Early Pink Trees and Daffodils

Well, things are blooming a month early.  I have spied with my little eye white Lady Banks starting to bloom and the saucer magnolias are out full bore at this point.  We haven't had even what we would call a winter down here, and I can't help myself... I'm delighted.  Nothing like a few extra months of 60s and 70s, no?

Here's a few pictures from around my neighborhood yesterday, come take a January walk with with me:

On the sidewalk..those Lady Banks are about to break

Saucer Magnolias are VERY early...

Of course the camellias are out too

Daffodils about to break through crazy vines

And here's a more wintery looking picture, taken on my walk to work a morning last week when it was actually foggy in Charleston.  Thats a pretty rare occurrence here, anything resembling fog usually burns up by 5am in the summer, and its usually too breezy in the winter when the correct atmospheric conditions are at hand.  It happens less than once a year, I'd say.  This little lake down at the corner (an old mill pond back in the day) provided the perfect showcase.  The night before I was sitting on my upstairs porch watching it roll in, thick as a blanket.

Love & Hate Relationship With The White Garden

One of my favorite colors to wear is white...despite the pale skin and fair hair.  Maybe not the best suited but, to me, it either looks sharp and cool, or dainty and girly.  I probably own 10 white sundresses.  Or maybe 20.  2 white suits, and a few additional white jackets.

Now my house has absolutely no white walls.  Not a one.  Blue, green, even Tiffany blue and purple brown, but no white.  I would never, how boring, I think.

So in the rest of my color world its all very clear... very black and white (wink!), but in my garden I cannot make up my mind.  I both love and hate white flowers in the garden.

Love, for example, is cohesive, dreamy and like my favorite white sundress:

But the ugly side (reality) is what stops me from planting much white in my garden:

The issue is that having a moon garden would be something worthwhile for me.  My garden is at its best in March, April, October and November, when the days are short and it is twilight most weekdays before I get a chance to enjoy.   But those dead white flowers. ick. they kill me.  Nothing dies in the garden quite so ugly.

{please excuse the above use of these photos, they have been stolen off the web as inspiration many moons ago and I have no idea who to attribute them too.  If they are yours, please let me know!}