December Greetings!

Greetings everyone!  Sorry its been a while since I posted.  I hope you are all having a nice December and getting into the holiday spirit!

I wanted to start out by mentioning an article that was recently written and posted on CountryLiving.com that included a couple of pictures from a feature post I did about a friend's place in Hendersonville, North Carolina.  This is the original link to the article I featured "here"  The writer for this article Ellen Sturm Niz had contacted me to get permission to use a couple of the pictures from my post so I accepted!

This is the link to the feature- 16 Small Space Christmas Decorating Ideas

We were downstate visiting family for our Thanksgiving Day celebration.  On Saturday I had to go visit my favorite garden center and I snapped a few cell phone pictures while I was there.  

These are an orange/red color.

A sea of Poinsettias, Christmas Cactus and Cyclamen

They had a 50% off sale going on which I was surprised about.  They aren't usually so generous this early in the season.

This grouping were all special order and on hold for customers.  Even though I might not like these colors for myself they are interesting.   I think they add a colorant when they water the plant and it draws it up into the leaves and changes the colors.  

Always new varieties each year.  

I like these combos with red, pink and white

Red is my all time favorite poinsettia color so that's the color I picked up for myself.  

My mother loves blue so we bought her this color enhanced version complete with sparkles!

Later that day while at a local shopping center and I loved this display of flowering kale.  The little pansies had been hit by the frost and weren't too perky looking but the kale stole the show anyway!  I looked it up and this one is called Purple Prince Flowering Kale.

My Christmas Cactus already bloomed.  I have an amaryllis potted that hadn't started growing just yet 

in this picture but it's doing well now and looking like it will be blooming for Christmas yay!

I left the pot kind of raw from the outdoor growing season including algae thinking it would look interesting but I think I'll add a layer of Spanish Moss to the top to dress it up.  These will be a very deep red when they bloom.

We've had one measurable snowfall in November (overnight about 8" ugh) but it melted in a few days (thank goodness!).

Generally we've been enjoying some very nice weather.  The morning skies can be so pretty.  

Stay safe and say a prayer for all of these victims and their families that have been affected by these senseless mass shootings both here in the U.S. and abroad.  You might want to watch this video I found on CNN about things to do or not do if you find yourself in one of these horrible situations.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/19/world/terror-attack-threat-preparations-what-countries-advise/

Wishing you all joy and happiness through this holiday season.