Cold and Wet!

Finally, the very cold temps have moved out and the rain has moved in. We're back to more typical western Oregon winter weather. Fortunately we got our walk in at the arboretum before the rain started. There's a lot of interesting plants waking up now, but this plant in the main blip caught my eye. It's called Mahonia gracilipes or Chinese Mahonia. Sadly I can't grow it in my garden since it loves moist shade. I'm not sure if the color in the leaves comes from stress, but they were very colorful!

In the extras are an update on the Dragon Egg, which is about to pop out of its egg. Sadly the grandchildren now both have colds so I won't be seeing them tomorrow. I seem to have managed to escape the cold! And the Larch tree's new female cones are a vivid magenta! I'm not sure which Larch (Larix) species this is.