The picture above shows some primrose leaves happily greening up on Christmas Day.  You can see some spear-like iris leaves too.  This is what plants get up to if snow comes too late in the year.  I never really understand how iris survives at all.  Its rhyzomes are so close to the surface and yet they are among the first  to set out green leaves after months of frigid temperatures.  The picture on the bottom is of a pot of lavender I neglected as it sat on my balcony.  It got a bit of a snow dusting but I am sure it will be alright.  After all, I totally forgot about it for the whole of last winter.  It sat without a drop of water for,the cold dark months and when I was doing some spring clean up I almost threw it out.  Then I noticed a tiny green leaf and gave it another chance.  In summer as I passed, I would crush a few leaves and enjoy the profound serious smell of fresh lavender.  It will stay in with the other plant pets…a frangipani, a jasmine.  In spring they will be miserable shadows of their old selves, but still alive and ready to make a come-back with the right temperature and rainfall.

I bought a ( gently) used car yesterday.  It was a bad day to drive home through the thick fresh snow.  I had been quite prepared to drive my little red pirate into the ground but I had a good deal dropped into my lap and obeyed the voice of reason.  I was very attached to my red car with her chipped bumper, souvenir of ambitious parking attempts that didn’t quite work out and her rakish dimple of a dent on her right fender.  Poordarling.  She will live  out her days as a pizza delivery buggy.  Old age is hard, even for autos.

My new car is black and perfectly maintained.  She boasts 8 brand new tires.  There is a little memo on the windshield that tells me,when she should be serviced.  She only knows the hallowed halls of the dealership.  I gunned her home through the clogged roads, flung her into a half-legal parking spot under an orange plough notice and left her all night in the frigid darkness.  Fate had dealt her an unknown card.  Plants, cars, people…..adapt to winter or perish.