Baby, Its Cold Outside!

Soooo beee it!!!

My town set an all time record low today of minus 34, now that is chilly! We had a white knuckled drive to the VA Hospital in Iowa City (had to be there at 8:30 AM), the drive through Cedar Rapids was a nightmare, multiple accidents on their elevated stretch of interstate. Traffic was at a crawl, same thing on the way home but not quite as many pile ups. It was awful, our usual omelet at Perkins didn't even perk me up. And my usual stop at Michaels in Cedar Rapids was out of the question, I was just eager to get home. Home Sweet Home!

Good night to stay in and look at seed catalogs, of which I have dozens to look at. I have only looked at one so far Select Seeds, they are offering a discount if an order is placed by 2/20/09, I always order from them so will get my order together soon.

Help Me Make it Through the Winter

One might wonder why someone in Iowa would start a garden blog in mid January, I wonder myself, I guess because I have the time now. I placed my first seed order today. It was with Select Seeds, one of my favorite seed catalogs. The seed catalogs seem to arrive earlier and earlier each year, I start getting some in November now. My annual tradition is to pile the catalogs up until after the holidays. I love browsing through all the beautiful pictures, I often wonder why my flower garden does not look like the ones in the catalog. Some of the catalogs are truly works of art, I always think I should do something crafty with them after I am done looking at all the beautiful flowers, but that has yet to happen. Time is always at a premium around here.

My houseplants help me get through the winter, I purchased several new Angel Wing Begonias last summer, they are all in bloom right now, plus a lipstick plant that I acquired last summer. Anyone remember the 60s and 70s plant craze, lipstick plants were everywhere. I never got out of the craze, I have many houseplants. Anyone buy plants from Logees? Another of my favorite catalogs. It is a bit too cold to mail order house plants right now, but I always make it a point to browse the plant sections at Lowes, Home Depot and Menards. Lowes has a nice selection. I even made a terrarium with one small episcia last weekend. Terrariums were all the rage in the 70s along with macrame, if you are as old as me no doubt you will remember both. I still have my stack of macrame pattern books, I remember standing for hours making plant hangers.