Color Story: Celiosa in Bloom

a closeup of celiosa plants with burgundy leaves

For about a dozen years now, I've been enjoying the cerise variety of this flower in pots and plots along my street. Downtown Brooklyn is pretty competitive about gardening and it's hard not to appreciate the efforts every summer. Of all the varieties on display, I get the biggest thrill from the Celiosa. It's eye-searing shade of deepest, deepest cerise is transfixing! One year I thought they'd been skipped, but the plants only came up late. Whew! 

So a few weeks ago I was strolling around upstate and found these potted in downtown Rochester (State Street, to be exact). There was not only cerise, but also orange, yellow and pink! Too much beauty to ignore...

Winter's Bone

When Jack Frost is at the gates, I suit up for war. It was one of those weeks when the weather was so brutal I tried to bundle up and then bundle up on top of that. The wind was so fierce vanity surrendered to a good wool hat; a plush scarf went over a warm scarf; a coat went over a jacket that went over three layers of shirts. And my personal favorite: a pair of thick, wool, over-the-knee socks went over a pair of knee-high socks. 

source: mujer hoy  photo credit: torkil gudnason

And after all that bundling, on the inside, I was still screaming. 

Stay warm, my friends.