almost winter

we had our first snowfall two days ago. as you can see in the bottom picture it was a very dreary day. today is thanksgiving day and the sun is out bright and cheery, but it is very cold. but that is okay i have my parka with a coyote trimmed hood.
this is my sister's christmas cactus. she said it hadn't bloomed for several years. when i moved in, there was much moving of items around and the cactus wound up with my small one in the south facing basement window. it is cooler down there. anyway both cacti decided to bloom this year. the only problem is they are going to be done blooming by the time christmas rolls around. i guess we should be glad they are blooming. we brought them upstairs to enjoy, but they will go back to the basement window when they are done showing off.
it is a tradition in our family to have three huge mums on thanksgiving day. it started when my dad gave my great grandmother a vase (now with my daughter) with three football mums. my sister and i try to always have three large mums on thanksgiving day even though it seems to be harder to get the really huge ones.
this summer our porch was filled with potted blooming plants. we decided to try and keep the geraniums over the winter. i have heard that you can actually dig them up and hang them by the roots in a cool place and then just replant them in the summer. we opted for just bring the pots inside and putting them by the east deck door. we have one traditional firecracker red (which my grandmother always had) and one martha washington whitish/pinkish geranium. the martha washington is in full bloom right now. looks better than it did outside. it too, will probably be in a dormant stage by christmas. guess we will be 'forced' to buy a pointsettia. oh well. maybe we can over summer it in the basement and get it to bloom for the following christmas, but with our luck it will bloom for thanksgiving.
brrrr. well, it wasn't really that cold. most of it melted off the streets by ten. and it was very pretty and very white.