Cakes are a symbol of celebration. We make cakes for celebrating birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, a New Year's day, and many more joyous events in our lives. It is fun to add a little personal style to your cake to make it that much more special.

In your shopping adventures look for cake stands that have a little character. If a cake stand has an edge that lends itself to a beautiful ribbon, you can find wonderful and colorful ribbons to thread around your cake stand. I have seen milk glass* cake stands with lots of panache, and lace edges for decoration. I especially like ribbons that have words on it such as, "Happy Birthday", "Enjoy the Little Things", or Lemon Meringue. Whatever you do, be sure and match your ribbon to the season and occasion of your cake.

For instance, if you are making a Halloween Cake, thread an orange ribbon with black polka dots around your cake. If you are having a Fourth of July celebration, why not dress up your cake stand with a ribbon with red, white, and blue stars and stripes. In the above photo, for the holidays this year, I used a festive red and green "Happy Holidays" ribbon.

Cake stands come in many different materials, forms, shapes, and sizes. Use your imagination. All you need is a level surface to hold your size cake, and stability for cutting slices. Use a doily, or anything decorative, and food safe to make a nice setting for placing your cake on.

Don't forget a wonderful garnish for your cake. Take your cue from the recipe you are following. Garnish either on top of your cake, sometimes along the sides, or along the bottom edge of your cake. While a garnish is important, remember "less is more", works best for a cake. You want your finished cake to be visually appealing as well as attractive to eat.

If it is winter or holiday time, confectioners sugar, white icing, and coconut flakes look like snow. Always try and use an icing or some sort of garnish on your cake. It will create a "finished appearance". Chopped nuts, candy, edible flowers, snipped herb tips, and even fruit are nice to use as garnish. You can even decorate with colored icings to create different textures, patterns, and custom looks.

Your friends and family will certainly appreciate your added flair to your home baked cakes. Who knows, you might even peak curiosity from the four-legged members in your family, too.

Happy New Year! Wishing you all the best in 2009!

-Glossary- *Milk glass: Semi-translucent glass whitened by the addition of various ingredients. Popular in glassware in previous decades.

Wintertime has it's own beauty and purpose in the garden. The leaves have fallen. The rains have arrived. The temperature has dropped. The days are shorter. Mother nature is preparing for a deep rest and dormancy in the garden. Our gardens shut down to replenish themselves for that dramatic burst of energy, we call Spring and the continuing year ahead.

As gardeners, it is a great time of the year to see our gardens in a new perspective. With leaves fallen, blooms cut, plants trimmed back, we can easily see the architectural structure and "bones" of our gardens. In places where there is snow, and ice, a painting of wintry landscape emerges. There is something very ethereal about the garden at this time. Just like the other seasons, Winter has it's own beauty and mood.

Take the time to observe your garden carefully. It is a time to be especially grateful for your garden, what the garden gives back to you and your spirit. Be grateful of your garden's bounty throughout the year. Is it pretty fresh cut flowers every week for your home. Incredibly tasty fresh fruit and vegetables to cook and bake with for your family and friends. The kinship of garden friends that share your same passion. The connection with Mother Earth.

It is the time to contemplate your garden. A time to make any changes if needed. What you like about it. What you don't. What is not doing well in a location. What needs to be added. What would you like to do, if you had no constraints.

It is a planning time. It is a time to catch your breath after the holidays, before we are once again busy in the garden and mother nature wakes up from her brief repose. Take time for yourself, and read your new garden books from the holidays. Find your magazine articles you have clipped out and saved, but haven't had a chance to read. Make a pot of tea, sit by the fire, and pour over your new seed catalogs that have wonderful new selections of vegetables to be grown. Create a "To Do List" which might include checking and sharpening your garden tools, or what might need to be purchased to be ready for Spring. Perhaps, it is a time to reflect, study and plan the new direction you might want to take your garden.

Embrace your garden in the Winter, it is a time of beauty and peace.

Have you ever had the desire to be somewhere entirely different other than snuggled at home for Christmas? It would have to be some place spectacular. It would have to be some place so beautiful, your life would be transformed for a few days, and it's memory would last a lifetime. It would have to be some place so magical, you could forgo your traditional holiday just once, in return for an unforgettable time. Chances are you could bring your loved one(s) with you, too, be it your beloved husband, sweet children, close mom, or cherished friend. Have you thought about visiting Paris at Christmas time?

Paris, one of the most beautiful and elegant cities of the world, especially sparkles at Christmas time. Trees lining both sides of the Champs D'Elysee are lit up with tiny white lights the entire length from the Place de la Concorde to the Arc de Triumph. The Eiffel Tower is a shimmering tower of sparkle, just like a Christmas tree. Everywhere it is decorated. The large department stores on blvd. Haussmann have magnificent Christmas window displays which can entice you for hours. The design couture houses like Dior, Chanel, Pierre Cardin, and others window showcase elegant evening attire for the holiday season. Paris can be dusted with a light snow at Christmas time, but more often it is a bit chilly and windy. It is a very joyous time to be in Paris.

Whether it is your first time to Paris, or you've stopped counting, you can customize your own itinerary. There is a Paris for art lovers, history buffs, heavy-duty shoppers, children, jazz fans, foodies, or should I say, Paris has something for everyone. For those of you who do not travel with an intinerary, just being in Paris, and experiencing it by simply walking along the Seine, exploring little streets, window shopping, people watching, or reading in a nearby cafe, is enough to be moved.

For almost 15 centuries, the French have celebrated Christmas. It is celebrated throughout France, like no other holiday. It is celebrated in slightly different ways and traditions amongst it's different regions. If you are traveling to France during the holidays, read up on some of their fascinating Christmas customs, songs, traditions, stories such as "The Three Masses" by Alphonse Daudet, "The Little Juggler" legend, and for us gardeners, "The Christmas Rose" legend.

There are over 300 churches in Paris alone. Christmas Eve begins with midnight Masses. After Mass, Parisians head home, or to a favorite restaurant for one of their grandest meals of the year, the jubilant "reveillon" to feast over many courses with friends and families. It is a very festive dinner and similiar to our New Year's Eve celebration. It is also the night that French children go to sleep, and anxiously wait for slender Pere Noel (Father Christmas) and his donkey to come and fill their shoes with gifts placed near their hearth or Christmas tree.

Some Christmas tidbits or gifts ideas, that I would like to share with you while you are in Paris:

1) Angelina Tea Salon for the "best hot chocolate" in the world. While you are there, you must further indulge and have a piece of their Mont Blanc cake, made with chestnut puree and cream. 226 Rue de Rivoli, Metro: Tuileries.

2) Maille Mustard. Place de Madeleine. Metro: Madeleine. Fabulous retail location for the famous 200+ year old mustard company. You can buy it fresh from their spicket (keg), or any of their packaged "mustard du jour" selections. Makes a great gift. Caution, there are long lines during the holidays. Place de Madeleine is a foodie's paradise. Besides, Maille Mustard there are specialty shops for truffles, caviar, and handmade chocolates close by.

3) Catherine, a fabulous discount duty-free store for perfume, make up, and beauty products. 7 rue Castilgione, Metro: Concorde. Small shop with lots of charm, and personal help in finding your next "sensational" perfume.

4) Louvre Museum Gift Shop. We all know about the Musee du Louvre art museum, but don't overlook their fabulous gift shop, especially around the holidays. There is even a separate gift shop for children full of puzzles, games, and fun things. 99 rue de Rivoli, Metro: Palais Royal, Musee du Louvre.

5) Hotel Ambassador's Lobby Art Deco Bar. Wonderful hotel and lobby bar with origins from the 1920's, beautifully restored in 2002. Great place to rendez-vous, or relax with a glass of French champagne after a hard day shopping the grand department stores along blvd. Haussman. 16, blvd. Haussmann. Metro: Chausee d'Antin or Richelieu Drout.

Joyeux Noel, everyone! Perhaps you will consider Paris at Chrismas time next year.

(I apologize for not being able to put in accents, etc on the French words. I do not have a French keyboard).

Creative Repurposing Makes for Great Vintage Garden Accessory Ideas

1. Search for wonderful vintage iron bed frame ends, and secure them in your garden as a support for a heirloom tomatoes, climbing beans, or an over zealous blooming leek.

2. An old rusty pail is perfect for forcing rhubarb. Remove the bottom of the pail, place widest end in the ground around a bare root rhubarb plant. As plant grows and matures, rhubarb stalks stretch for the light, growing long straight stalks that are off of the ground.

3. Secure an upright vintage apple picker tool in your garden. Plant a flowering vine such as a clematis at the base of it, and turn the top-cupped portion into a small bird feeder.

4. A child's size vintage iron bed frame end, turned upside down and hinged on one side makes for an interesting gate and entrance to your garden.

5. Plant an old metal oil funnel with something small such as succulents, violas, and place in an old single bedspring for a holder.

6. Use a vintage carpenter's tool tote, with different compartments as your seed organizer. Keep in a dry place.

7. Find a vintage garden gate or vintage sheet of decorative wire, and hang horizontally from the ceiling of your tool, potting, or storage shed, and use for drying your favorite herbs or flowers.

8. An old iron pulley wheel, or vintage ice tongs create an interesting way to hang a flowering basket of color, such as salmon-colored trailing geraniums.

9. A vintage horse muzzle can be transformed into a splash of color, when lined with moss, potting soil added, and planted with your favorite lobelia.

10. Long-handled vintage garden tools, secured together with wire, can be shaped into a distinctive and whimsical archway for your garden or favorite pathway. Plant with purple runner beans or your favorite morning glory.

11. Vintage plant stands make interesting and perfect gazing ball pedestals in your garden.

12. Find a beautiful vintage garden tool with character and patina, mount it to the door of your chicken coop, or potting shed, and use as a handle.

This year I wanted to buy a live "green" tree for our holiday season. I thought it would be wonderful to have a live tree in the living room for the holidays. I could nurture and care for this tree throughout the year, and bring it inside in December, for an intimate few weeks. There is something so special about having a live tree inside your home. This evergreen beauty exudes the holiday season. Just look at the captivating shadows it leaves on a wall, in the photo.

I stumbled across this potted Oriental Spruce, Picea orientalis "Atrovirens" grown by the wholesale nursery brand, Monrovia, www.monrovia.com at Green Gardens Nursery, 4910 Cass St., San Diego, CA, 92109, Pacific Beach area, (858) 483-7546. This is truly a wonderful little nursery chock full of unusual plants for the holiday season, and throughout the year. You can find unusual tabletop topiaries, live christmas trees, hollies, garlands, and much more to accent your home and garden.

This beautiful Oriental Spruce reminds me of the Noble Fir tree in appearance. It is a slow grower, and ideal for keeping in a pot or container outside throughout the year, and bringing inside for a few weeks. It has dark green shiny needles, and grows in a pyramidal form which is fully branched to the base. It likes to be watered regularly when the top 3" of soil is dry. Be aware, however, if you ever plant this tree in the ground with optimum growing conditions it can reach 60-80 feet high and 20-30 feet wide. It does best in zones 2-8.

The Oriental Spruce came in a 3.6 gallon sized pot. I took it home and transplanted it into a slightly larger container that drained and had a saucer. Before transferring it to it's new container I did a little preparation. This Oriental Spruce was incredibly root bound, so I loosened the roots a bit, scored the entire root ball, and gave it a good drink letting it soak in a tub of water. I placed my newly potted spruce into a beautiful copper patina bucket to bring inside. The Oriental Spruce is so pretty, I am going to decorate simply with a single strand of tiny white lights. It needs nothing else.

Buying a live ornamental tree such as the Oriental Spruce is an investment, at least 2-3 times more expensive than a cut tree, maybe more depending on the tree. It is a worthwhile investment. One, you have a year-round tree. Two, you have an exceptional tree for the holidays. Three, you are being green, and kind to the environment. After the holidays, you don't have to dispose of it, recycling it with the garbage. Live trees are generally smaller in size, than cut Christmas trees. This Oriental Spruce will fit beautifully in our living room, and it won't be out of scale in size either.

The beauty of this tree and it's simplicity, reminds me to embrace "the spirit of the holidays", and seek other ways to be holiday green this season.

My mom who is a Master Gardener in Missouri, during her last visit here introduced me to the perennial, Lotus Maculatus, Gold Flash. It is a great trailing plant for a pot or even ground cover. It has dense green foliage and large beak-shaped yellow orange flowers. It also comes in a bright orange-red colored version called Amazon Sunset. The Lotus averages 3-6" high and 36-72" wide (trailing). It will do well in full sun or partial shade. It likes regular water, in fact I water it every day, when I am tending to my chickens. There are two more species of Lotus, Berthelotii (Parrot's Beak) and Corniculatus (Bird's Foot Trefoil). Zones vary by species.

This particular Lotus Gold Flash was planted within a draining pot, that fits within the rim of the vintage tall chicken feeder. Vintage chicken feeders are so much fun to pot up, and have so much character. One can usually find them for a reasonable price, the more rust the better the character, and they look great potted. This is a very tall chicken feeder, the only one I have ever seen, that a dear friend and fellow chicken aficionado gave me.

In time, the Lotus Gold Flash has beautifully cascaded over the top. In the shallow bottom rim, where chickens would normally be pecking for feed, I have planted Echeveria perennial succulents around the base. Echeveria require less water than the Lotus, and also planted in a shallow rim will stay on the dry side. The colors of the Lotus foliage and the Echeveria mirror each other nicely. These two plant types are a great complement to the tall chicken feeder. My little vintage hen statuary likes her potted vintage chicken feeder so much, she is staying close by.

I call them knock-out kumquats because they pack a 1-2-3 punch!  Kumquats are delightful to eat, are the most ornamental of all citrus trees in your garden, and are known for their decorative quality as a garnish or an addition to a pretty table decoration, especially around the holidays.

1) Kumquats taste as good as they look. The name kumquat, means "gold citrus fruit" in Cantonese. Part of the citrus family, their fruit is a bright orange, oval in shape, and about the size of a really large grape. The fruit is eaten whole, peel and all. To add even more charm to this golden fruit, the skin is the sweet part and the flesh is the tart. Kumquats can be used easily in sweet and savory recipes alike. They are wonderful in salads, chutneys and dressings over grilled meats, relish, candied sweets, and sweet breads.

2) Kumquat season is November to May, perfect timing to use as garnish around your oven- roasted turkey. They have a deep green foliage, which provides a striking contrast to their bright orange fruit. Trim small branches of leaves and fruit off of your tree. These small branches actually remind me of a laurel wreath. Decorative ideas are as easy as creating a candle and leaves combination across your fireplace mantle, mix with whole nuts, dried gourds, minature white and Jack Be Little pumpkins* in a pretty tabletop decoration, or as a wreath around your holiday dish. Your eye naturally gravitates to these beautiful small fruit and contrasting leaves.

3) Besides the fruit, the kumquat tree is striking in a garden. It has large, fragrant white blossoms, beautiful bright orange fruit, and the dark evergreen foliage. These trees are a knock-out in container pots on a sunny patio, or as topiaries, my favorite, framing an entrance. There are three kumquat varieties for the home gardener, Meiwa, Nagami, and Fukushu. The Nagami is the most common and popular. The average height for these trees is fifteen feet, and four to five feet for the dwarf. Kumquats like full sun, and moderate watering once established. Kumquats are the one of the most cold hardy of the citrus. Local nurseries should have kumquat trees in stock, or they can be ordered for you, this time of year.

Glossary *Jack Be Little Pumpkin, a delightful minature pumpkin perfect for decorations and lots of fun for children.

Storybook Napa Valley is a perfect time of year to visit in November. The hustle bustle of harvest time is over. The grapes have begun their journey from juice to fermentation to barrel. The grapevines are turning beautiful fall colors and preparing to drop their leaves and go dormant for the winter. It is a slower pace, and the locals seem to be catching their breath. Highway 29 (St. Helena Highway), the two lane highway which runs North to South through the heart of Napa Valley can seem downright desolate.

I like to stay in Rutherford, off of Highway 29, located in about the middle of the valley at Rancho Caymus at 1140 Rutherford Rd., Rutherford, CA 94573 (tel) (800) 695-8284. www.ranchocaymus.com. It is an Early Spanish California style B&B with 26 rooms/suites which open to an enchanting outdoor garden courtyard.

There are so many wonderful and interesting vineyards and wineries in the immediate area, it is really hard to narrow which ones to visit. I will give you three of my favorites, for three very garden-related reasons:

1) Peju Province Vineyard is a stone's throw from the Rancho Caymus, south on Highway 29. It is like stepping into the French countryside with it's Mediterranean-style garden and, and curved Sycamore trees welcoming you to it's French Provincial tasting room. Tony Peju was a commercial landscape designer with a nursery and flower business in Los Angeles, before he and his wife, Herta, relocated in 1982 to Rutherford on 30 acres, and created their winery and surrounding garden. Peju Province is open daily 10am-6pm, 8466 St. Helena Highway, (707) 963-3600, www.pejuprovince.com.

2) Cakebread Cellars is a little further south on Highway 29 from Peju Province Vineyard. Jack and Dolores Cakebread since 1973, have been one of the most creative and successful winery families in Napa Valley. Delores is famous for her huge organic kitchen garden, which is to the left of the wine tasting entrance. All tastings and tours are by prior appointment. Cakebread Cellars, 8300 St. Helena Highway, (800) 588-0298, www.cakebread.com.

3) Shafer Vineyards is tucked away over on the Silverado Trail in the Stags Leap District, so you will have to head east and cross over the valley floor to the other side of Napa Valley. All tastings are by prior appointment (I recommend inquiring at least a month in advance), and give you specific directions to their winery at that time. John Shafer, Founder, and his son, Doug Shafer, President, and Elias Fernandez, Winemaker are the individuals responsible for Shafer Vineyards becoming "one of the world's greatest wineries", according to Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Not only is Shafer Vineyard's wine outstanding, but their organic practices are too! They are 100% solar powered, reuse and recycle their own water, encourage owls and hawks in their ecosystem, plant cover crops for the health of their vines, and are continuing to lead in the forefront of sustainable agriculture. www.shafervineyards.com

Favorite Breakfast: Gordon's Cafe & Wine Bar, 6770 Washington St. Yountville, CA 94599, (707) 944-8246. Favorite Lunch: Oakville Grocery Napa Valley, www.oakvillegrocery.com, (707) 944-8802. Favorite Dinner: Bouchon Bistro, 6534 Washington St., Yountville, www.bouchonbistro.com, (707) 944-8037.