Froze my butt off in December, but it's damned balmy here this week. I've been doing late leaf clean-up, and even some spot mowing.

It has been. And I hate it. I want to wear a hat and gloves. I want to build snowmen, then come inside and sip hot chocolate by a roaring fire. This is bullshit.

We took the Xmas lights off our house in shorts and t-shirts, and went bike-riding on New Year's day. Unusual even for our part of Georgia, although I remember January 2005 was so warm people were calling it "June-uary."

I still have flower bulbs to PLANT. It has been so dry that I would have to water an area, come back the next day when it was not muddy but still moist and plant. We received a little rain this week but not much, areas that I put sprinklers on during warm days in December and which are mulched are still moist but a lot of the open yard already looks like it did not rain at all this week.

But it was warm today, I planted some bulbs this evening and tomorrow is going to be warmer so I hope I can plant a bunch more. I went crazy this fall buying, especially tulips and crocus. With our rocky soil it takes a while to plant things - which usually consists of digging a bigger hole than I need, removing rocks, mixing in some peat and some more soil if the rocks were plentiful enough that removing them would make the area noticably lower and then finally planting the bulbs/shrub/whatever.

The bulbs still look good for the most part, I have kept them in the garage, but I need to get them in the ground soon if I want them to live. As is, most of the tulips will likely not bloom until next year. Most are species tulips though, so they will improve in health gradually if they are really weak now.

I'm usually no fan of a mild winter, but it's saving a bundle on my heating oil, I tell you what.

I love mild winters but I am worried that my plants may be damaged if they come up too soon and then we get a cold snap.

The high today is 63. Tomorrow, 68. OMG GLOBAL WARMING!