Outside the window on a rainy day.

It's absolutely pouring outside today, luckily it waited until after the kids finished trick or treating last night.  I'm also glad I was able to get a little bit of gardening done at the end of last week, no bulbs were planted but I did do some clean up in preparation of bulb planting.  I also got all but one plant that had been sitting on the deck planted.

This is the view outside the kitchen window, gray and wet.  Inside this window is where the majority of my house plants are.  As you can see there are very few, I'm just not very good with them.  It's either too much water or they are dried up sticks before I realize they needed water.

I grew Amaryllis for the first time in many years last winter.  I had read that some people saved the bulbs and would get blooms again the next year.  I stored mine in the garage and didn't water them (actually I forgot about them), then this weekend saw that they had all sprouted.  So I brought them in and watered them and am interested in seeing if they bloom again this year.

A Christmas cactus from last winter, hoping it will bloom again this year.  I'm not sure when the buds would start to appear.  Wish me luck! 

A view outside part of the dining room window shows a couple of things.   One is that I finally planted some Pansies in the window boxes, they do great here and usually bloom all winter into spring.  I also did quite a bit of clean up around the pond, that's why it looks so empty on the right side.

A view from outside the family room shows that the big Japanese Maple is starting to turn yellow.  It's just beautiful right now, but it won't be long before the branches are bare.  This tree is gorgeous no matter what season it is.

The forecast is for some sun tomorrow which is very hard to believe when I look out at how hard it's raining.  But at least I have some pretty views to look out on while I'm inside today.

What's happening outside your windows?  I'd love to see views of what you see from the inside right now.  If you decide to post some views just let me know I'll add them to the bottom of this post so others can see too.

Fertilizer Friday - Success inside.

Since the weather has been so cold I've barely been outside other than to and from the car. I guess it's good that I've been busy with getting ready for the holidays because I haven't had time to miss gardening. I realized last night that I hadn't even looked at a garden magazine or book in over week, for me that's a long time. I know once Christmas is over though the countdown to Spring will be on. Every year on December 26th I start waiting for it to hurry up and be Spring.

These sad Pansies represent how the majority of my yard is looking now, the Carex 'Prairie Fire' in the center looks great though. I didn't even bother to look around the front yard since it doesn't see much sun during the Winter months. The Hellebores are still flat to the ground and no chance of them blooming early like I thought they might.

A frozen Water Hawthorn flower. You can see a fish that was resting under the ice nearby in the upper left corner.

I don't think the waterfall has ever been this frozen. The way the water runs through the ice is really pretty looking though and at least the fish are able to get some oxygen still.

My very little Meyer Lemon tree is by a sunny glass door now. It's gotten several flower buds on it since I brought it in. I've been reading up on citrus trees indoors and came across something I probably wouldn't have thought of on my own. I'll need to hand pollinate the flowers with a paintbrush since we don't have any bees inside to do the job for me. I've never overwintered a Lemon tree so I'll be doing lots of reading to make sure it survives inside.

I mentioned my very slow to sprout Amaryllis. It finally started to sprout a few days ago. I forgot to keep track of which bulb was which when I planted them so it'll just be a surprise when it opens.

Tootsie hosts Fertilizer Friday each week. Visit her to see what blooming other places around the world.