Gasteria and Aloe variegates

A couple of gasterias and an aloe variegate form a border for a Fockea in the background. I'll post closeups of the variegates in the next day or so.

Enjoy your plants!

An assortment of truncatas

 

 

Tonight I'm just putting up a few shots of some of the Haworthia truncata plants in our collection. Each one is distinct and quite fascinating.

Haworthia emelyae picta

 

I had to take two separate pictures to show the plant off as it should be. Haworthia flowers aren't generally though of as anything special, and we growers of lots of plants may sometimes get a little jaded on them. But I think they're a part of their charm.

Pachypodium lealii var. saundersii flower

This is growing on the windowsill in our front room next to the Christmas tree...making its own contribution to the holiday spirit.

Massonia jasminiflora (pustulate form)

Guess what? I'm finally back with some photos! I'll try to be a little more consistent than I have been lately.

This Massonia jasminiflora was flowering recently and I took these photos. This plant was originally from Guy Wrinkle and has collection data.

Happy New Year!

Another post with no photo! I promise, more are coming. In the meantime, passing another one of those milestones, I turned 74 today. It's hard to believe how much has gone under the bridge in that time and how much has changed. But I'm continuing to enjoy the ride and that's what counts! And, trying to make at least some positive difference one small experience at a time.

So today we raised a glass to the future and the wonder and love which it will bring. My best wishes to all of you for a magnificent 2014, and many more years to come.

Merry Christmas!

My apologies for not posting lately. No excuses. Just needed a break. Our cold spell has passed and we're back to normal moderate weather.

We went out to a Christmas Eve service at a church where nobody knew us and it was enjoyable. I've been in charge of Christmas Eve services every year for the past 30 or so years, so it was a nice break.

Tomorrow we'll have a family gathering here with a gift exchange and a ham dinner. It should be fun and I'm looking forward to it. Our youngest granddaughter won't be with us but here's a picture of her with her dad at Thanksgiving.

...and that's Ladybug trying not to get her picture taken in the middle!
I wish all of you a wonderful and joyful Christmas!

An Early Winter

Wow, has this been an early winter to beat all!  In an average winter we get night time temperatures down into the upper 20s to lower 30s F. And we might even get a dusting of snow. There have been winters where we didn't even get a serious hard frost. Not this year. So far we've broken four night time records for low temperatures and it looks like we'll do so for the next couple of nights at least. We even got a little snow to go with it today. This is way out of the ordinary.

No pictures right now. I've been too busy keeping warm...