Winter Joys

        Last week on a cold winter night my husband and I returned home from watching a high school ballgame.  As we departed the car we noticed the prints of deer hooves right at the point of where our garage door drops down.  Some of our local deer, who have been eating our hay crop in the barn prior to our getting it sold and down the road, are now sampling the evergreen shrubs that grow on either side of our doorway. Cheeky things!  Is nothing safe?  But how nice that they are still around, minus the hay.  They have been cleaning up any scraps left in the barn from the clearing out of the hay bales.  The critters may come just as close to the house during warmer months but we don't see the tracks unless we have snow.

Another joy of winter months is the blooming of my Christmas cactus.  I inherited this lovely thing from my mother-in-law and I would guess that parts of it might be 50 years old.  She kept it on her dryer in her sun room, now it basks in front of my living room window.  When it arrived I moved it around a bit in our house trying to discover where it was most comfortable.  It took some doing but this window is a match, although the plant sticks out a mite and mars a perfect view of the TV from a certain chair.  The plant takes preference in my book.

Early this fall the plant got an involuntary pruning.  My one year old grandson knocked it off its perch and sent it crashing to the floor (carpeted, of course.)  One side broke off rather badly, down to the base.  Other sections flew.  The child was safe and that was the most important since it is a plant about the size of 3 basketballs in a large heavy clay pot.  The pot survived too. Blessings all around. I shook the plant back into place, more or less, added some new soil and wondered if it would want to bloom this winter season.  Then again it might decided all these years of beauty were too much effort and it was time to dry and wither.

It has gotten watered along with the rest of the houseplants, about once a week, maybe every 10 days or so because I suddenly recall that is a chore that needs tending.  December arrived, no buds forming.   I couldn't blame the plant after such a jolt.  However by mid month buds started forming. 

This year my beautiful friend has decided to be a New Year cactus, rather than Christmas. The blooms are the old fashioned variety that are hard to find these days in the nursery stores.  The deep rose blossoms are layered and hang gracefully.  They keep coming, so far only on the side facing the window.  Some years this plant has cheered up my winter days well into April.  Once it decides to take a rest I give it an intended pruning and share cuttings with neighbors and friends who are interested.  It has been a lovely heirloom from a lovely lady.  She was a great friend, and now her plant carries that relationship forward in memory.