Oranges

Speaking of cold, oranges do not like it!  When it gets really cold we hang a shop light in the orange tree to help warm it up a bit.  It looks like our long cold spell hurt some of the high hanging fruit and branches, but for the most part the crop is OK.  We have a bumper crop of oranges this year; I have no idea why.  For Christmas Jerry gave me a juicer so we will have fresh squeezed orange juice for a while.  I love having enough to share.  We scrub the oranges all pretty and leave a bag on each neighbor's porch on Christmas Eve, an enjoyable bit of old time Christmas joy.

Winter's Eve

The arrival of winter is often accompanied by our first hard freeze.  Maybe once a decade we have low temps under 32 degrees for several days at a time, as we did this year. This late blooming Trumpeter rose, covered in frost, reminds me of the old carol...

Lo, how a rose e'er blooming from tender stem hath sprung! Of Jesse's lineage coming as men of old have sung. It came, a flower bright amid the cold of winter, when half-gone was the night. This flower whose fragrance tender with sweetness fills the air, dispels with glorious splendor the darkness everywhere. True man, yet very God, from sin and death He saves us and lightens every load.