From frozen pipes to flowers… what a welcome change of focus. This week’s unusual cold snap froze our pipes and caused us to get intimate with our plumbing. Not so much fun. It happened right at the same time that Nicole was moving from Rockport to San Antonio. On the morning after the first really hard freeze (and per a plumber interviewed on the local news, broken pipe calls start coming in whenever the weather dips below 20 degrees for more than six hours), Steve was on-duty to help Nicole get moved. I played with pipes, and creative insulation concepts, all day while Steve did a marathon moving-man thing, driving to the coast, loading (with his brother’s help… thank you, Dennis) Nicole’s stuff into a rental trailer, and then caravanning back here with her. Then yesterday, I took my turn helping unload on this end. At least, once we got the trailer door open so it could be unloaded. Furniture had shifted during the drive and the roll-up door would only go up about a foot and a half. Through sheer perseverance, (and turning himself into Gumby), eventually Steve got the door open and we were able to get Nicole settled (somewhat) into her new home. Just in time to head home to start the faucets dripping for yet another night of temps in the teens! Nicole, on the other hand, headed back to Rockport to drop off the trailer, and then drove back again, effectively spending her first night in her new home, not at home. She’s a crazy woman! But it’s done! She has a couple more trips to get completely out but the big stuff is moved and she has until the end of January to finish. We’re really, really happy to have her closer to us.

The flower part? Well, our dining room/bird blind became home to our lemon tree last month. First we decorated it with Christmas lights outside to help it stay warm. But night after night, it was too cold to leave it outdoors. Shuttling it was getting old so in it came, to stay, until the chance of frost passes. It had some green fruit, and a few flowers then, but while serving as our Christmas tree, it exploded with blossoms. Mmm… once again, I wish I could capture fragrance online! For my birthday, Mom sent me an amaryllis bulb, forced to bloom “around Christmas”. Its brilliant red flowers have been cheering us up for weeks now. And yesterday morning, with no concern for the freezing temps outside its window, the little hibiscus plant I have tended carefully for months treated us to a stunning yellow-gold blossom with a deep red center. Hibiscus blossoms often only last for one day but this flower is now two days old and it is still gorgeous. Long live flowers!