January 1, 2012 -- a daffodil!

What a great way to start the new year---with a daffodil blooming! It's not all that unusual for this particular daffodil to bloom very, very early (I think it has bloomed for me in January before, and I know this variety, Rjenveld's Early Sensation, sometimes blooms in December in Gloucester), but it's still a surprise on New Year's Day! Here it is in the garden.

I had no compunction about picking the daffodil (it's blooming way away from the house in a spot where I'd be unlikely to see it much), but I did have a struggle deciding what greenery to combine it with. I picked several things, then settled on the linear foliage of sacred lily. The other greens (an arum leaf, some ivy, a frond of autumn fern) I dropped into a salsa bottle just to save them, then decided I liked them so much, I gave them a spot on the windowsill, too. Lots of evergreen foliage is really pretty right now, because it hasn't been burned by seriously harsh weather.