My Windowsill Garden

The ground is covered with snow, and more is forecast for tonight.... and tomorrow.... which makes perfect sense given the fact that I live in NE Ohio and it is November.

But I have flowers in bloom!!

Back in October (seems like forever ago), I moved some plants inside. I moved 4 geraniums, 2 Christmas cacti, and a begonia inside for the winter. I put the big potted geranium downstairs by the sliding glass doors, 2 small ones in my middle bedroom by the window and the tiniest one on my kitchen windowsill. By the way, that's a southwest-ish window.... I put one cactus on my sideboard in the kitchen and the smaller one on the kitchen windowsill. And the begonia is down by the sliding glass doors for now, as well.

Well, my Christmas cacti have bloomed! They're lovely!! And the geraniums have all bloomed; 2 have lost all their flowers but they're still green and growing. So, sitting on my kitchen windowsill is the small cactus which has by now stopped blooming, albeit holding on to one unopened bud, strangely enough, and the tiny salmon flowered geranium, still blooming.

When I moved the plants in, I saw that there was some sort of "other" plant in the pot with the small cactus. The leaves kind of resembled pansy leaves, so I left it in to see what would happen. I didn't plant it there. It is a volunteer; don't know how the seed got in there- I'd guess a bird put it there, but who knows?

This morning, I realized the "other" plant had a flower on it. It's a viola!! Tiny purple and yellow, smiling face, viola! I don't quite know how she got there, like I said, but I love her!! And I feel blessed that she chose to live with us, for now. I have no idea if I'll be able to keep her alive or if there will be other blossoms, but for now, she makes me smile.

Between the birds at the feeders and the plants in the windows, I may just survive this long gray winter, in spite of the cold and snow.