Flowers in the Winter; It's all about Watering

Somehow we've got loads of flowers in the house during this cold winter snap in February.  Some lovely orchids are opening up.  I'll be sure not to overwater them as I killed an orchid plant before with too much! Apparently one or two ice cubes a week is all it needs. Then we have some lovely pink tulips that are bulbs sitting on a ledge in a tall vase and as long as you keep the water level up to the ledge, the tulips bloom.  We have four huge pink tulips flowering now!  Then, though they are not really flowers, I have three lovely red poinsettas. These were rescued from the church display in January. They were almost dead from lack of water but they've now resurrected, sitting on sunny window ledges and each drinking a cup of water each week! Then, there's that lovely bunch of a dozen red roses I got for Valentine's Day.  As long as I keep the stems trimmed and the water fresh, they will last a while, I'm sure  It's so wonderful to have flowers in wintertime! 

Signs of the Times in the Neighborhood

There's all kinds of signs in the neighborhood

while the big dig is going on -- from "underpinning and foundation," "road closed," "sidewalk closed ahead," to "dead end" and "detour."  I've also gotten used to orange traffic cones, orange speed signs in the alleys and just a plain lot of orange and white striped signs.   I suppose we just have to put up with it while the work goes on.  It didn't used to look like this around here.