It’s a tough time of year for us gardeners. Not much to do and the weather is deteriorating into winter. Yesterday was cold and windy and I didn’t feel like braving wind chill (really, I’m a baby, it was maybe 40 degrees). Today is supposed to be nicer. I still have some outdoor garden chores to do and thankfully it’s still snow-free and the ground is not frozen. It did rain the other night and it snowed all day on Thanksgiving but it didn’t stick and then it warmed up on Friday. It will be nice to dig in the dirt today. I still have a few tulip bulbs to get in, thankfully I should have plenty of time.
The next set of gardener’s chores coming up are the houseplants. Sadly, I neglect them in the summer, and although I water them faithfully all during the hot months, my attention is caught by the glory of summer yard flowers. Now I can give them some much needed TLC.
I have probably talked about my obsession these days with succulents. There are so many varieties! I’ve been able to have good success with most of them and now I have many bowls of succulents to repot. I can’t seem to help myself when I see them at the nursery or grocery store, so I have some new ones to add in to the mix.
My baby succulent plant nursery is doing well.. these have been in the nursery all summer. I have a couple of these little nurseries. They need a new home!
I’d put a whole bunch of different kinds of succulents in bowls last year and they did very well. Here’s some before and after photos of a succulent bowl.
This one was at the office in a sunny window but the boss has decided to give up that office space and so the next best place is in the sunroom.
The fun part about this one is the kalanchoe that grew out of the middle of the leaf (left side).
I had a new bougainvillea that our neighbor gave us so now I have three in the same pot. Charlie is going to help me tomorrow with the bird feeders. I think the bears are sleeping so it’s safe to put them out. He likes this spot in the sunroom.
I followed the recommendation of the CDC and Governor Polis to stay home for our holiday and spend time with only our household members. Since we usually stay home with the two of us and the dog, it’s easy and I’m happy to do it since I get all the leftovers! Our only concession to the pandemic was that we didn’t go to the hot springs pool. Otherwise, dinner was delicious and a complete success including everything being ready to eat at the same time. That’s always the tricky and most important part.
For our dinner service l used some of Mr. Light’s mother’s family silver which I acquired this year. I love old silver, The patterns are so pretty. My mom gave me her set a couple of years ago but since I have another one now, it’s time to pass it to another sibling so whoknu gets it next.
I took some photos for you of some of the interesting pieces. I like to think of all the different holiday celebrations these pieces were used for over the years — kids running underfoot, uncles and cousins in the next room talking up a storm, kitchen bustling with activity (always the women but it’s our bonding time) teaming up to serve delicious fare. I’ve had those Thanksgivings and they are a blast. But for now our little nuclear family gathering was just fine. I saw the rest of the family via Face Time, it was fun to see them.
The box of goodies….
Over the last month, this showed up on the “art wall” under the railroad tracks. My friend and I walk this way at lunch quite often.
I hope all of you had a wonderful, safe, tasty and happy Thanksgiving! I cooked all the good stuff I wanted to eat and I even cooked what Mr. Light likes to eat! (Hey, if you leave me in charge of the eats...)
I have made a change in my personal life. It seemed sudden but I had been thinking about going to part-time work and semi-retiring for many years and I’ve been planning my finances for the same. I thought I could wait another year. However, Covid, the stress of my job, and a very stressful Election Day working at the election center took its toll and I decided to resign from my full time job. I’m on a two week vacation right now and then I go back part time in a week, until a new person gets hired to replace me. I will look for part-time/seasonal jobs since it looks like we’ll have the ACA again next year! Whew.
It seems now that there’s a faint light at the end of this Covid tunnel. This Thanksgiving holiday I have been so thankful for so many things, even though it looked pretty grim for a while. I give thanks for all of my friends, on and off-line. I am especially thankful we will still have a country because Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will make sure we do.
That’s what’s going on at the Light household this week. What’s going on in your garden?