Fri, 08 Jan 2010
Back from the holidays!
What an exciting holiday season I had! For Thanksgiving, Eric and I met his parents in Hot Springs, AK. It is just about halfway between our home in Austin and their home in southern Indiana. It is a beautiful place with a with a strange history. There are historic bathhouses in the national park there, and one of them is still in operation. My sister-in-law and I took in a tradtional bath and it was fun and relaxing and also inexpensive. We stayed in cabins at nearby Lake Catherine State Park and hiked there. The terrain was rugged but beatiful. The plant life was very diverse.
Then, we went to Cleveland to see my mom aka garden maven Peg and the rest of my family and a bunch of friends. We enjoyed some snow- gorgeous fluffy stuff. We left just before we got really sick of snow.
Now we are back in Austin and we are having record cold, after one of the hottest summers in history. Thankfully, the cold is going to pass in just a few days. The low tonight is supposed to be 18 and it has never been that cold since I have lived here.
I covered many plants incluluding pansies, cyclamen and all winter annuals, all citrus trees, all succulents, bougainviellas, philodendrons, olive trees and newly planted or transplanted plants. I think despite my covering them many of them will die anyway. After the heat and drought and now this severe cold I am expecting a vey busy spring for my business and for area nurseries.
The bad economy hasn't hurt my biz much. I think I fill a good niche of providing folks with advice and ongoing care and then I do simple small plantings occasionally. It seems like the companies that rely on large scale plantings for most of their income are really hurting. I feel good about growing a sustainable business. I think the nurseries might do well this spring because people may stay home over spring break instead of vacationing and they will want to work in their yards. We shall see.
posted at: 10:36 | path: /colleen0605 | link for this entry