Snow on bamboo may be beautiful, but in all this cold weather I keep hearing stories of people with ruined holiday plans, who won’t manage to meet up with loved ones, who have spent days returning from travels including sleeping on airport terminal floors. Friends who awaken to collapsed ceilings in a child’s room due to burst pipes, who are running out of LPG for heating and cooking, who have broken boilers or even broken limbs.

So, I hope you stay safe…
..with somewhere warm and comfortable to sit and chat with people you love, perhaps with a glass of something lovely or a tasty seasonal treat.
I hope there is feasting and merriment at a table groaning with wonderful food. That’s certainly my plan!
Thank you to everyone who has visited this blog, who has left comments, who has encouraged me and welcomed me into the blogoshpere. I look forward “seeing” you all again after the holidays, but right now I am off to ice my Christmas cake, something I am spectacularly bad at but rather enjoy.
And although my Magnolia is currently covered in snow, the days are already starting to get longer…
…and that same tree is covered in the promise of the Spring to come.
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I count my blessings that I’m snug in a comfortable home able to enjoy the celebration of our King with precious family. Have a blessed Christmas!
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Thank you Chris, hope you and yours a lovely Christmas yourselves.
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Dear Janet – hard to equate such beautiful images with the chaos that it has brought to others. Your snow scenes are divine though, not least the silver Betula?
Very glad to have found your lovely blog and look forward to many more posts in 2011.
Wishing you a warm and wonderful Christmas
Laura
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Hello Laura! Belated Merry Christmas – and yes, it is Betula utilis jaquemontii, very lovely tree. Delighted to have found your blog too, look forward to reading more from you in the coming year!
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Snow and cold when you’re not used to it can be very treacherous. And those of us who were expecting snow are ankle deep in mud! so much for those studded snow tires I put on a couple months ago. Have a very merry Christmas and I look forward to your posts in the new year!
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Thank you Marguerite, hope you did not get overcome by mud and had a lovely Christmas.
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Beautiful pictures and post. Merry Christmas!
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Thank you! Hope you had a lovely Christmas.
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Those snow pictures warm my heart. I love that last one of the buds — winter beauty with spring promise! Happy holidays!
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(Belated) Happy Holidays Meredith. Hope you got to eat your peas!
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Merry Christmas to you too. I hope the icing of the cake was as beautiful as the icing on the plants! The first bamboo photo is extra-wonderful. They’re such graceful plants, and they retain that grace even when coated with snow.
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Hope you had a lovely – and flood-free – Christmas James. The cake icing was not nearly as beautiful, but tasted a lot better than the bamboo would have done!
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Enjoy your Christmas cake and wonderful food. Merry Christmas!
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Hope you had a lovely Christmas too, thank you for commenting!
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Warm wishes for a Happy Christmas from Australia.
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Thank you Missy, hope you had a wonderful Christmas!
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That magnolia branch bears so much hope. I hope that you enjoy Christmas Janet and all best wishes for the New Year. May it treat you, your bread making and your garden kindly xxx
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Thank you Anna! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas too.
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Merry Christmas Janet and a have a wonderful New Year.
My solution re Christmas cake icing is to make it have lots of peaks so it looks like a giant snowball ;)
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Thank you VP! I hid most of the icing by using ribbon round the sides a lots of large marzipan snowflakes on top… Tastes great! Hope you had a lovely Christmas.
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beautiful photos….Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!
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Thank you Donna – hope you had a lovely Christmas with your family.
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Merry Christmas Janet, I am sure your Christmas cake tastes wonderful! Your snow picture at the top is especially good.
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Thank you Janet, and to you! The cake did indeed taste great, and hey, once a slice or two has been taken you no longer really notice the uneven icing… Hope you had a wonderful Christmas!
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Snow on bamboo looks so enchanting although its cold out there! Make you want to curl up with a hot chocolate and get cosy with your loved one! Merry Xmas!
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I opted for something a little more alcoholic than hot chocolate ;-) Hope you had a lovely Christmas too.
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What a lovely post! I’ve been thinking about our European Blotanical friends who are getting more snow than they usually do. It’s so “normal” for us here in the northern U.S., but like all gardeners we are happy the days are now getting longer and spring is just around the corner. Merry Christmas, and all the best in 2011!
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Thank you – hope you had a wonderful Christmas. I often think it must amuse people who regularly get large amounts of snow that in the UK we really don’t cope with it terribly well! If the past two winters with more extreme weather become a pattern, this may have to change… Hope you had a wonderful Christmas!
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I always find it extraordinary how early buds form.
The snow didn’t manage to sit on my bamboo. It slithered off.
Hope you are having a lovely Christmas.
Esther
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Hello Esther, hope you had a wonderful Christmas. Doesn’t your bamboo know it needs to hang on to the snow long enough for you to take a good photo of it before it allows all that slithering?!
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Hello Janet, here in Aberdeen we had to cancel our Christmas trip to Holmes Chapel in Cheshire because of the severe weather. Love your white stemmed Birch, I think it is Jacquemontii. Have a great New Year. Alistair
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Hi Alistair, sorry you had to cancel your Christmas plans – hope you still had a lovely time. Spot on, it is indeed jaquemontii! Wonderful trees. Happy New Year!
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Beautiful, beautiful pictures, as usual!! Happy holidays to you, too, even though I’m a bit late!
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Thank you – and no apologies necessary! I have myself a holiday from being on line, only just starting to catch up again. So many blogs to read, so little time…
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Very beautiful photos!
Hope you had a very merry Christmas and that you have the best happy new year!
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Thank you fer, hope you have a great New year and that balcony continues to flourish!
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Happy New Year Janet! It’s been a pleasure meeting you via our blogs and I so appreciate all your thoughtful comments and encouragement. I’m looking forward to seeing more of your garden in 2011!
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Its been great to meet you too Cat, look forward to catching up with you in 2011.