Floral notes – December 2024.

I know, excuses, excuses, but it’s been a tad busy! Here’s my mini photo essay to round out 2024.

December 2 – It’s truly the end of days. My bowl AND my automatic feeder are empty. The can opener with the blonde hair and glasses keeps prattling, “I just fed you five minutes ago, Smudge,” but the ignorant fool apparently doesn’t realize cats can’t tell time and I am very definitely PERISHING here….

December 7 -Over 100 community residents attended the Somerset Bridlewood Community Association Winter Party today! I was busy at the registration desk and my fellow Board members and all the volunteers were hopping keeping the activities going and making sure there were enough sugar cookies for everyone! Huge thanks to everyone who attended and everyone who worked so hard to plan and set up the event. Somerset School, Pur & Simple, 1st Class Childcare, Palak Studio Ink, and the City of Calgary were incredible supporters and co-hosts. (Photo: S. Milne)

December 13 – Love the winter-themed display at Central Library (Calgary)! So cute!

December 21 – My co-author and friend Janet makes the loveliest holiday arrangements (and if social media could capture fragrance, you’d get a gorgeous whiff of pinene and limonene from the fresh greens). I treasure her holiday gift! If you’re keeping evergreen arrangements indoors, don’t forget to water them periodically. If you have a cool room in your home, keep them in there instead of near a hot radiator, fireplace, or stove.

December 26 – Botanically, rose hips are fascinating…they are probably NOT what you think they are. Berries? Nope. Fruit, then. Not technically! They are accessory fruit (also known as pseudocarps). Rose hips sport an enlarged hypanthium containing achenes, a type of dry fruit that encases the seeds. (You don’t want to eat those seeds as they will cause rather unpleasant irritation to a part of your anatomy that I’ll let you guess at.) If you’re wondering more about accessory fruit, strawberries and pineapples are common examples. They are not true fruit because they are not created from the ovaries of the flower, but rather other tissues.

December 27 – Our cat Smudge will not sit in my lap (she sits in my husband’s lap and, quite frankly, loves him best even though he did not want a cat). This photo is of the little one I am cat-sitting at the moment, and she apparently finds my lap quite satisfactory. (See, Smudgie?!). Nothing like holding a purring, sleepy cat to put the world right.