from icicles to shirt sleeves

Mid-December and I'm working in my t-shirt! Not that I'm complaining but it feels a little weird.

I dropped the ball this year and scheduled too many speaking engagements in November. I should have reserved that time for putting my clients' gardens to bed but instead I was off on a whirlwind tour of upstate NY, NJ, and Long Island. I especially enjoyed this flurry of activity because I gave two of my less-requested (don't ask me why) lectures: Gardens of the Gods (plants in Greek mythology and literature) and Medincinal Native Plants.

It was great fun, but I was caught short when it came time to close down the gardens and I ended up having to rush and not doing as wonderful a job as I should have done. It pains me to admit that. Really it does.

Yesterday I saw a window of opportunity to make things right and I jumped on it. The day was sunny, temperatures were in the mid 60s, and I headed for the plant market where I picked up pepper berry, incense cedar, and some ponderosa pine cones. Then I jumped on the subway to the Upper West Side where I gave a winter makeover to some very bare window boxes.

Next I dashed over to the East Side and spruced up a curbside garden with some white pine and winterberry.

It was a long day, but when I woke up this morning to temps in the 30s and snowflakes so big they looked like cartoons, I knew I'd done the right thing. At last.