Look at the center of the tree and you will see a red breasted robin.Every time you step out of the house, there is this flurry of birds that you startle. As you hold still for just a few moments they all come rushing back to the ground under one of our berry trees. They are abundant under the juniper, camphor and east palatka holly trees. We have several of each in both the front and backyards and it makes our yard the All You Can Eat special!
This is a close-up of the camphor tree; see the dark purple berries? .........the canopy is just a riot of bird movements, chirping and calling. It has a music all its own.
The camilias are in bloom.........we have had the white for a month now....
but the red is my favorite.
The calliandra is in full bloom........with lots of buds to come.
And the national favorite for Christmas is the poinsettia........this one is the one Marsel received for Christmas last year, gave to us and it is doing quite well in the front yard.........it is blooming right on time!
Bill's brother got me this Christmas cactus almost 20 years ago and it has bloomed every year for me!
And the Christmas Berry (ardesia) is reddening up quite nicely and will be ready on the 25th and last right into the spring!So what plant/flower is the Christmas trigger for you?
I realized I didn't post a full-sized pic of the mystery Christmas quilt, so here it is. It has been returned to its 'going to GA' pile. I drew the panto for this-a large poinsettia and I moved the panto design back and forth for each row to offset it-a bit of fussing but worth it to get the look I wanted. Kind of hard to see but its there!
I finished the 
I have the Psalm quilt that I made for us in the 'going to GA' pile so I can finish the binding there, too.
This is the sweater I am making myself. It is the recycled homespun yarn that is working up nicely into this perfect weight for FL sweater (we were at 80 degrees yesterday!) It is a freebie pattern from 
This is a treat from our garden-aren't they beautiful?! We had these for supper last night.
We have also been enjoying this treat in the evening; fresh roasted peanuts. The peanuts raw are delicious and you can understand why they are called a legumes when you eat them raw-they taste just like fresh picked peas. Someone told us about baking them in the shell; tossed in oil and lightly salted. They were incredible! We are taking 5# to GA to share the culinary pleasure!
Bling helped me wrap all the presents..........he looks serene here but-
....the true Bling is evidenced here as he chewed anything that rustles-including the bows which he kidnapped repeatedly! 
The socks are ready to go to their new owners.
The Christmas quilt is ready to go to Marsel's for the binding to be sewn on-a good time of bonding as we hand sew together!
The gift quilt is all ready to be wrapped-the binding is on but I do need to sign it before it goes!
I made a batch of coasters for Caleb because he asked for them......when your son wants something handmade-we crafty moms get right to it! This is a nicer gift because the yarn was given to me from Marsel as the colors made me happy! Now the skein has made me happy twice.
Bill went to pick up his new topper for the truck..........we plan on bringing home a large load from Marsel's at Christmas so we needed to be prepared for any kind of weather. 
Finishing up the quilt on the frame ...... (see the batting showing above the floor...this means you are getting close to finished and you get excited!)
so I can start another one.... (this is to be a Christmas gift so I will get going and finish it by Saturday!)
Bill's garden is flourishing. God watered the garden today instead of Bill-we got our first measurable rain in a month! (5/8").
A new quilt is on the frame............it takes me so long to decide on a design; still my least favorite part of the whole thing! Once I got one drawn (the quilting pattern that is) and figured out how to place it and off set every other row; the quilting itself went well!
I am flying on the 'flat feet' socks-I had to begin each sock seperately and then nestle them together-couldn't do the beginning in the evening-- I guess it was 'too much, too new ' at that time of the evening! But they are progressing nicely and I will finish them tonight. I still like doing socks one at a time because they seem to flow more serenely for me. I take good notes as I knit and so have no problems getting the second one to come out an exact match but it is good to learn something new even if I don't do it this way again (Well, I am going to make up the pair for Abigail but I might not do it 2 at a time!). I am going to dye some more sock blanks though! It produces just the control I like for sock design and knitting up the blanks took no time at all. 
I finished quilting Millie's king sized log cabin quilt. She made it as a gift for her daughter.
I used a simple meander pattern on this. I now have a free frame for some Christmas tablerunners! 
Bill enjoyed a different kind of creativity.............finding the 'clog' in our septic system! He had a good idea of where the problem was and he found it on the second shovel full! We replaced the whole septic system last year except for the 14' from the house to this spot and when he followed the pipe back up to the house-he could see the people who installed previously had used the wrong pipe-
-it had collapsed and had roots growing through it! No wonder it was having problems!
He replaced the length of pipe, reattached it to the other new piping ;
covered and seeded the area and it is better than ever! Hoorah!
Bling had fun helping me. It took me about 45 mins to do this with the extra help.
