouse.  It should be ready in plenty of time for me to start my seedlings for the garden.  For now, I dream of row after row of tiny pepper, tomato and herb plants poking their little green leaves out of the dark potting soil. My other kids have all informed me that they are out of the homemade tomato sauce so the garden will be filled with all of the ingredients!  Hopefully, we will have a good growing year and I can replenish the sauce in their cupboards!  While he worked on the greenhouse,  I cleaned the deck attached to the shed and raked pile after pile of leaves.  The poor trees are bare!  This is the result of the two ice storms that coated each leaf and caused them to drop to the ground. Most of the leaves are still soggy from all of the rain we have been having in between freezes.  This made for difficult raking but I managed to get all around the shed cleaned.

  While I was out raking I noticed that despite of the frigid weather, the Camellia bushes were in full bloom.  Both the Purple Dawn and Faith Camellia bushes were covered with the glorious saucer-sized flowers.  This called for a break in chores!  I just had to go marvel over the lovely blooms.  From a distance, the blooms looked perfect but once I neared, I could see that even these "cold-weather" flowers had suffered a bit.  The edges of the bright pink petals all showed the brown of ice burn.  Only the blossoms that were tucked far under the heavy leaves had no damage.

  The Camellia blooms added to the brightness of the day.  Sunshine and flowers can always bring a smile to my face and when they occur on the same day, everything is perfect.  Those blooms give me hope that all is well with my fruit trees. Although the peach trees seem unscathed, the citrus trees and Hibiscus trees look rather bad. The loss of any food-bearing tree is a hard blow when you depend upon them as we do.  The citrus trees provide us with fresh fruit and canned jelly, marmalade, juice and dried zest.  The Hibiscus flowers are dried and added to the homegrown herbal teas. Hopefully soon I will see signs of life in these trees as well.