Happy Sunday! Ann-Christine from Leya is hosting this week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge with a magical theme.

There is something magical about heading out into the garden on a sunny day after a snow storm. Even though the temperature is still below freezing (somewhere in the low 20’s Fahrenheit), a gardener’s instinct is to pull back the covers while holding the breath that the plants have survived the frigid temperatures and snow.

This year, I have been experimenting with growing vegetables outdoors during the winter, taking advantage of the southern sun, which tends to be a few degrees warmer than the back garden. In the past, I’ve grown vegetables indoors during the winter, hoping to have a little greenery in the house to stave off SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) but all I got were complaints – one after another – from my mom about how my vegetables are causing her immune systems to go haywire. I’m pretty sure she is the only person in the world who doesn’t like to have plants in the house and if it wasn’t because of her, I would’ve put houseplants in every corner of the house.

This year, I managed to get away with having a small aloe plant in the corner of the living room.

You’d think now that I’m no longer growing indoors, the complaints would stop, you couldn’t be more wrong.

She scolded me a few weeks ago on a car ride, wanting to harvest all the vegetables because they would be too old by the time spring arrives. I said no, “let them grow over the winter.”

“I refuse to eat them.” She responded. I tuned her out afterwards as she went on about how I’m defying the way of nature by forcing vegetables to grow in the winter.

If one can “defy nature and force vegetables to grow,” then that person is no longer a person. I’m not that person. I’m merely someone providing assistance like frost blankets and water – a helper though I’ll tell you who’s magical. My mother. She can complain and imbue her negativity on anything. Nothing and no one will make her happy. Any attempt to do so is futile.

Isn’t it magical to find a lone pansy blooming amidst of snow and ice? The seed packet told me that though this is a perennial, it’s usually grown as an annual as it gets leggy in the second year. This plant has been blooming through the summer and hasn’t stopped despite being in below freezing temperatures and uncovered. Amazing, isn’t it?

What can I say? Flowers are incredibly magical especially when they are blooming in freezing temperatures. They are an amazing sight when everything around is dormant or dead.

This was my broccoli rabb plant before it bolted when the temperatures got too low. I have been keeping it covered but isn’t it incredible that some plants will flower instead of dying when it doesn’t like its growing environment.