Once again the miracle of a cell phone camera allowed me to snap this shot of a winter garden with some snow and a leafless crepe myrtle tree and a couple of empty flower pots. Once all the bulbs and other annuals die down the rock garden emerges. It's hard to believe, but the giant stones in a circle in my front yard are there all the time but only can be seen in the winter. This is the last of the 2010 snow that we got in December but I feel sure that in February 2011 we'll get a blizzard or two and everything will be completely buried. I like the colors of winter -- the soft greys and whites and light browns and the textures are very different than the greens and yellow lushness of summer. So, I'm as happy with what God gives us for a garden in the winter as with what we are given in the summer. It changes all the time and is never the same twice!
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! 
