Happy New Year?

 

'Easy Does It'

Happy New Year?   I'm hoping.  In the meantime, the winter light this past Tuesday was marvelous--just enough of a thin cloud cover to bring out the richest colors without all the bleaching we get in summer. 

 So, just some photos, mostly Aloes, and a rose or two.    

Leucadendron 'Wilson's Wonder' colored up very suddenly last week:  

 

My favorite moment for Aloe flowers:  the day before the first individual flowers open.  They look pristine.  

A. candelabrum:  

Alligator Lizard among the Hellebores.  Their showy time of year will arrive soon.  

Against a background of Avocado leaves, the smaller of the two Aloe 'Hercules' and Leucadendron 'Jester':

'The Ambridge Rose', somehow undamaged despite both rain and Santa Ana winds:

'Brass Band' 

I chopped back some of the Leucadendron 'Cloudbank Ginny' so Aloe 'David Verity' could be better admired, the green-tipped coral flowers turn ivory just before they open

That lovely soft light on Aloe ferox (white version):

'Moonlight' and rubroviolacea against the blue of Senecio mandraliscae:

A. vanbaleni develops a bad hair day as its flowers open:

A. capitata hybrid with Agave horrida in the background:

Bee working the flowers of Senecio vitalis:

Curving van baleni flower stem echoing an Agave 'Mr Ripple leaf:

Leucadendron 'Harlequin' one more time--it's pinking up now, after a few weeks in an all-ivory state:

Rose 'Easy Does It' again...

  Easy Does It might be good advice for 2026.  We can hope.  Hope, the thing with wings.