Herb Garden in January

     Today has been dreary and gray and I've hardly gone outside.  Only twice for about a minute and a half each time, to harvest herbs from the herb garden, once at lunch time and once for dinner.  Right now my sweet husband is cooking up something that smells delicious that will have two tablespoons of chopped cilantro in it.  Yum! 

Herb garden in January

     That's cilantro in the lower right, parsley in the upper center of the picture, and dill in the lower left, with some chamomile sprouting next to it.  The brown stick is my sadly departed Spanish Lavender.  I'll have to replace it in the spring.  There's nothing but green here now.  I should have planted some pansies in October to overwinter and bloom in the warm spells, but I often don't think of buying annuals.  I like plants that take care of themselves.  Everything in this photo seeded itself -- hence the haphazard arrangement.  But the green certainly cheers me up in the winter.
     Harvesting cooking herbs from just outside the door in all weathers including rain and occasionally  snow is something we have really enjoyed for the past few years.  There's nothing like fresh basil for the pasta in the summer, parsley for just about anything in the winter and spring, and marjoram on the pizza all year round, just exactly how much I want.  

Marjoram and 'Sweetness' daffodil

     The pictures are from a few days ago when it was sunnier.  Even though it was bright and fairly warm for part of the day, and I was even home instead of at work, I was trying to sleep off a virus and didn't get to enjoy it much.  But for a little while I sat on the brick wall and weeded a little corner of the herb garden.  It's the warmest spot in my garden, and relaxing there on chilly days has been one of my exquisite garden pleasures since we built the low brick wall several years ago.  So, it's about the only spot in my yard that's thoroughly weeded (and only in the cool seasons!)
     As mentioned before, this has been an unusually mild winter.  I'm not sure if the cilantro will make it all the way through to spring, especially the two that are stretching to bolt already (what's with that?).  The daffodils seen here are "Sweetness" which I have in several places but which bloom earlier here than anywhere else, last year even before the ubiquitous early Ice Follies have ended.  This year I notice that the Sweetness foliage is up much taller than Ice Follies, but I don't know if that's unique to this strange season or if I just haven't noticed it before.
     Gotta go!  Dinnertime!