Welcoming a New Year
Like many people, I have greeted the new year with some trepidation. A year ago, I welcomed 2021 with an almost giddy joy: Vaccinations promised to put the Covid-19 pandemic behind us, and I invested considerable hope in the coming change of political regime in the United States. A year later, I am wiser about the limits of vaccinations, about the mutation strategies of viruses, and about the ways that humanity’s obvious lack of control over pandemic disease triggers emotional responses that stoke political and social divisions.
All of which made it even more important to look back at the sources of joy and pleasure in my life as I enter 2022. As I have been doing for more than a decade, I created a gift calendar for family and friends featuring photos representing the best of my garden in 2021. (And, as an added bonus, I was able to deliver most of those calendars in person this year, rather than sending them through the mail while I isolated at home!) Here are the photos I chose for this year’s calendar:
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January
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February |
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March |
April |
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May |
June |
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July |
August |
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September |
October |
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November |
December |
I wish all of you beauty, joy and good health in the new year.
Jean's Garden 
beautiful!
Thanks, Joyce. Happy New Year!
Beautiful photos. Hope to see you in the Spring. Ellen
Thanks, Ellen. Happy New Year!
Lovely to see your latest calendar, Jean. I feel very much the same about the past year and feel it’s all the more important to focus on the beauty around us. Best wishes for a better new year!
Happy New Year, Kris.
Hello Jean, that’s a beautiful calendar, I really like the crocuses and what seems to be an endless stretch of bright yellow daylilies. I’m jealous of your Solomons Seal as well as that is particularly rare to find for sale here (we left an established clump behind when we moved). I hope this year in the garden turns out as joyous as your calendar pictures convey.
Sunil, Solomon’s Seal survives in my garden, but it would be a lot happier in richer, moister conditions than my lean sandy soil can provide. These are the variegated Asian species, but I’ve included the native North American variety to my new woodland border, so we’ll see how they do there.