Friday Flowers Returns: "Winter Whites"

I know it's been ages since I posted a few Friday Flowers, but I thought it's time to start up again.

When I was working in my backyard last weekend (pulling weeds and neating up all the dead stuff) I uncovered a few patches of white violets shyly blooming underneath the shelter of larger plants:

I was surprised to see them because the blue violets are all sleeping and nothing but their stubs are visible, waiting for true spring to arrive. So this little white flower was a delightful surprise:

And even winter foliage can be lovely to look at this time of year. Aren't these pink-edged ivy leaves lovely?

And even when the garden is "sleeping" there are all sorts of interesting patterns that can be found if you look around a bit...

In another part of the garden, here is the first camillia to bloom - it's a new "yellow" camillia (even though it's really a pale cream) - that I bought with great excitement last year in a small nursery a bit further north in Ukiah (Northern California). It's suddenly sporting lots of small flowers with rather floppy and ragged petals:

Their fuzzy yellow centers are still hiding, but will probably reveal themselves in the next few days...

I hope you are all enjoying your winter gardens, wherever you live... and of course, getting plenty of stitching done, too. Happy Friday!