Years's End

I hope everyone had a happy holiday. Mine was nice. I'll be glad to get back into a normal routine though. And I'll be really glad to start planning for the 2006 garden. I have a stack of seed catalogs just begging to be scoured and the whole cold month of January to do it. Speaking of seeds, on Christmas Day, during out gift exchange with my husband's family, my 8 year old neice pressed a homemade envelope into my hand. It had little trees drawn all over it and said 'To: Meredith, From: Brittany'. I opened it and there was a little plastic bag of seeds. I asked what they were and she said that she had been saving apple seeds for me. She informed me that she had to chew them out herself and dry them. So I suppose I'll be planting apple seeds this spring. Three years ago she gave me a peach pits that she had saved, after which I bought fruit trees (including two peaches) and she assumed that they were grown from the seed that she had given me. I didn't have the heart to tell her otherwise, so they are affectionately known as 'Brittany's Peach trees".

Yesterday my sister-in-law, my two neices and I went to Longwood Gardens to catch the christmas lights and christmas floral display. I love Longwood and have been there many times. For those of you that have never been there, it is an old Dupont estate in southeastern Pennsylvania. This particular pair of Duponts were very into horticulture and created a spectacular property filled with specimen plantings and fountains and several enormous glass conservatories. It is now one of the premiere horticultural institutions in the United States. For Christmas, the conservatories were filled with a mix of amaryllis, paperwhites, pointsettia, tulips, camellias, red-osier dogwood, and winterberry holly. There were many deocrated christmas trees throughout. Absolutely beautiful. And even entertaining to an 8 year old and a soon to be 13-year old. It was a nice break from winter. They are celebrating their 100th anniversary in 2006. Here are some photos I swiped from their website.