so cold I could not see how plants could grow and bare fruit in this cold weather and my plants all agreed with me. Shirley came over and helped me stir up the plants a little to see if that would help and I guess it did. That and time seems to have made a big difference. This morning when I went out side with Otis I took some pictures so you could see how things have changed.

The first thing I noticed was the camelas. they really love this cold weather.

These are the red ones and there are many buds still to open. The pink bush is almost done blooming and the white ones ate just loaded.

I took this picture from the screened porch as it was cold out there at 7am and I didn’t want to be out there too long..

This is Otis, he took this time while I was out with him to explore the whole yard. He is such a chicken he will not go that far from the back door unless Sally is out with him or I stay out with him. You can see how big their fenced in yard really is. While he explored I took some pictures of my gardens.

Some things have really grown such as the yellow beans. I have gotten one meal off them and now others are coming.

See how strong these plants are. Some like the spinach never did a thing. Usually spinach loves the cold weather but this time they came up and grow to about two inches and then just died. I don’t think they liked the covering that I had on each box and they died before I got to take that covering off. The cucumbers did well at first and then died and I am not sure if it was the cold weather or some bugs that ate the plants.

It makes no difference why but you can see they are dead. So next fall I will not put in cucumbers. I will put in the beans and probably three boxes of those since they do well. Broccoli is another one that seems to like the cold weather.

These plants are still strong and growing well but no heads on them yet. I still have hope they will make me a meal before they die. The beets have not done anything. They are alive but have not grown an inch.

These are the tomatoes and finally they seem to be growing. There are even a few blossoms and with a warming spell with us now maybe I will get some tomatoes, we will see. the peas have grown well from the start but it wasn’t until this last week that a blossom finally came and since then three more flowers have opened. I didn’t see how they could get fertilized as I don’t see any bees but sure enough this morning this is what I found.

Do you see the small pea on the right hand side? you can see how nice and strong the plants are.

Here he is. It will be a while before he is big enough to eat but at least he is there. It doesn’t take much to make me happy when I can get so excited over one small pea!!

Back when we moved in Mark laughed at me because there was a flower pot with a vine in it on the stone wall out front. I had asked him to pull out all the vines in the front of the house and yet I had a vine in a pot?? It took me a while to remember why I had that vine and then I remembered that was the one that was in my Florida room at Spanish Lakes. It is one that Colette had given me and it was growing so well I just had to bring it. I did cut it way back and gave Jane the cuttings from the plant so she could start one for her front room. I put mine out on the screened in porch. I knew the ivy did not like the full sun but I had no idea how it would react to the cold but here he is now.

This is my other indoor plant. Shirley gave me this Christmas cactus. It is just loaded with buds. I have never seen one so full. I have had one with a flower at the end of each branch but this one has two and three buds at the ends of several branches.