Ah. It’s the little gifts that make this schizophrenic hobby so rewarding. I posted a few days ago about sightings of Jasmine blooms throughout my neighborhood. Well, I’m thrilled to report that I have my own flowers in the back yard. I found about 5 of them today. (I’ve been searching daily for about a week!) The Jasmines are getting much too big and unwieldy, but I love them — their arching grace, their strength and stamina and their bright, beautiful blooms.

I found these tomatoes today. You’ll never believe where! In the fall, I happened upon a volunteer tomato stalk growing right up amidst my duranta — far, far away from the vegetable garden where his friends were living! I assume a bird or a human eating outside (or, now that I think of it — a DOG!!!!) left a seed somewhere that found its way to this tiny spot of earth. Walking by, I saw the glint of red – well, not really red — maybe coral(!) and found these two little ones. No sign of the tomato plant – I assume it died in the freeze last week, but these two must have survived. Unbelievable! What a lovely little treasure.
Here’s a tough photo of my seedlings. Thus far, I’ve seen Empress of India Nasturtium (Tropaeolum Majus), Pomodoro Tomatoes (Lycopersicom Lycopersicum) from Italy and California Wonder Orange Peppers (Capsicum Annum). They shot up there today, and will have to be transplanted tomorrow because they are hitting their little heads on the ceiling. So, I’ll liberate them from their headaches tomorrow and put them in peat pots. I’m thrilled to be able to put them into the two glass cloches that I ordered for myself last week with the Christmas gift card my dear husband gave me to Gardeners’ Supply Company, http://www.gardeners.com I’ve always wanted some — and now I even have something to put in them! Look for pictures of the cloches next time.

P.S. Pat me on the back! I figured out how to put a link into my blog text for the first time!!!!!! Whoo hoo. I am SUCH a techno-newbie – but not afraid to try. I am so in awe of all the other beautiful and sophisticated blogs out there — thanks for inspiring me to try.