Flowers in winter

It's January on PEI, and this is the coldest it's been this year. We are hitting 20 below centegrade. Snow has frozen into concrete, and any exposed skin hurts. My water pipes froze this morning.

But on my windowsills, it's a different story. Flowering plants of many colours are peeking outside while blooming their heads off, giving me hope that winter is just a state of mind.

This Christmas cactus has stunning fuchia flowers.

This is my first orchid. I have found a lot of conflicting and confusing advice on the Internet about how to care for it, so I hope it will survive my bungling attempts to keep it alive. It seems that there are more species of orchids than there are species of mammals! And they don't seem to need many nutrients - most of the roots are above ground.

These forced crocuses encourage me to think ahead a few months to when they will be poking through the snow and most of winter will be behind us.