A Southern Snow

My sister just called from sunny California to give me an update on the weather. She does this when she knows I'm freezing here in the south. It seems that it's somewhere around 75 degrees there and it's a balmy 45 degrees here. For those of you who care, it's 10 degrees cooler than it's supposed to be...and I'm not happy.

All of this weather talk reminded me of the snow that we had a few weeks ago. It started on a Friday afternoon and continued through the night. The images below appear to be black and white because the snow was falling so fast that it completely blocked out any light.

The next day the sun appeared but the snow stayed with us for much of the day.

Looks just like cotton candy.

I hope that's it for snow this winter.

Note: I wrote this post a week ago, thinking the snow was over for the winter. Today (March 2nd) it's here again. As my friend Susan would say, "Oy vey!"

The Flowers Are Blooming at the... Part II

Southeastern Flower Show

As you can tell, the flowers were absolutely beautiful. They even had grass. Most of it was mondo, but I though this was pretty, so green, so spring and no bugs, no fire ants.


This is a quince; my new favorite flower. Well actually it's a bush. I've got to get busy and try to find one for Tom to plant. I know he's going to be thrilled. Where is the shovel?

So there I was in a great mood, walking around silently planning a garden, when I spotted the photography exhibit. I walked back and fourth, pacing both sides of the exhibit, wondering why my submissions had been refused. I still don't get it. I noticed one photographer had nine, count 'em nine entries. Not fair. Obviously political. Humm. Maybe if I bought a macro lens. Something to think about. Here is one side of the exhibit.

Yep, I was having a mood swing. An African photo shoot is not in my future. I'm not getting this image.
My mood was getting worse by the minute. This image won first place. It is obviously a black and white. It was good. Not my taste, but obviously good enough to win. Could this be sour grapes on my part?
Just when I was feeling sorry for myself, guess who I bumped into? None other than P. Allen Smith! Another mood swing. Things were definitely looking up. When I saw him, I laughed and said, "I didn't know you were going to be here!" (Like he should have called me first!) I told him that I just had to take his picture. He and his escort laughed, and she offered to take a shot with the both of us. What a hoot! What a gentleman!

A few minutes later he began his presentation. For those of you who don't know who P. Allen Smith is, go to his website: www.pallensmith.com. He is an amazing garden designer and represents Bonnie Nurseries. I have one of his books and he's often on the Today Show.

As he spoke, he walked among us, asking questions. He combined sarcasm and humor as he entertained us with his vast knowledge of garden design.

Oh no, here he comes toward the back row. Please, please don't ask me a question.

He did. Something about me growing lettuce. If he only knew. The only thing green about me was the scarf I was wearing.

The Flowers Are Blooming in Atlanta At The..Part I

Southeaster Flower Show!

Earlier this week I volunteered at the flower show. Trust me, I know very little about flowers, but I do love them. My job title was a "runner" which meant that I took plants from the "passers" table to the show where the "stagers" placed them in their sections to be judged. Before last year I didn't know that folks could bring their plants and flowers for competition. I think a lot of garden clubs and master gardeners participate because the process is rather complicated and they thrive on the competition. As a thank you for volunteering, I was given a free ticket to the show. So two days later and I was there with my camera ready just immerse myself in spring.

This was what I saw when I first walked in the room. Six gorgeous cherry trees. Earlier I watched as the workers used a fork lift to place them in their planters.

Vignettes were located near the entrance. This was one of the larger ones. They are full of ideas for those who are ready to put thousands of dollars in their yards, thus transforming a plain old yard into a garden!

Obviously there were thousands of flowers. Here are white snapdragons

and pink snapdragons,

and a variety of snapdragons. I like snapdragons but not one lives in my garden. (This image was blurry so I just added a touch of photoshop.)

And there were lots of shops. Here's a cute one.

Oops! I have a stud finder (Home Depot), but do I need this?

Then I saw this. I needed one, but couldn't decide on a color...so I left...the shop, not the show!

Placed near the vignettes were tables that were judged. This is one of them. I try to stay apolitical on this blog, but I thought this was pretty darn creative. They didn't win. If you peek behind the water bottle, you'll see Al's pic in the chair.

That about sums up Part I. The second part will include the photo competition and a very, very special speaker. Did my photo get in the exhibition? Do you know the famous garden planner? Stay tuned.