Cool or Cruel?

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! We had a great holiday season but boy was it busy. We have definetly had our fill of fun parties with friends, lights, cookies, shopping and decorating.

I wanted to show everybody one of the gifts I received. It's a book about herb gardening that my mother picked out for me. I had a feeling it was a book and I was hoping it would be a gardening book! Ma really couldn't have picked out a better one. I have one garden bed where I plan to interplant ornamental plants with edible plants (mostly herbs) so this was perfect. Isn't it pretty? If you think so then you should see the pictures on the inside of the book. The book details 25 different kinds of herbs and how to plant them indoors or out. It also includes recipes. But the pictures are really the best. One picture in particular is my inspiration for how I want my flower and herb bed to look.

So this is a really cool present, right? Or is it cruel? It really is a little bit like torture when you give a gardener a gardening gift for Christmas! I mean, I won't be able to start planting these herbs until at least late march. Even then I have to be prepared to protect them if necessary. So I ask again, is it cool or is it cruel to give a gardener something like this to drool over right at the beginning of winter?

I myself am going to cast my vote for cool! Because book or not, I'd still be itching to get outside and play in the dirt. Now that the holidays are over I plan to start work outside as soon as everything from Christmas is put away. There is compost to put down, beds to dig out, and winter sowing to be done. I just can't help it! I have had a couple months of rest and now I am ready to go back outside.

Thank goodness I live in Texas where the growing season is long and the ground doesn't freeze.