Gardening, Home and Nature Thread, Dec 20

Some of us might like a little brightening up this time of year. People put together more Christmas season things than we remember sometimes. For example, Fresno is usually considered to be part of Northern California and they have a famous "Christmas Tree Lane" which has been decorated by private homeowners for a hundred years. But I recently learned that even further north, there are community activities including a Creche Exhibit in Palo Alto, Christmas in the Park in San Jose and Dickens's Christmas Faire at the Cow Palace, Daly City.

Maybe we could be brave and do a little decorating at home, too.

Photos were only allowed in a small part of the Creche Exhibit, where organizations put up displays.

Lighted decorations at home can help people negotiate Northern California fog.

From the beginning of the month.

The evening fog looking more northward from outside our front door. We are in the fog during the day as it raises from the valley. Then settles back down there in the evening.

NorCal Sierra Foothills Lurker

And how about some light in that Alaska darkness? It's now the Winter Solstice, after this photo was taken on or before December 13:

Notice the sun. It won't get higher than that until the end of January.

Well, I could go for some lights in the garden there.

Edible Gardening/Putting Things By

Continuing with our special feature on hazelnuts (one of those Christmas nuts) with 58Mikie! and his favorite book on hazelnut cookery. These nuts are versatile!

Roasting hazelnuts:

Something sweet:

And something you probably haven't thought of before:

Adventure

Neal in Israel sent us some gardening and adventuring photos, perfect for the Hanukkah and Christmas season. Saving photos from Poland and Israel for after Christmas. Starting today with Montenegro, which is across the Adriatic from the heel of Italy. Ever wondered about their music? Their Agriculture?

Well, Neal visited:

Katy, shalom,

I've been sitting on a bunch of photos for some time now, hoping there would be something wow! in the garden, but things have just continued on in a fairly routine manner. So I've decided to stop delaying and send on what I have in hand.

First, something historical: Back in July we visited Montenegro. As the name indicates, much of the country is covered by mountains, and we did a lot of driving on crazy, zigzagging roads. The country is also very well watered, and at least part of the forest cover qualifies as rain forest.

We took a jeep ride up a mountain, and reached areas above the tree line where plant life was confined to grass and low scrub. There were some nice, but very small, wildflowers there, which I tried to photograph. The size of the flowers pictured ranges from about a dime to quarter.

More later:

Fascinating.

Gardens of The Horde

Hi KT,

One of my coworkers gave me this little Christmas cactus last year. Never expected it to bloom again as I was supposed to move it outside when the temperatures changed to under 50 degrees ambient didn't get warmer than 60 degrees.

Here it is, blooming in time for Christmas, looking all pretty.

BifBewalski

Hope everyone has a nice weekend.

If you would like to send photos, stories, links, etc. for the Saturday Gardening Thread, the address is:

Remember to include the nic or name by which you wish to be known at AoSHQ, or let us know if you want to remain a lurker.

Week in Review

What has changed since last week's thread? Gardening, Home and Nature Thread, Dec. 13

Any thoughts or questions?

I closed the comments on that post so you wouldn't get banned for commenting on a week-old post, but don't try it anyway.

posted by K.T. at 01:35 PM

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