Victor - how did I miss that it is your birthday??!!! I wish you the happiest one ever........now I understand your comment about moving out of that range of "older gardeners"........What is this one...46? Not nice to ask, but you know how old the rest of us "post 40s" geezers are, so it's your turn to fess up!!
Seriously, you are very special and you deserve a wonderful birthday!!! Patti, your lobster mission and quiet New Years was cool to hear about, and Booj - I hope 2008 wipes away 2007 and then some!! I thought about you when we stopped at Friendly's close to you on our whirlwind trip from NH to Conn. just before Christmas. We will have to rendez-vous in the Spring!!
OK - now for the admission that I'm about to get my "come-uppance" for all this good gardening weather I've been pushing in your patient faces.....Tomorrow night it is going down to 22 !!!! degrees here!!!!! A record low.......Oh MY!!! I'll have to break into a few neighbors' houses to raid their linen closets for sheets to cover all my plants. (wringing hands)....The last time it was that cold here was in 1963, and I remember it well. My sisters and I put pans of water outside (just 2 streets over from where we are now) and we were so excited to see that it had frozen solid the net morning. I didn't give a flip about all the plants that my Mother was running around fretting over at that age, so now it is coming back to haunt me! Kassia's BESVs are coming along so well, so they will have to be covered up along with all my veggies and new plants and hibiscus.....oh, yikes.......I guess I'll be busy tomorrow. I know, I know....you are all smirking, huh???
Today's Weather in Your Garden - 8
Wow - interesting connection to both of your thoughts, Louise. I am 45 - born in that cold FL year of 1963! Thank you - I appreciate your kind words.
How interesting, Victor! I guess because I consider you quite mature, I gave you an extra year!! LOL 1963 was a great year for me....and for you!! Did you have a great day with your family? What kind of cake???
Ha, Great year for me too, I graduated from HS.
DonnieBrook, go get a mess of bubble wrap at an office supply place to put around and over your plants then lay blankets on top. I think that might help trap the heat from the day. Also throw down some strings of Xmas lights to keep them warm, they must all be on sale everywhere. Don't get those cool lights. Bundle them up early. I sure hope you don't loose too many. It is going to be warmer here. Now can I crow? Patti
Yes, Patti, you can crow! Thanks for the advice......please keep your fingers crossed for my pretty babies! Nothing like a frozen new living fence that's no longer living! LOL! This too shall pass!.......It will, won't it????
Welp, just read that it'll be -15 degrees F here tomorrow night. Just to give you perspective.....
Thanks, Booj - that does keep it in perspective.......you just don't expect to have those temps down here in hot and humid Fla! LOL I guess every 45 years isn't that bad, in the scheme of things!
Yes - great day Louise. Boston creme with chocolate frosting. Kids loved it, of course. Good luck with the chill! Wow, -15, booj?!!
Boston Cream Pie (that's really a cake), Victor? That's delightful.
Too cold, booj! Thank heavens we have central heating.
I hear ya boojum, us too!
Tonight: Partly cloudy skies with gusty winds. Cold. Wind chills approaching -20F. Low -3F. Winds NW at 15 to 25 mph.
Tomorrow: Mostly sunny skies. Very cold. Wind chills approaching -20F. High 9F. Winds NNW at 10 to 20 mph.
Tomorrow night: Partly cloudy. Cold. Low near -5F. Winds WNW at 10 to 15 mph.
It appears to be a nice day to stay inside and work on seed orders. It does not look like snow (yet) as we have high light pink clouds and blue skies which I think are altocumulus ones, but I need to learn my cloud types. What is a good site?
Clear
Temp: 36°F
Humidity: 70%
Wind Speed: WNW 14 mph
Barometer: 29.62 in.
Wind Chill: 27°F
Waning Crescent Moon
Sunrise: 7:06 AM EST
Sunset: 4:21 PM EST
Nantucket Weather Forecast
Today...Partly sunny with a slight chance of snow showers early this morning...Then cloudy with a chance of snow showers this afternoon. Brisk with highs in the upper 30s. Northwest winds 15 to 25 mph. Chance of snow 30 percent.
Tonight...Mostly cloudy with a 30 percent chance of snow showers. Brisk and much cooler with lows around 20. North winds 20 to 25 mph.
Yes, I know this is not "sunny" Florida, but Pixie might like our kind of snow - for today. We had fifteen minutes of swirling flurries and the grass still shows very clearly.
Come on down, Pixie!
Pirl, You can SEE GRASS????? I'm on my way!!!!!!!!!
This is the most that's fallen in weeks. Sorry about that!
Bring the bikini!
My youngest lilac bush is about 5'.8" tall, it's more than half buried already. The good news is that there is no snow in the forecast for the next 7 days!!
BTW, stopped wearing bikini's a feeeeeeeew years ago.
By the time bikinis were "in" I wouldn't have considered it. From what I've seen women have to be 50 pounds overweight to believe they'd look good wearing one.
They should not be made in some sizes like XXXL.
I agree 100%, some people, even skinny ones just don't look good in them. I actually preferred the "boy short" bottoms, felt much safer and covered.
So true!
Now the sun is out but I took this photo for you a few minutes ago:
Goes for men as well! Some people need to stay covered!
Oh, it's lovely! And it's GREEN! Ok, one for you from yesterday.
This is/was my holly bush, the snow is weighing it down. I guess I'll have to give it a good shake.
Agreed Victor, you should see what I see at O.O.B. every year!
Refused to take my girls there when they were younger for that reason.
My poor tree is really getting a whoopping this year.
Happy Perihelion everyone!! Before you say, 'Huh?!', it's the day when the earth is closet to the sun in its orbit. Doesn't that just positively warm you over on this cold day?!
Obviously it has no effect on our temps and is close to winter solstice by coincidence - in just 21,000 years it will occur near summer solstice, if you're keeping track at home. The opposite - called aphelion, when earth is furthest from the sun, will occur on July 4th this year. The difference between furthest and nearest is not that great since the orbit is fairly circular.
Dr. Victor, great new word and information. Dave should pay you for posting factoids of the day. Patti
I think Pirl needs some of the snow the rest of us have!! LOL We'll send some down your way. This was taken earlier this morning! Eleanor
This was taken from the same spot on my deck during the summer!! Some difference! Eleanor
Thanks Patti.
Ooh - good before & after, Eleanor. I've been lucky too. Only about 3 - 4 inches so far.
Pixie and Eleanor: send me some snow! It looks so pretty and, Eleanor, I love both views of your garden.
Thanks for the interesting tidbit, Victor. The geraniums in the kitchen window are reacting to either the Perihelion or the slightly longer days because they're blooming nicely.
Victor gets an A for his word of the day. We just missed the last two snow dumps here and it does not make unhappy but Pixie's snow pics look really familiar. Great before and after Eleanor and look at all the green in Pirl's pic. Today started out upper twenties and has been going down ever since. :( Good brisk wind to help with the bone chilling effect. Mostly cloudy with the sun making a feeble effort every now and then. Really cold blast next two days then Jan thaw maybe? :)
On the noon news on radio they said New Hampshire has broken all snowfall records for the last 100 years. I hope Louise is relishing any warmth she's getting in "sunny Florida".
I heard on the radio this morning that we had 41 inches of snow in December, but our average is 17 inches. Most of it has already come and gone.
Thanks everyone and the rate we're going this winter we should have lots of snow pics for pirl. Might lose some of it this weekend with a high in the 50's though!! Eleanor
I can hardly wait!
First, Victor - My favorite cake is Boston cream pie! My, My....what a yummy choice! It is also my son's favorite! And thanks for the interesting Perihelion info! Maybe that's why we are having the record-breaking temps in the 20s tonight! Here's a shot of how I spent the afternoon covering everything in sight.
Seriously, it is a big problem down here that may affect us all. We just saw a news piece on how this area of the country provides a large percentage of winter vegetables across the country, and the concern over the freezing temps tonight may cause a wide-spread spike in vegetable prices. The next story was about how the horticulturists at the Thomas Edison estate (just a couple miles down the street from us) are working frantically to cover all the rare plants that were propagated by Edison when he was researching how to make rubber from plants.
Move over, Pirl.......I'm heading to your house for some warm R & R from the freezing south!! LOL
...and here are my lovely green beans that are at peak production right now......
Didn't you move away from the cold, and don't you have crime problems? - I could climb right through that window.
Looks like Halloween there.
And you have a sheet to throw over your head, Al. Good luck with the temps, Louise!
Al - you have my number!! Now that you mention it, that is the window the creeps climbed through in August! LOL But Now, as of this morning, we are the proud and intimidated owners of a burglar alarm system. Please cross all of your collective fingers that we don't exceed our allotted 2 phone calls to the sheriff's office for false alarms by tomorrow morning! If you press the panic buttom on the key fob, it bypasses the monitoring service and goes straight to the cops that haven't caught our crooks yet.
Al - so you think my whining about the temps and the crime doesn't make me a good candidate for the Florida Chamber of Commerce or the Tourism Bureau?????? I was considering part-time work, but maybe not.....I'm starting to get the hang of using fine linens to cover tropical plants, so I'm thinking maybe I'll go after a job at Tom Edison's house.......
Victor - thanks for the good wishes....I'm trying to sound casual about it all, but I really don't want to lose all the plants we've nurtured along so far!
Of course you don't want to lose your plants, Louise! It wouldn't be normal to grow them only to trash them. I hope it all works in your favor and every plant survives the cold.
If it's a motion detection system Al could climb through the window but he'd wet his pants when the alarm goes off, generally about 10 seconds. The sheriff only would get a call if the alarm wasn't turned off ASAP. It's when it goes off and you're not home that they arrive. We have the keys that bypass the system, too, and have never had to use them.
For all the many times we've left the house with one of the several doors wide open we've never had a problem, even over long weekends.
DonnieBrook, I went to a HS called Thomas Edison and DH and I went to the Christmas display in 2006 in Fort Myers at the Edison/Ford estate. I was fascinated at the lovely simplicity of the homes. Twas a far cry from some of the silly opulence now being built today which is just tacky and could house an army. It would be such a shame if some of TAE plants were lost. It is an amazing tropical collection. Of course I love seeing the Banyan tree that he planted in the 20's that was a gift Firestone. Now that's a TREE. So much history in that one spot. Best with the freeze and your plants. Patti
Encouraging to hear, Pirl! We were successful in using the system last night and this morning, but they had to come this afternoon because of some flukey problem in the guest room that we didn't cause. Whew! I must admit that I do feel safer now. The home invasions are the things that really make me nervous. There are just too many happening near us.
We fared pretty well with the plants that we were able to cover.....at least it looks that way so far. I lost a sanguinaria that I forgot to cover, and strangely, the middle part of the BESV that I planted from Kassia's seeds, didn't look good this morning. Here is a shot of the thermometer outside our sunroom when we got up this morning. The wind chill was in the teens....so many records broken. I was so relieved to hear that all the work the farmers put in covering the vegetables paid off. Because the low dew point kept the frost risk low, we were all lucky in our pocketbooks!
Patti - I completely agree about the Edison and Ford homes. They are really a nice scale and the gardens are fantastic with so many unique and unusual plants. It's well worth the visit! They light all of those trees and plants with white lights at Christmas, so the drive down the boulevard is really pretty. I grew up on McGregor Boulevard, and it is still the road of choice for us here. It's one of the few that aren't 4 - 6 lanes, and it is lined with the royal palms that Edison had planted for miles. The town used to be a small town, but it has "gotten too big for its britches" as my Grandmother used to say. LOL
