Winter in Atlanta

J and I headed out the front door yesterday to run errands and I was stopped in my tracks at the end of the porch. It's January. It's butt-cold again here now (yeah, yeah, Montanans and Chicagoans will snicker at that, but when it's in the 40's and 50's here it's COLD) and yet the Texas Scarlet flowering quince has burst into bloom. Just seeing the delicate blossoms fluttering in the chill winter breeze lifted my spirits. Our flowers look like the ones in the photo, but they are more sparsely scattered on bare branches--the leaves don't dare the weather.

Apparently a couple of weeks of mild temperatures have fooled other plants into thinking it's a different season than it is. As I was getting into the car I looked to my left at the fragrant tea olive and it had little clusters of creamy white flowers peeking out from between leathery evergreen leaves. It's even more weird that it's blooming now because--unlike the azaleas, cherries, and quince--it's a fall bloomer. It should have done it's little happy dance in August and been snoring gently now. But I'm not complaining, anything in bloom right now is a welcome sight.