A very happy new year to you all. I wish you good health and every success in the year ahead. I hope that you have had a good Christmas holiday, and now we wait to see what 2019 brings to us all.
My Christmas holiday has been very peaceful and relaxed. The weather has been mild considering the time of year and has given me the opportunity to get out in the garden and tackle a few jobs like pruning the old apple tree.
The holidays started on a very chilly note with a heavy frost on Christmas Eve which made everything look very festive and sparkly in the sunshine and crisp, fresh air. 
Out in the garden today, things were looking a little different from a week ago. No frost, just mild, breezy air and patches of blue in a heavily clouded sky. 2018 has certainly given us some unusual weather and I think this is having an impact on the garden now. Several plants are much more advanced than usual: the snowdrops are almost out in flower; the buds on the early spring flowering rhododendron are breaking open, and one Hellebore is already in full bloom. The usual oddities are around too: a solitary stalk of fresh flowers on a very sad-looking, bedraggled lavender bush, and a few new red-fringed orange carnation buds are about to open for a second flowering. 
I’ll sign off this post with an image of some “lucky” white winter-flowering heather to bring us all good fortune over the next 12 months 🙂
My Virtually Free-from Kitchen 
I always get worried when there are signs of spring at the beginning of winter… But as you and I have noted before, nature is very resilient, so hopefully your garden will be fine.
Happy new year to you also, Kathryn! And thank you for the good luck white heather!
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Hello Joëlle. I hope you had a good festive break. Yes, you’re quite right about Mother Nature. We had a late blast of snow and blizzards last March when most bulbs were in bloom, and this has had no ill-effects on this year’s sproutings. I look forward to our exchanges over the coming year 🙂
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