Winter began warm this week here in the Northeast. The lawn is still green. Some of the annuals are still blooming in the flower boxes that I deinstalled from the front of the house in order to make room for Christmas decorations. I noticed today that the gorgeous mauve hellebore in the front yard is blooming, right under our huge, lit wooden snowflake decoration. I did a 23-mile bike ride yesterday morning after the gifts were unwrapped, and had one of my best times of the year. It's a bizarre wet, and warm weather pattern that we're in.
On the bright side, the winter jasmine has bloomed all at once, instead of winking on and off. It's a dose of pure yellow sunshine even on these cloudy, short days.
This annual mallow in the garden I planted near the loading dock at work is a dead man walking. It should have been struck down by cold and snow by now, but it's blooming its beautiful head off.