Trees trimmed!

From lack of care over the years, trees in the yard had gotten a little dangerous and I had a tree service come in. They took down two and trimmed up another 4 that had dead limbs and ones that were a danger to the house and garage. The yard is really opened up and I feel a lot better knowing they are taken care of. I still have lots of shade and plan on planting one or two but in better locations.
And I have a bunch more firewood for next year.

Daffodils

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My neighbor mentioned her daffodils were coming up and I realized mine were buried under fall leaves I'd piled up. I raked the leaves off and found the group that had been completely covered were much taller than the ones that hadn't been buried. They had more blooms as well.
I'm definitely burying them again next year! They are beautiful

Ice storm

Our "winter" was mild and no snow but we did get a couple days of an ice storm. This is a picture of my Magnolia coated with ice. It's a hardy type and wasn't hurt by it. Looked kind of pretty, odd but pretty.

Community Christmas Tree

We had a first annual Christmas tree in our community. After we decorated, we had Christmas carols and when it was dark enough we lit 'er up.
Next year we know to attach the decorations a little bit better since we had heavy winds the next day and some were blown off. Many survived though which was a nice surprise. We're planning to raise money to plant a permanent tree since that was so much fun.