First Flowers

It always seems too early for flowers to bloom in January, but it reminds me that spring is just around the corner! That gives me hope!

 

Camellias are the first to bloom in all their brilliance. Native to eastern and southeastern Asia, they were brought to the United States in the 1940s.

Red camellias symbolize passion, pink symbolize longing and white, adoration, perfection, loveliness and all kinds of love including love between a mother and child. If given to a man, the white camellia also symbolizes luck.

For me, they symbolize HOPE for springtime and warmer weather!

They've also been used medicinally for asthma, heart disease and bacterial infections. Peter used to gorge on them every winter. They are high in vitamin C.

 

I found all this information on camellias at Garden Guides .

This, on the other hand, is not pretty:

I think it's a mole that has taken up residence under the camellia bush in my newly landscaped garden bed! The winter war...at least he's not living under my house! I like moles. They are so cute, but they are so messy. And I wish they wouldn't eat my earthworms which are good for a garden. I'd rather they didn't eat my bulbs or flower roots, either. However, I've read all the digging they do is really good for gardens as it aerates the dirt. So I'm fine with his free-loading. I think it's strange this is the first mole hill I've seen on my property in the nine years I've been here.

Or maybe it's a rat living underground for lack of a place to go? Eeewww...