I can remember when my father insulated the rooms and added walls and doors. Until then my sister and I slept on the fold out sofa in the living room. When my father was a child he slept upstairs in that uninsulated room. I cannot even imagine how cold it was.
We had the old fashioned windows in the kitchen and one kitchen window had a cracked storm window one winter. The frost from kitchen steam would build up and make it misty to see the moon and stars. On that window sill sat an amarylis. That plant sat there for a couple or more years. It would be almost frozen into the accumulated frost at times. Every winter it would have the most amazingly beautiful bloom. The rest of the year we ignored it and let it die back but every Christmas it would come out of dormancy. We would give it a little water and it would bloom all over again.
I had to buy this bulb just to see if I could grow my own amarylis. Merry Christmas.
:... and look how well you did.
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh, it probably got cold enough in that window to go dormant!
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I don't know how it survived and bloomed.
DeleteWhen I got my 1830 farmhouse, the previous owners had started to replace radiators with baseboard heating (the worst idea ever). A few of the rooms kept them but the one in my bedroom was disconnected. The first winter we slept there without heat, in upstate NY. It was amazingly cold. 2 down comforters and a blanket made most of you warm but you had to wear a cap at night. We fixed it in the Spring but I can't imagine living that way all the time... yikes. Getting up in the morning was an adventure.
ReplyDeleteYour amaryllis is beautiful. Here's hoping you a happy and healthy new year.
I can feel the cold! Brrr! No wonder they wore nightcaps in the olden days. You were brave to sleep like that all winter.
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