Well, Colonel, the camellias are coming along nicely.

Today, I cut back the monkey grass in the tree wells out front. I will deal with what’s out back after I think a little longer. At the Flower and Garden Show, I both pined after magnificent settings I’ll never have and looked for real tips. One fun, easy idea I had involves the monkey grass out back. I think the previous owner’s vision had been to let it fill in and take over; I’ve been randomly thinning it out since I moved here. Something I admired at the show were tight, tidy arrangement of plants in serpentines. What would it be like if the monkey grass ran in a long “s” from the pond to the locust tree? I’ll stand on the porch and stare, maybe I’ll even draw sketches on graph paper – then I will decide.

Daffodil leaves have poked up about a two inches. The lilies of the valley that I got from my friend in Hanover County are showing themselves, too.

The garden show, by the way, was in our expanded convention center. The interior felt classier than its predecessor, but that could be the miracle of Styles. It looks great because it’s in the latest style. My memories of the old place include the impression that the colors and textures were passe. I do not care for the funny lights on the street. I can’t find a good picture of them (or the building) on line. Imagine an empty paper towel tube and a toilet paper one (maybe a bit bigger, because it goes over the longer tube). Take the t.p. tube, stand it on end, and cut slots in it, parallel to the ground. Paint it all black. Put the little tube over the tall one, and imagine it lit from within (and tall, and made from metal). That’s the idea. Sure, they look way cool, but when lit up, they are hard on the eyes, especially from the car, which is how so many people travel on Broad Street these days.

Capital City weather: cloudy, 33 degrees, chance of light snow. Saturday’s all-day rain washed away all but the biggest heaps of last week’s snow.