Happy New Year! It’s a glorious time of year and after so much rain, there are so many flowers and fresh greenery and blue, blue skies. Let us not forget, snow covered mountains. We live in an amazing place.

Happy December!!! I hope you each had a happy Thanksgiving and that you are starting preparations for whatever holiday you celebrate at this time of year.

Grateful is where my heart is this November. Especially when I compare this November to last during the pandemic...

October is a fun month and a favorite for me. It’s a great planting season and a transition time in our gardens. I find it so interesting how life in our gardens is so like our own lives. We pick the plants we love much as we pick friends and close family members.

Was your summer fun and exciting? I hope your travels were delightful, and your celebrations full of joy. If you had health scares, I hope you and your loved ones are doing well and are resting and enjoying life as best as is possible.

Happy May. May is a wonderful exciting month for our club. The Gate & Garden Tour will already be over by the time you read this and I know it will have been glorious. (It was!) At this time our ticket sales are over 625. I hope many of you purchased tickets and volunteered as well. I did both and I loved seeing so many of you there!

Spring flowers are everywhere. I so much enjoy the variety of shapes and sizes, aromas and colors. This is one of the many joys of being a gardener. We get to choose what to plant and how to arrange the plants and then, the shopping. I might love the shopping most of all, especially with a friend!

Welcome to March, the month when we look forward to daylight savings time and the start of spring. I feel so lucky to live in Southern California where the flowers never stop blooming and our winters are mild. I’ve been spending an hour a day planting and cleaning up the garden in front of my home. One of my favorite native plants is a Dudleya that I’m growing. It is a beautiful bluish-green succulent that loves sunshine and is ready to bloom flowers soon!

I love Valentine’s Day! My husband of 34 years has never missed a year of gifting me with flowers or in more recent years a beautiful plant or two. We go out to dinner and celebrate each other. I love the wonderful tradition our garden club has of members creating beautiful planters and then donating them to be auctioned to all members present at our February meeting to raise funds for our philanthropic activities.

At last, 2020 is behind us and we start 2021 with fresh outlooks, hopes and dreams.