Strength and Daring (continuing)

It's almost five pm in Illinois, and yesterday at five there was a very slim crescent moon high in the southwest sky although the sky's not fully black yet, just deep blue.

So for sure, this is December. But under the linden tree, a couple of hundred of little nigella seedlings have sprouted, and grown a little bit. They have their first little seedling leaves, narrow and green, and most have one or two of the fingered green leaves that come next. That nigella was another annual from the Fragrant Path, and the little annual seeds did produce well, but the plants weren't anything special. Since then, I've been setting myself up to sprinkle that flower bed next year, thinking that little guys like that needed more encouragement. I thought they were timid. But here they are, stepping out for next year.

We haven't had lasting snow here, they're in a bed of leaves. Tiny and happy.

The sweet peas in the annual garden have gotten stronger and grown more, covered more of their short fence and wave around looking for anything else to climb. The horned poppy greens that were in a vase in the house got pretty old, I tossed 'em, and cut another gray-green bouquet of the elegant oak-shaped leaves. The cyclamen leaves have continued to sprout on the north of the house where the summer cyclamen bloomed; I guess next spring, flowers will arise where these larger, well-marked leaves lie. How many of these other brave little green plants will survive all the months until May?