roses in december and other oddities

This week we finally entered our usual weather pattern for this time of year of torrential downpours and flood warnings.  Prior to that we had about ten days where it never made it out of the 40’s and many days, the 30’s.  Remember this?  Unusually cold weather is what makes scenes like the following even more unusual . . .

A rosebud that is slowly but surely opening a little more each day.

I was thrilled with these red primroses that bloomed just before Christmas.  I banned the kids from picking them.  A few days later pink ones appeared beside them.

Then, as I walked by today, I noticed that the pink flowers had met an untimely demise at the hands of an old foe.  Are you kidding me, slugs in December?
At least the chipmunks have finally decided to hibernate—or so it seems.  I haven’t seen them monopolizing the bird feeder for the past week.
Maybe there is still time to plant that garlic I was supposed to plant in October?!?