December 2003

The most notable thing you see when you walk up to our frontdoor in the month of December, is our pal Santa and his companion Waita made a bunch of these Santas last year, some with, some without doggies. Rotties were the obvious first choice, but she also did an Elkhound, Welsh Terrier and a Fox Terrier. Materials used for construction were initially pieces of the old fence boards we still have kicking around, but later ones have been made some siding discards from our neighbour Giselle's.

December is one of those months where there is not exactly an abundance of colour in the yard. Yet, there is ample sign of things to come: by month's end the Dutch Iris' are sporting good foliage growth, Daffodils and Tulips have poked their head up and there are plenty of buds colouring up on the Hellebori. And as usual this time of year, the Primroses are showing evidence again of their preference for the cooler, moister weather.

These couple of shots above and below, taken on December 8th, 2003, do provide us with just enough of a splash of colour to make sure we continue to keep an eye on things just around the corner.This is our red Helleborus to the left, possibly atrorubens, and while I seem to recall that last year it was a little farther along, it's nice to see this red coming up again.