As I approach the first day of winter and the shortest daylight of the year,I have garden fantasies. Sitting inside looking out at the wind blown pansy faces, chilled cyclamen and a tiny fir tree adorned with one glittery strand of beads, I imagine where will I plant my sunflowers, pumpkins and potatoes next summer, which pot will hold primroses and how soon can I safely expose them to the winds and rain of the deck. Garden work can be done with my imagination. I daydream of what could be, not what is. 
I do have hope for what is, because some of the bulbs show green sprouts. This week I cut away last years leaves on the Hellebore. The Hellebore revealed a new mauve bud and fresh green leaves. A tiny red Camellia bud remains squeezed shut, but just a little red color reveals that soon a blossom will be born. In the same pot a white cyclamen in its second year of growth has already announced that not all of winter is dreary and filled with fantasies and day dreams.
So garden on as the darkest day passes and we enter a time of new light.
December Snow in Seattle fell hard on the tender Christmas Cyclamen. Each night I lift small tender cyclamen setting them in a protected area next to the door to the balcony. The red cyclamen add great color to the winter view out our windows but I know they shiver when the temperaature dips below forty degrees. The larger cyclamen are hardier. I have some white ones that survived from last year but they are not blooming so well this year despite my efforts to fertilize, water them carefully and give them new potting mix. Today I snow has turned to heavy rain and the temperatures are in the fifties! Compared to the snow the view is grey and cheerless but the cyclamen blossoms stand tall to brighten the day.
