Christmas Greetings To All

Christmas is the spirit of giving without a thought of getting. It is happiness because we see joy in people. It is forgetting self and finding time for others. It is discarding the meaningless and stressing the true values. ~~ Thomas S. Monson

Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.
~~ Norman Vincent Peale

He who has not Christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree.
~~ Roy L. Smith

Christmas is a season not only of rejoicing but of reflection.
~~ Winston Churchill

I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.
~~ Charles Dickens

Festive Colors in the December Garden and a Sad Butterfly Tale

We've had some strange weather so far this December. It's gone from warm and muggy to cold, wet and windy, but certainly nothing approaching "Christmas-y".  But I do have some festive colors in the garden, courtesy of the holly and the bottlebrush.

Earlier in the year, when the Savannah holly was blooming, it was covered in bees, enjoying the nectar.  Now it's the bottlebrush's turn to be the center of bee attention.  If you click on the photo to see the larger image, there are two bees in this picture.

The Savannah holly is now covered in bright red berries, which I hope the birds enjoy, although I've never really seen them.  The bushes are big enough that I can even snip a few branches and bring them inside to add to my Christmas decorations, something I have always wanted to do.

*****

On another note - I mentioned in one of my earlier posts in autumn that I had been seeing butterflies around and then some caterpillars.  Unfortunately we didn't have much luck with Monarchs this year.  In previous years we had 15 or more chrysalises on the fence, the house eaves and elsewhere, and lots of successful hatching.  

This year, not nearly so many and even sadder, it appears that at least one female who was laying eggs was infected with OA, so her caterpillars either never made it to the chrysalis stage, or the chrysalis never hatched.  

I saw one butterfly at the beginning of November whose wings didn't unfold properly - a symptom of OA infection.  All I could do was pick it up and set it the only remaining zinnia I had in the garden at the time.  It had disappeared completely by the next day.

 
And on December 12th I found this male butterfly with half his wing missing fluttering on the lawn. Luckily I had planted some pansies a couple of weeks ago, or I would have had no flowers at all.  I let him crawl on my hand and set him on the container of pansies and he immediately probed the center of a pansy with his probiscus and starting feeding.

I brought the container on to the covered patio that night as we were expecting heavy rains and a cold front.  He was still alive, but very lethargic the next day because the temperature had dropped, but once I moved the container back into the sun and he warmed up, he started crawling around the pansies feeding again.

Today is December 16th and he is still out there.  I check on him regularly and have had to pick him up off the ground and put him back in the pansy container a couple of times.

Obviously, his days are numbered, and he won't be migrating, but as long as I have pansies, I'll try and make sure he can at least feed.

I've had similar events happen in the past and it always saddens me. I''m not sure what the answer is, but I'll just do what I can.  In fact, I think I'll go check on him now.
 
Words and photographs by Jayne Wilson, Green and Serene, Jayne's Country Garden.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

 Last year, we had a bit of a mishap with our Christmas tree when one of the cats that we had taken in caught a claw in our small table top tree and pulled it down.

This year, we decided to try the 7 foot tree which I felt fit the room better as we have high ceilings.

I'm thrilled to report that it's been a week now and... THE TREE IS STILL STANDING!!!

  
I don't know whether they remember the accident last year, when the small tree came crashing down, but after the briefest of sniffs, they are ignoring it.

 I got some new ornaments this year, which I'd like to show you here.  They fit in with the garden/wildlife theme, as I'm sure you will agree.

I adore this little brushy squirrel, which I found in Plants for All Seasons, along with the owl shown below. (I'm getting quite the collection of owls now - I love them!)

In addition to owls, I seem to be getting a collection of cardinals.  I have a stained glass window in the bedroom with a male and female cardinal.  On the mantel I have a beautiful wood carving of a cardinal on a branch. And the ceramic ornament in the center of the photo below features a cardinal on a snowy pine branch. 

It's one I made myself and it's available for sale in my Zazzle store.

I wish each and every one of you the very best of the Holiday Season and look forward to a wonderful New Year.


Words and photographs by Jayne Wilson, Green and Serene, Jayne's Country Garden.