Happy Holidays to all here on Rocky Mountain Gardening! And Happy New Year to each of our gardens! December 21st is my Favorite Day of the year! And, yes, the days are already a couple minutes longer than they were three days ago! Actually, technically, that's not true, because they keep getting shorter in the morning for a few days, but the sunset starts getting later immediately, and that's the part of the day that matters the most to me! I've been out cleaning up and cutting down perennials for an hour or two for each of the last few days, I have batches of Dutch Iris coming up all over the yard--normal for them, and one of my patches of crocus is showing already! I "worry" about the crocus every year, but they somehow manage to "come up," but don't start blooming until "the right time!" So for now I'll just be enjoying the new green foliage! I rarely have frozen soil in my yard--it's been frozen a couple times here, but is completely thawed again right now. There are other things I can see "budding" and raring to get going, but I'm not really worried about anything at this point. Like PopMama, I can see that the German Iris are "spreading out" and starting to form new fans. They're a Favorite Thing of mine, not only because of how pretty they are, but they're one of the few things that are fragrant! Right now I'm really enjoying feeding and watching The Birds! I have 14 feeders out right now, and I regularly have Chickadees--my favorite, hairy woodpeckers, juncos, Flickers--both red and yellow--and an interbreed that's a really pretty salmon color!, and the usual house finches and doves, with an occasional bluejay. They don't quite qualify at "regulars," but today I also had a bunch of bushtits show up again--they're fun to watch! Best Wishes to each of you for a wonderful Gardening Year in 2020! Skybird

I should try growing microgreens - I can grow them outdoors this time of year, and so they would not be taking up space inside. I cooked an ahi tuna steak yesterday (for Christmas Eve) that weighed almost a pound, and so I have about 1/3 of it left over. I might not have bought it if I had noticed that it was $36 a pound, but I think that fish costs a bit more here in the desert. Swordfish was better priced at $25 a pound. The tuna was from Fiji, like the tuna I buy in L.A., and it was sushi grade, which meant that I could cook it rare. I bought a half young turkey breast to smoke today, and that was not expensive, and it was small enough that we won't have too many leftovers, but if we do, I will freeze half of them. We're also going to smoke some sausage while we are at it. Kevin bought a new electric smoker a few months ago, and it has WiFi capability, so that he can monitor it on his phone from indoors, which is helpful. We're having a new kitchen table delivered tomorrow, and so we have to move the old table out of the way today, but we have a dining table in the dining room. However, the kitchen table is my main prep space, since I have very limited counter space, and so I won't be doing much prep work once the old table is out of the kitchen. We're going to have to move it into the garage so that Revivals Thrift Store can pick it up. We could possibly sell it for a decent price, but we're not going to be around for that and mainly just want it out of our way. We're donating our old bar and all of the barstools as well, since they are not our taste. We kept them for a couple of years because they came with the house, but now we're definitely ready to get rid of them. I hope to start painting the upper cabinets next week. We go back to L.A. on Jan 8.

Warmest holiday wishes from PRM to the Houzz community!

My Christmas was good, though I greatly over-did as far as my bad back is concerned. I'll be paying for it for a while. I'm still learning my limits, lol. I hope your Christmas was peaceful and joyful. Did your daughter visit? Welcome to fig collecting. Besides the classic "fig" , there are red, green, black, violet, striped, honey, fruity (strawberry, raspberry, citrusy, etc), spritely and musky, clove- and cinnamon-flavored figs, and more. Figs are not only delicious, but for something so sweet, they have an amazing nutritional profile. They're loaded with minerals and vitamins, not to mention that all important fiber, lol. You do have to be careful not to over-indulge if you are on warfarin blood thinner. Figs contain vitamin K, which interferes with effectiveness of the blood thinner. But you'd have to eat a lot (like I do, lol) for it to impact you. So don't worry, as leafy greens are actually much worse in that respect.