The equinox has not arrived yet, but today I felt seasonal change as I finished fall chores and started on winter ones.  We had snow on the ground yesterday, so bulb-planting season is officially over.  There were a few assorted spring-flowering bulbs lying forgotten in the garage, so I gathered them together and potted them up.  I used one large pot and planted them in layers--tulips on the lowest level, miniature irises on the middle level and tiny little chiondoxa closest to the soil surface.  The pot will stay in a protected area on the back porch.  Come spring I hope all those bulbs will burst into glorious bloom. 

Right after bulb planting, I brought the dormant amaryllis up from their resting place in the cellar.  They certainly look awful, with the long, shriveled remains of leaves still attached to the bulbs.  It was only when I trimmed away all of that desiccated material that I noticed the green tips of new growth sprouting from a couple of the bulbs.  I put the three pots of amaryllis in a reproduction copper boiler that I found in one of my neighbors' bulk pick-up piles, added water and put the boiler in my sunny dining room window.  The bulbs should bloom in mid-January, just about the right time for an infusion of light and color.