afternoon sun in the winter

It's been crazy cold here the last few days (overnight low last night was 21 degF!). But there are no clouds, rain, or snow, and it looks really nice outside, especially in the late afternoon, when I took these pictures:

Vitex agnus-castus, with its dried seeds that look like pepper

 The sky looks so blue in that picture... you'd almost think it was warm!

Pennisetum setaceum 'Rubrum', these grew from little 4-inch pots this year!

 I really should cut the grasses down, but I'm hoping that leaving them big might help them overwinter. We're supposed to be Zone 9A, but apparently they forgot to tell the winters that. We'll see how these guys do in the spring.

Hesperaloe parviflora seed pods

I think that the seed pods look cool, and I leave them on for as long as possible.Most of these have burst and spread little black seeds everywhere.

Even though its been cold, here is another sign that Spring will be coming, eventually:

Sedum starting to peek out of the ground

These didn't do so well for me last year, but that might have been the watermelon that grew all over them (and attracted aphids). I was worried I had killed them completely, but maybe not.