oh yeah and its solstice too

yep kids, it's winter now. if you don't know what winter solstice, is i'm sure you'll find a hundred other websites that can illuminate you, and well it makes for some interesting reading actually...

but anyway--i thought this picture was pretty cool, although technically we're almost to the new moon which means i'm gonna be laying low and hibernating. the days are going to get longer again though (good, who really wants the sun to set at 4pm? not me, although i hear it's worse the further north you get) and soon i hope the new agricultural season will be upon us. i have delusions of grandeur...

for now though, keeping the plants inside from succumbing to a variety of pestilences is challenging enough. even my salvia apiana has some infestation of aphids. didn't think anything would be desperate enough to afflict salvias...

i am really looking forward to having a few days off in a row, for which reason i guess christmas is good for something. probably won't do much of anything except make like smoky and park my butt next to a radiator and lie around, but considering i've been running around for weeks like a one legged man at a shit kicking contest, not doing anything at all sounds real nice. and it is appropriate i suppose in this season of hibernation and repose. my maples aren't doing a damn thing...why should i?

last week i felt like i was in chicago, this week i feel like i'm in memphis. it's been raining like a champ and it's about 40 degrees, so not a chance in hell of snow. zone 6 can be a letdown sometimes, but the plants seem to love it. honestly though it really doesn't matter much what the weather's like. unless you work outdoors or are homeless you don't have to think about it much, which is why i think it's strange that people talk of nothing else...if i had people to talk to, i'd talk of anything but the weather, there are so many interesting things out there to think about.