Your mother is inspired! I can't wait to see tulip pics but in the meantime, I do love your snowdrops. I hadn't realised till a few years ago that there were so many different species of snowdrops and how superb they are. There's one I love whose little petals fly up like the Flying Nun's cornette veil - I have no idea of its botanical name.
Actually, I think I'll plant a little tub of galanthus and call them Rebecca in honour of the joy I always get from your essays - especially the Art Journal posts.
Take care, Rebecca and PS: I think I fixed the switch on the back-end. I hope...
Thanks, Prue - and how lovely that you're planning on planting snowdrops! I gather there are avid 'galanthophiles' whose lives' work is to collect - at great expense! - specimen bulbs of every type of snowdrop in existence!
I love the sound of snowdrops with the upward-flying petals. You're reminded me of the beautiful tiny daffodil variety called Narcissus cyclamineus, which looks as if it's been grown in a wind-tunnel and is very reminiscent of one of my favourite flowers, the cyclamen. https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/11363/narcissus-cyclamineus-(13)/details
I've seen that narcissus in catalogues. It's quite bizarre. And I knew about the galanthophiles from a friend. She has a vast raised rock bed filled with rare bulbs of which there are many different types of galanthus.
Although I have not only green fingers, I have green toes too—because barefoot gardening. But I always seem to have trouble with the flowering bulbs.
When my dad was alive he said he’d always liked gladiolus. I planted some bulbs outside his camper. What few didn’t get un-planted by squirrels looking for their buried acorns, all that sprouted were some spindly green leaves-not a glimpse of a flower amongst them.
We determined they didn’t get enough sun.
Then I planted some tulip bulbs around a circular 10 foot diameter perennial garden in the middle of my yard. Lots of sun there.
I expected nice big tall stemmed variations of colorful cups in the spring but was disappointed at these little short stemmed splats of dull colored things that emerged.
So I’ve gone back to planting garlic bulbs every Halloween and enjoying for far longer the fruits of my labors all year round.
Thanks, Gail! Gosh, you've green toes as well - but gardening barefoot?! I'm impressed!
I'm surprised whenever I manage to grow anything at all, to be honest. I wish I'd inherited some of my family's passion for - and expertise - in gardening! In fact, your lovely phrase '...disappointed at... little short stemmed splats of dull coloured things' sums up my own gardening experience perfectly!
Garlic sounds like a delicious bulb-cultivating project - and, on the topic of Halloween, with the added bonus of keeping any pesky vampires away....!
I wonder if those gladioli might still be lying dormant and they might one day surprise you? Wouldn't that be lovely?
So cool. I'm gonna ask my sister to give my niece a corner of the garden to tend on her own too. Seems like a great way to help a child know how to take care of something over the long term! 😊
Thanks, Punit - and yes, what a lovely idea!!! I bet your niece will really enjoy herself (beware of those cabbage white caterpillar though, eh, because they're revolting.....!!!!!). 🤣
Gorgeous Rebecca! I had no idea there were different varieties of snowdrops. I love them. We have a local natural attraction here called Snowdrop Valley, just on the edge of Exmoor a couple of miles from my house. People come from all over to visit at snowdrop time, bus trips and guided walks. Very sweet! X
Awww, thanks, Luisa! Wow, Snowdrop Valley sounds absolutely beautiful. We stopped off at Anglesey Abbey, a National Trust place known for its snowdrops, on our way to Norfolk early last month - we were using it as an alternative to a service station. Sadly we were rather too early to see the flowers in bloom, but it was a lovely place to break our journey with a decent cuppa and to stretch our legs!
Funny as am just battling with National Trust website to redo our membership, haven't had it since 2020, but thought would be nice for day trip van adventures (no holidays) we have planned for this year. Excited to see some new places! x
We love our joint membership - we're on the road a lot for work, and NT sites (and other sites belonging to other organisations) are always higher on our list of stopping places than service stations and greasy spoons! Plus free parking at all sorts of beauty spots - that alone is worth the membership!
I love those kind of watery, shimmery images. Also, here in darkest Canada where I live, we have a particularly brave snowdrop that pops up every year in a crack by the fence and is a reliable sign of spring. Freakishly, I just noticed it was up yesterday which is INSANELY early and quite distressing. I have taken to recording when this happens each year in a book of my own (not nearly as lovely as yours obvs) and this is the earliest ever which is distressing climate-news. But to end on a top note - loving your writing and stack and very pleased to discover you :)
Thank you so much, Sue! Ah yes, my namesake Edith Holden (no relation) - I have a copy of the book, too, and I treasure it.
Gosh, that plucky snowdrop in the crack by your fence. Sending strength, little flower! 🌱 It's frightening, isn't it, how quickly things are heating up?
What a great idea to record the dates of appearances in the garden - not just for monitoring climate change, but to keep as an archive of the garden. My parents have a super book - they bought a hardback diary 'for any year' - so it's got the names of the months but only the dates are listed, not the days of the week. I must have a look at it the next time I'm over there. They log things like the date they planted the potatoes, or the date the housemartins flew in from Africa to start nesting, things like that. They've had it for decades! I'm just making a note in my journal to remind me to ask about it - that's an excellent topic for a future post, so thank you!
I'm so glad to have met you, too - the introduction is all thanks to the fabulous Prue Batten of Knots in the String, who'd linked to Everyone Else is Taken in a recent post. 😊
Rebecca, I loved reading about your planting escapades. Mostly because I'd love to have some type of garden but I live in a condo with a north facing balcony. No sunlight, ever. Thanks for sharing this!
And thanks also for sharing my post! I'm so glad you enjoyed it ☺️
Thank you, Kristi! I wonder if there might be plants suitable for your north-facing balcony? I'm an infamous plant killer so can't make any actual recommendations, but I have a few houseplants on my kitchen windowsill which gets very little light, and they're doing okay. I wish I had my parents' gift for gardening!
I loved that post of yours - it was my favourite read of the week! 😊
I am in California, and find that tiny violas planted in pots in November bloom until April! They are covered with little purple, yellow, orange flowers all winter on the north side of the house with virtually no sun or warmth. They seem to thrive in the cold and wet and temps as low as 39˚F. They always make me feel like a good gardener -- but I am not.
I am particularly struck by your cleverness in using the push of the second hole dug, to release the first soil plug which then drops beside the new hole, ready for it's trimming and stealth replacing. And also the rhythmical parade of your family in sequence to create this tulip wonderland. No wonder my efforts at bulb sprouting have never come to much fruition. No parade! No holes dug with flourish! Thank you for inspiring again with your beautiful art, your wonderful story and, well, winter flowers!
Awww, thanks, Sabrina! Full disclosure: not MY cleverness, but Dad's! I'd still be on my hands and knees trying to wrestle that first nearly-frozen (it was a frosty morning!) plug of turf and soil out of the tool even now if he hadn't set me straight!
I'll report back on the tulips later in the year. Fingers crossed that those flushes of red actually deign to appear, otherwise I shall be VERY disappointed....! 🤣
"...the sight of ... fair maids of February against the grey background of a no-snow winter, the last of the dried-up autumn confetti on the ground and new leaves of the can’t-remember-what-we-planted-here ..." Pure poetry, Rebecca! I could just see the teamwork of the tulip planting party, the character and love of your close family. I am fortunate here that my nasturshalums ( as Christopher Robin would say) come back in great abundance every year and no caterpillars at all. Lovely art!
Right. Not the flowers' fault. I have grown gorgeous irises for many years, and this year they are being absolutely shredded by some creature I have yet to identify -- snail? slug? earwig? squirrel?? The plants look a sheer horror. I can't blame the irises, though, can I? Ha ha ha
Ooooh, I love irises! And although I love creepy-crawlies (okay, not cabbage white caterpillars, obvs), I hate hate hate slimy ones like slugs and snails - oh, although I do love worms.
Thank you, and LOL! 😂 A BIG 'no thanks' to the Japanese knotweed - those Victorian travellers have a great deal to answer for..... see also 'Himalayan balsam' and 'grey squirrel'... 🙄
Wonderful post!!! Thank you!!! I hope there are many tulips and snowdrops and... and... and... in your garden always!!! Good drawings too!!! Keep going!!! 💚
Gorgeous art and snowdrops. You’ve inspired me to plant them. As a gardening novice I had no idea a February bulb existed until now. I have brown thumbs but am over the moon about one particular house plant that is happy in its perch.
Thanks, Carissa! Hurry for your thriving houseplant! I'm really not great with plants, I have to say. I've got an orchid on my kitchen windowsill which is busy with a flower spike (lots of buds!), so that's nice, but the spider plant in the living room is looking very grumpy..... I think it needs more light, so I guess I'll move it.
YES - they're very demanding family members! I'm very lucky to have been blessed with that budding flower spike, because that orchid hasn't yet forgiven me from putting it somewhere too hot and sunny a couple of years ago and scorching its leaves! I still feel really guilty... 🫣
The snowdrops are beautiful! Both the ones in your garden, and the one on your page :)
Nasturtiums are actually one of my favorite blossoms. I like to watch the hummingbirds visit them - and I liked them even more when I noticed that the blossoms are hummingbird-shaped themselves! Of course, for some reason we don’t have the same gross cabbage-white issue with ours, so….
I didn't realize until just now that there were no hummingbirds in the UK - it's so easy to forget the ways in which our wildlife varies, when there are also so many similarities :)
We do have some exotic birds - ring-necked parakeets, for instance! They're an import, though - there are massive colonies of them in south London thanks to a few escaped caged ones. Not as pretty as hummingbirds, and gosh, they're ever so noisy!
Wow! 100 tulips? That is a lot. I bet those took a long time to plant. It probably took you the whole day. And I'm sure your arms hurt after that. Probably needed a few days to recuperate.
More great artwork! Are you sure you're not a professional? 😎
Thanks for the link to Kristi Keller's post. I have a few karma stories but I posted one that is the most special to me.
Thank you for the mention about my artwork Rebecca. I appreciate it!
Thanks, Matt - it felt like a lot of tulips to start with, but actually the time went really quickly! It was so nice to have a proper tool to create the holes with, and I was glad I could stand upright for most of the project, rather than being on my hands and knees. The ground was really hard - there was a frost early on - so I needed to use quite a lot of force with my foot to get the tool into the soil - and I won't pretend that I couldn't feel the strain to my glutes the next day! 🤣
Thank you for your comment about my art - and LOL - yes, I'm certain, but you're very kind! 🤣 I absolutely loved your colourful abstracts - you've really got something. 😊
Another terrific read. Though I went down the rabbit hole following links at the end. So many interesting writers here and so little time to read them!!! Loved all the gardening stuff. And your beautiful art. Thanks so much. Hugs my dear.
Awwww, thanks, Beth! I find it so amazing to know that while we're looking forward to spring over here you're still in high summer! Hope you're keeping cool! Hugs back atcha. 😊
It’s so weird because where I am it’s surprisingly cool. We’ve hardly had a summer at all. Yet SOUTH of here, which should be cooler, Prue in Tasmania and large swathes of Victoria are having ‘catastrophic fire conditions’ weather! I’m supposed to be painting in Victoria next week and our tour guide is trying to plan a route that’s not too badly burned and watching fearfully for what happens today. This is a country of extremes.
Oh wow, Beth - weather is so unpredictable, isn't it? We've had almost gale force winds here the last couple of days, but today it's been less cold and much calmer, which has been decidedly nicer!
I've heard about the wildfires - that sounds ever so scary - and gosh, you're headed for an area that's affected, by the sound of it. Sending love and strength. I hope your painting trip remains unaffected and you're safe and you have a great time. 😘
Your mother is inspired! I can't wait to see tulip pics but in the meantime, I do love your snowdrops. I hadn't realised till a few years ago that there were so many different species of snowdrops and how superb they are. There's one I love whose little petals fly up like the Flying Nun's cornette veil - I have no idea of its botanical name.
Actually, I think I'll plant a little tub of galanthus and call them Rebecca in honour of the joy I always get from your essays - especially the Art Journal posts.
Take care, Rebecca and PS: I think I fixed the switch on the back-end. I hope...
Thanks, Prue - and how lovely that you're planning on planting snowdrops! I gather there are avid 'galanthophiles' whose lives' work is to collect - at great expense! - specimen bulbs of every type of snowdrop in existence!
I love the sound of snowdrops with the upward-flying petals. You're reminded me of the beautiful tiny daffodil variety called Narcissus cyclamineus, which looks as if it's been grown in a wind-tunnel and is very reminiscent of one of my favourite flowers, the cyclamen. https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/11363/narcissus-cyclamineus-(13)/details
I've seen that narcissus in catalogues. It's quite bizarre. And I knew about the galanthophiles from a friend. She has a vast raised rock bed filled with rare bulbs of which there are many different types of galanthus.
Love your post and artwork!
Although I have not only green fingers, I have green toes too—because barefoot gardening. But I always seem to have trouble with the flowering bulbs.
When my dad was alive he said he’d always liked gladiolus. I planted some bulbs outside his camper. What few didn’t get un-planted by squirrels looking for their buried acorns, all that sprouted were some spindly green leaves-not a glimpse of a flower amongst them.
We determined they didn’t get enough sun.
Then I planted some tulip bulbs around a circular 10 foot diameter perennial garden in the middle of my yard. Lots of sun there.
I expected nice big tall stemmed variations of colorful cups in the spring but was disappointed at these little short stemmed splats of dull colored things that emerged.
So I’ve gone back to planting garlic bulbs every Halloween and enjoying for far longer the fruits of my labors all year round.
Thanks, Gail! Gosh, you've green toes as well - but gardening barefoot?! I'm impressed!
I'm surprised whenever I manage to grow anything at all, to be honest. I wish I'd inherited some of my family's passion for - and expertise - in gardening! In fact, your lovely phrase '...disappointed at... little short stemmed splats of dull coloured things' sums up my own gardening experience perfectly!
Garlic sounds like a delicious bulb-cultivating project - and, on the topic of Halloween, with the added bonus of keeping any pesky vampires away....!
I wonder if those gladioli might still be lying dormant and they might one day surprise you? Wouldn't that be lovely?
So cool. I'm gonna ask my sister to give my niece a corner of the garden to tend on her own too. Seems like a great way to help a child know how to take care of something over the long term! 😊
Thanks, Punit - and yes, what a lovely idea!!! I bet your niece will really enjoy herself (beware of those cabbage white caterpillar though, eh, because they're revolting.....!!!!!). 🤣
Haha, duly noted, I'll pass the advice along!
Gorgeous Rebecca! I had no idea there were different varieties of snowdrops. I love them. We have a local natural attraction here called Snowdrop Valley, just on the edge of Exmoor a couple of miles from my house. People come from all over to visit at snowdrop time, bus trips and guided walks. Very sweet! X
Awww, thanks, Luisa! Wow, Snowdrop Valley sounds absolutely beautiful. We stopped off at Anglesey Abbey, a National Trust place known for its snowdrops, on our way to Norfolk early last month - we were using it as an alternative to a service station. Sadly we were rather too early to see the flowers in bloom, but it was a lovely place to break our journey with a decent cuppa and to stretch our legs!
Take a look at their website here - they have 400 varieties of snowdrop, apparently! https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/cambridgeshire/anglesey-abbey-gardens-and-lode-mill/snowdrops-at-anglesey-abbey
Well that looks fabulous.
Funny as am just battling with National Trust website to redo our membership, haven't had it since 2020, but thought would be nice for day trip van adventures (no holidays) we have planned for this year. Excited to see some new places! x
We love our joint membership - we're on the road a lot for work, and NT sites (and other sites belonging to other organisations) are always higher on our list of stopping places than service stations and greasy spoons! Plus free parking at all sorts of beauty spots - that alone is worth the membership!
Yes, used to love it when the children were smaller, but I'm sold now on the promise of elegant cream teas and free parking! Thank youuuu!
What an informative and charming post - your notebook (and I'm about to date myself horribly here) reminds me very much of The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/643064/the-country-diary-of-an-edwardian-lady-by-edith-holden/9780847858903
I love those kind of watery, shimmery images. Also, here in darkest Canada where I live, we have a particularly brave snowdrop that pops up every year in a crack by the fence and is a reliable sign of spring. Freakishly, I just noticed it was up yesterday which is INSANELY early and quite distressing. I have taken to recording when this happens each year in a book of my own (not nearly as lovely as yours obvs) and this is the earliest ever which is distressing climate-news. But to end on a top note - loving your writing and stack and very pleased to discover you :)
Thank you so much, Sue! Ah yes, my namesake Edith Holden (no relation) - I have a copy of the book, too, and I treasure it.
Gosh, that plucky snowdrop in the crack by your fence. Sending strength, little flower! 🌱 It's frightening, isn't it, how quickly things are heating up?
What a great idea to record the dates of appearances in the garden - not just for monitoring climate change, but to keep as an archive of the garden. My parents have a super book - they bought a hardback diary 'for any year' - so it's got the names of the months but only the dates are listed, not the days of the week. I must have a look at it the next time I'm over there. They log things like the date they planted the potatoes, or the date the housemartins flew in from Africa to start nesting, things like that. They've had it for decades! I'm just making a note in my journal to remind me to ask about it - that's an excellent topic for a future post, so thank you!
I'm so glad to have met you, too - the introduction is all thanks to the fabulous Prue Batten of Knots in the String, who'd linked to Everyone Else is Taken in a recent post. 😊
Rebecca, I loved reading about your planting escapades. Mostly because I'd love to have some type of garden but I live in a condo with a north facing balcony. No sunlight, ever. Thanks for sharing this!
And thanks also for sharing my post! I'm so glad you enjoyed it ☺️
Thank you, Kristi! I wonder if there might be plants suitable for your north-facing balcony? I'm an infamous plant killer so can't make any actual recommendations, but I have a few houseplants on my kitchen windowsill which gets very little light, and they're doing okay. I wish I had my parents' gift for gardening!
I loved that post of yours - it was my favourite read of the week! 😊
Yeah my mom is quite the green thumb too. It's enviable!
I am in California, and find that tiny violas planted in pots in November bloom until April! They are covered with little purple, yellow, orange flowers all winter on the north side of the house with virtually no sun or warmth. They seem to thrive in the cold and wet and temps as low as 39˚F. They always make me feel like a good gardener -- but I am not.
Lovely, Sharron! I have a great fondness for plants which thrive in spite of my attention, rather than because of it! 🤣
Exactly so. I feel the same way about my beautiful son. He grew into the most wonderful man, in spite of my deficits as a mother.
You're wonderful too, Sharron. ❤️
I love that over here we have 'green fingers', and over there you have a 'green thumb'! 👍😊
What a delightful post Rebecca! Again!
I am particularly struck by your cleverness in using the push of the second hole dug, to release the first soil plug which then drops beside the new hole, ready for it's trimming and stealth replacing. And also the rhythmical parade of your family in sequence to create this tulip wonderland. No wonder my efforts at bulb sprouting have never come to much fruition. No parade! No holes dug with flourish! Thank you for inspiring again with your beautiful art, your wonderful story and, well, winter flowers!
Awww, thanks, Sabrina! Full disclosure: not MY cleverness, but Dad's! I'd still be on my hands and knees trying to wrestle that first nearly-frozen (it was a frosty morning!) plug of turf and soil out of the tool even now if he hadn't set me straight!
I'll report back on the tulips later in the year. Fingers crossed that those flushes of red actually deign to appear, otherwise I shall be VERY disappointed....! 🤣
I’m
Very much looking forward to a brilliant display!🌷🌷🌷🤣🤣
"...the sight of ... fair maids of February against the grey background of a no-snow winter, the last of the dried-up autumn confetti on the ground and new leaves of the can’t-remember-what-we-planted-here ..." Pure poetry, Rebecca! I could just see the teamwork of the tulip planting party, the character and love of your close family. I am fortunate here that my nasturshalums ( as Christopher Robin would say) come back in great abundance every year and no caterpillars at all. Lovely art!
Oh Sharron, thank you! And LOL to those nasturshalums!!!!! I shouldn't have cast aspersions about nasturtiums, now should I?!
Right. Not the flowers' fault. I have grown gorgeous irises for many years, and this year they are being absolutely shredded by some creature I have yet to identify -- snail? slug? earwig? squirrel?? The plants look a sheer horror. I can't blame the irises, though, can I? Ha ha ha
Ooooh, I love irises! And although I love creepy-crawlies (okay, not cabbage white caterpillars, obvs), I hate hate hate slimy ones like slugs and snails - oh, although I do love worms.
#fickle
Thanks for the mention. Lovely drawings as always. A really nice plant I'd recommend is Japanese Knotweed: it grows everywhere with no effort at all.
Thank you, and LOL! 😂 A BIG 'no thanks' to the Japanese knotweed - those Victorian travellers have a great deal to answer for..... see also 'Himalayan balsam' and 'grey squirrel'... 🙄
Wonderful post!!! Thank you!!! I hope there are many tulips and snowdrops and... and... and... in your garden always!!! Good drawings too!!! Keep going!!! 💚
Thanks, Sue! You're so kind. I really didn't love the art I made this time around, but I learned a lot in the process! 😊
I'll keep going - just like you'll keep going with all that inspiration you're feeding me!!!!!!!!!!!
Yes!!! Here's to both of us keeping going together!!!!! 💚💚💚💚
Gorgeous art and snowdrops. You’ve inspired me to plant them. As a gardening novice I had no idea a February bulb existed until now. I have brown thumbs but am over the moon about one particular house plant that is happy in its perch.
Thanks, Carissa! Hurry for your thriving houseplant! I'm really not great with plants, I have to say. I've got an orchid on my kitchen windowsill which is busy with a flower spike (lots of buds!), so that's nice, but the spider plant in the living room is looking very grumpy..... I think it needs more light, so I guess I'll move it.
House plants are very particular about placement, aren’t they?
YES - they're very demanding family members! I'm very lucky to have been blessed with that budding flower spike, because that orchid hasn't yet forgiven me from putting it somewhere too hot and sunny a couple of years ago and scorching its leaves! I still feel really guilty... 🫣
Do orchids forgive? 🙏
🤣 Well, it's giving me flowers... so I think it's over it. Whether I'M over it, though, is another matter! 😉
The snowdrops are beautiful! Both the ones in your garden, and the one on your page :)
Nasturtiums are actually one of my favorite blossoms. I like to watch the hummingbirds visit them - and I liked them even more when I noticed that the blossoms are hummingbird-shaped themselves! Of course, for some reason we don’t have the same gross cabbage-white issue with ours, so….
Thanks so much, Sydney! And now I've got hummingbird envy - I've never seen one in real life, but wow, how amazing!
I didn't realize until just now that there were no hummingbirds in the UK - it's so easy to forget the ways in which our wildlife varies, when there are also so many similarities :)
We do have some exotic birds - ring-necked parakeets, for instance! They're an import, though - there are massive colonies of them in south London thanks to a few escaped caged ones. Not as pretty as hummingbirds, and gosh, they're ever so noisy!
I love your artwork! And the field study approach!
Thanks, Jillian! I thought of you, actually, when I was busy scribbling those notes on that page! 🤣
I look forward to seeing those hundred tulips in bloom, wow!
Can't wait to show you in a future post! I'll be over there later in the week - I wonder if they're up yet?! 🌷
Wow! 100 tulips? That is a lot. I bet those took a long time to plant. It probably took you the whole day. And I'm sure your arms hurt after that. Probably needed a few days to recuperate.
More great artwork! Are you sure you're not a professional? 😎
Thanks for the link to Kristi Keller's post. I have a few karma stories but I posted one that is the most special to me.
Thank you for the mention about my artwork Rebecca. I appreciate it!
Thanks, Matt - it felt like a lot of tulips to start with, but actually the time went really quickly! It was so nice to have a proper tool to create the holes with, and I was glad I could stand upright for most of the project, rather than being on my hands and knees. The ground was really hard - there was a frost early on - so I needed to use quite a lot of force with my foot to get the tool into the soil - and I won't pretend that I couldn't feel the strain to my glutes the next day! 🤣
Thank you for your comment about my art - and LOL - yes, I'm certain, but you're very kind! 🤣 I absolutely loved your colourful abstracts - you've really got something. 😊
Another terrific read. Though I went down the rabbit hole following links at the end. So many interesting writers here and so little time to read them!!! Loved all the gardening stuff. And your beautiful art. Thanks so much. Hugs my dear.
Awwww, thanks, Beth! I find it so amazing to know that while we're looking forward to spring over here you're still in high summer! Hope you're keeping cool! Hugs back atcha. 😊
It’s so weird because where I am it’s surprisingly cool. We’ve hardly had a summer at all. Yet SOUTH of here, which should be cooler, Prue in Tasmania and large swathes of Victoria are having ‘catastrophic fire conditions’ weather! I’m supposed to be painting in Victoria next week and our tour guide is trying to plan a route that’s not too badly burned and watching fearfully for what happens today. This is a country of extremes.
Oh wow, Beth - weather is so unpredictable, isn't it? We've had almost gale force winds here the last couple of days, but today it's been less cold and much calmer, which has been decidedly nicer!
I've heard about the wildfires - that sounds ever so scary - and gosh, you're headed for an area that's affected, by the sound of it. Sending love and strength. I hope your painting trip remains unaffected and you're safe and you have a great time. 😘