Do your realize that one month from today Christmas will be over, and you’ll be trying to think of what you’re going to do with all that leftover turkey?

In the meanwhile I have been up the Island to see one of my brothers in Cedar (just south of Nanaimo), then on to see a cousin and his wife on Denman Island. I took both families bulbs as a small gift to thank them for having me, and planted them (took my own trowel, in case they wouldn’t be able to find theirs). Each of them got those tiny daffodils, and some allium (the shorter ones) since they are both visited by deer, and deer don’t eat either of these. They got to choose where they wanted the flowers to appear, and although I had decided where I’d like them, in neither case did they agree. Oh well, they’ll be great wherever they appear, and who am I to decide when it’s not my garden?

My brother and his wife have had other relatives over who had the same idea, so their garden will be bursting with colour. Cousin Doug and his wife are new to Denman so there were no bulbs in the garden except one Kafir lily, and a crocosmia (both of them in bloom).

They also had a late flowering petunia, and one of those wonderful calendulas, which seem to go on forever. Next year I swear I’m going to plant a lot of them, they are so courageous, blooming sometimes all winter long, spreading good cheer with their sunny flowers when everything else is grey and dismal.

I know I should start talking about gifts for you to give to fellow gardeners, or to hint you’d like for yourself, but I need a week to see what might be new in garden centres. I have trouble believing time is getting so short, but I’ll get going by next week, and have some unbelievably brilliant ideas for gifts (Ho! ho! ho! as Santa Claus would say).

In late October I got the first 2009 calendar...this from England from himself’s navigator’s wife, who seems to believe Sidney is more distant than Mars. There have also been many envelopes containing Christmas cards, and, in the same breath, asking for money. This included one which contained a very nice ball-point pen. These people, although I’m sure good-hearted, drive me mad. If I donate money I don’t want them to spend a portion of it sending me a gift. What I donate is all meant to benefit the cause they are begging for, NOT to send me a present. Sorry if this sounds bad-tempered, but this Christmas sounds as though it will be slim pickin’s for a lot of folks, so I don’t want people spending money on me!