Update

Got tired of the old format-kept messing around with the old one but was not satisfied. The new format allows photos to be displayed w/o being squashed together which is very good but the writing area may be too wide for easy reading. They make newspaper columns narrow for easy reading.

Despite the warm winter the camellia did not produce very good blooms this year. The flowers are trying to bloom now but the early December cold burned many of them.

The plumeria is thriving with many more branches and leaves but no flowers. We miss it's perfume.

We saw robins yesterday for the first time and I saw a sparrow inspecting an old nest. The big silver maples in the neighborhood already have buds and even the buds on our oak are swelling. We planted tons of bulbs last fall and some of them are already coming up. I hope we don't have a prolonged cold spell in Feb. that will kill all the tulip, snowdrop, galantus, etc.

The red and yellow witch hazels are blooming especially one next to the fishpond which is a delight. And the red and orange berries on the sparkleberry deciduous hollies (ilex)are still going strong as well as the nandinas. In fact the nandinas haven't lost any of their leaves. So we're enjoying this warm winter especially when I see the natural gas bill! Today's temperatures are well into the 60's.