I will be eternally grateful for your great gift of taking in to the fullest extent what it is that I
have to offer, living it, and then reflecting it back in terms of the potential experience of others.
You have given words to a process that defies words. And you’re constantly in a position to help
me continue to hone that, deeper and deeper and more and more resonantly, who I am and what I offer,
which is truly invaluable. — Jon Hansen, 
What you’ve sent me is so darn perfect it hurts! It’s a sheer pleasure to work with someone
who writes as beautifully as you do — and in “my” voice. — Ariane Goodwin, Ed.D,
You have a real gift for words. You’re really, really good at it. — Sherry Essig,
Winter in Southern California
In my ongoing quest to prove that there are too seasons here in Southern California, I bring you my winter garden.
First, the camellia blooming in the corner of the yard.
Second, the Bird of Paradise just coming into bloom – I can see it out my kitchen window. This just one of about half a dozen flower spikes it’s putting up. And yes, it’s as big as it looks – a good eight inches from the curve of the stem to the tip of the bottom part of the flower.
Next for your enjoyment is the absolutely enormous potted jade tree. I never knew they bloomed like this until I moved here!
Then there’s the apple tree. You may remember this tree from all the apples I turned into apple butter last summer. Looks like there’s going to be more this summer.
Finally, the acacia trees are coming into bloom. Screaming yellow, anyone?
You see, in the winter it’s milder and wetter, so this is the time of year when many plants put their energy into blossoms.
It’s also the time of year when gardeners plant without worrying about water or heat stress – for the plants and for themselves!
These are the blooms on the Baja Fairy Duster bush my brother gave me for Christmas this year.
I think you can see why I love it. And I’m delighted that I was able to get it in the ground before our rainstorms last week. One after the other rolled through, dumping a lot of water. It’s surprisingly hard to find rainfall numbers on the Web, but I did finally track down one site that says almost 4 1/2 inches fell in the seven days ending yesterday. Given that our average annual rainfall is under 10 inches – wow! (Glub, glub…)
I’ve spared you the photo of the big branch that broke off the tree in my front yard. Suffice to say I spent the morning cutting it down, and still have two big pieces that will require getting the chain saw out.
Much of that rain fell as snow in the mountains. If I can get a photo (meaning, if I remember to take my camera with me when next I go somewhere in the car), I’ll add a snowy-mountain picture here later. But I won’t be driving up to the mountains until it melts: right now, to go above 4,000 feet on Palomar Mountain, you need chains.
So you see, we do have seasons – and weather – here!
Posted: January 24th, 2010 under Living in Southern California.