You Would Not Believe Without The Pictures

The above were  taken this morning outside my porch door.
In Canada, snapdragons are annuals. 
In my little side garden they seed themselves and proliferate. They are against the wall of the porch, under eaves longer and lower than they  need to be. 
The frame of the porch was built by Number Two son when he was seventeen. 
It went without a roof for some years. But  it had  panels of trellis enclosing it.
After an interval of  years,Number Three son decided he would go to  university  and approached me with a deal
He would enclose the porch with windows and walls in return for  first year's fees. 
I never gave  money. I never loaned money. I paid for something in return. 
He undertook a substantial foundation. Three of the windows were thermo panes from the sitting room which  I replaced with a double hung unit. The porch is cedar clad inside and out and insulated..
The sideyard is enclosed with an eight foot high cedar hedge.
Plants continue to grow and bloom long past the norm.
This year the pink hydrangea grew above four feet and several beautiful  flowers bloomed. In England , purple,blue and pink hydrangeas  grow to the height of a house.
Mt grandson Keenan just came back from a mini tour.Tells me they are still gardening over  there. 
My daughter Heather fills an urn with Christmas greenery every year.
This year she added two urns at each side of the porch door. My neighbours, Bert and Helga Fisher saved some curly canes from their garden  for Heather  to add to the arrangement.
The urns at the side door are filled with evergreens, glossy  euonymous leaves, orange berries from a massive vine that I tried  for years and years to kill. Now it reaches out to snatch at anyone who comes close.
Fat white snow berries formed huge clusters  this year on a shrub I planted  forty years ago without knowing  what it was.
Everything in the urns except for the curly canes was gathered from my own garden.
It continues to  amaze  me .