Category Archives: Mother Nature

March 6, 2017 · 12:14 pm

Severe Weather – Take 2

Right now there is a pretty stiff wind, dark clouds, etc., but nothing severe. Forecast for this afternoon and tonight, though, is severe weather – again – with damaging winds, rain, possible tornadoes, and flying hair balls. This is our usual weather for April, and then through the hot, hot summer – NOT March.

**MONDAY IS A WEATHER ALERT DAY**

Pet Pals Dog Training

We called our friends, cancelling the usual Monday bowling. We don’t need to be 45 minutes away from home in a large, warehouse-type building with the truck out in the weather, hoping nothing bad happens. I would be much happier in our home, with our animals around us, hoping nothing bad happens. :0)

Our dogs and cats are pretty oblivious to the weather, thankfully. Our sweet pit bull, Bambi, is old and deaf. He doesn’t even hear LOUD thunder. Our schnauzer/cocker spaniel cross, Molly, is her usual happy self, even if we have loud cracks. The cats sleep through everything. I’M the one whose nerves are on end with lots of wind noises, loud cracks and big booms of thunder. I tie up our wind chimes because they drive me nuts in weather like this.

We still have a shutter that blew down during the last severe thunderstorm. We’ve fixed the rest of the minor things that happened, but it has been too windy for my husband to be up on a two-story ladder, trying to keep balanced while trying to put the shutter up again. We think we’ll have to use liquid nails this time because there isn’t much in the brick to “screw-into” anymore. I tried to get my husband to agree that we would hire someone to do this, to no avail. We may have more than the one shutter after tonight…

It’s another good day to stay home and be thankful for our warm, dry house.

If you’re having iffy weather where you are, stay warm and safe.

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Filed under Arkansas, Challenges, Mother Nature

March 4, 2017 · 4:47 pm

Iris and Daffodils

I brought these in today. We have deep purple twice-blooming iris and daffodils blooming in the yard right now. Every time I come into the kitchen, my spirits lift.

Spring is such a wonderful time of the year with the return of beloved flowers that bloom year after year, bringing hope for a new birth of all living things.

Soon these will be gone, but other sprouts are up, promising more beauty to come.

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March 4, 2017 · 1:00 pm

“Lavender”

“Lavender” – Paul Militaru Photography

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March 1, 2017 · 1:24 pm

Storm Aftermath

Protocol Online

We lucked out, not having much damage from really bad thunderstorms here early this morning.

I was afraid we would have lots of limbs/trees in the driveway, possible roof damage on the house or shop, damage or the whole roof blown off the deck, etc.

Happily enough, our damage was minor.

One of the windows in our dining area blew open, carrying half of the stuff on the window sill with it. Apparently, we forgot to LATCH the window the last time we washed it. I had Mel’s Mix all over the floor, a smashed ceramic planter, my spinach sprouts, some of the celery plants, the spaghetti squash sprout, and more. I’ve repotted what I could. I’ll have to start over on the spinach. Happily, the glass table in the dining area was fine, and we had no water damage – just a bunch to clean up on the floor.
One of the window shutters fell off from the second floor. We’ll have to wait for a less windy day to try to put that back up.
The 50 gallon plastic barrels we had beside the shop had blown all over the place. We rounded them up.
The trash cans in the garden had blown over. The fence around the garden kept them from blowing away. I gathered them up and put them to rights.
And – finally – we drove down the driveway to do errands and found our robot (all 200 lbs of him) had blown over! We took off his head and the arm that holds hit hat while we labored to stand him up again. It was quite a job. We put the heavy chain back around his neck, and put his arm and head back on. His hat was damaged a bit and his antenna on his head was broken, but other than that, he was fine.

We had to go back up to the house to wash our hands before we could go do our errands. We saw a couple of downed large trees on the way to town, plus a basketball set up that was blown across a yard, but that’s all the damage we saw.

We feel lucky to have had so little problem from a large storm.

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February 27, 2017 · 1:28 pm

“New Spring Shoots”

Vish Prasad

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Tagged as "New Spring Shoots" - Vish Prasad, wonderful spring photos

February 23, 2017 · 1:13 pm

Sproing!

Spring has definitely sprung here in Greenwood, Arkansas. Accordingly, since a lot of things are blooming, we’re due for a hard freeze both Saturday and Sunday, probably killing everything. :0(

Our daffodils are abloom all over the yard, more lush than I’ve ever seen them. Here are a few examples –

Our tulip tree is abloom, as well.

We’ve also had several purple iris blooming. Here’s one that’s gorgeous this morning –

Mother Nature sometimes has a nasty sense of humor, particularly in Arkansas. I’m hoping that these sweet plants – plus my Georgia Sweet Onion sets – will survive the hard freezes this weekend. If not, we have at least gotten to enjoy them for a bit.

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Tagged as daffodils, Mother Nature's nasty sense of humor, spring has sprung - but hard freezes this weekend, tulip tree, twice blooming purple iris

February 17, 2017 · 11:52 am

Spring is Coming!

Joep van Rheenen via Akiva Huber

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February 16, 2017 · 1:15 pm

Official Start of Growing Season in Arkansas 2017

I just finished working in the garden for the moment. I planted the bunch of Sweet Georgia Onions we bought recently. Here you can see crop rotation, as it is in square foot gardening – You don’t plant the same plant side by side. It would actually be better if I didn’t plant them cat-i-corner to each other, too, so they’re less likely to spread disease or bugs. I keep track of where I’ve planted things so that I don’t plant them in the same squares NEXT time.

You can also see the irrigation system. We have a sprinkler mounted in the center of each box, attached to each other and then attached to the main hose. We have them hooked to an outside above the ground faucet on which we have a timer so that the plants are watered each night during the main season. It isn’t hooked up now, due to possible freeze, so I just watered by hand today.

This is another view of the raised bed garden we finished in the fall. There are six 4′ x 4′ wooden boxes (two rows of three boxes each) mounted on metal support ‘tables.’ We use string to divide each wooden box of Mel’s Mix into 16 squares. I planted the sweet onions in 8 of the 16 squares in this box today. I can’t describe what a pleasure it is to simply walk into the garden, putting the plants and the implements needed on top of a square, then planting things at chest height, not having to bend over double, till the soil, try to get all the weeds out for planting, then get down on hands and knees to plant, and then finally water.

We decided last year I was definitely too old to do all that anymore. We built the boxes and the supports, then stored them beside the shop under tarps until the spring garden was finished. I went ahead and planted the fall garden on the ground as usual and we installed the new raised bed boxes on the side of the garden that wasn’t being used. When the fall garden finished, we installed the last three boxes.

Today we strung the string on the three newest boxes. I need to mix and add more Mel’s Mix (1/3 peat moss, 1/3 vermiculite, and 1/3 equal parts of however many compost types you can find. – I used cotton burr, barnyard, and mushroom.) Then the whole garden will be ready to plant when the danger of frost has passed. In the above picture, you can see the trash cans beside the shop where I keep the components of Mels Mix ready to put together.

Meanwhile, fingers are crossed for these sweet onions, even though our average last frost date is April 10th…

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Tagged as going to raised bed square foot gardening, planting Sweet Georgia Onion sets, square foot gardening

February 14, 2017 · 12:31 pm

Hooray! It’s Raining!

Heflin – Open Image Studio

It’s 43 degrees, gray, and raining. Just beautiful!

We have been flirting with getting rain for several weeks now. It always bypassed us, and we need rain badly. Today I woke up to lots of wonderful rain!

The dogs were not as appreciative as I shooed them out the door to take care of business. I’ve done that several times today, since they stay out approximately 30 seconds and then start barking to get back in. :0)

I took my umbrella and walked around it in a bit. Our yard is really soaked – something it really needed.

When this dries up a bit – maybe tomorrow or the next day – I’ll spread the “Weed and Feed” granules we got from Yeagers. I’ll also spread more grass seed, as the moles, voles, and other ‘oles’ have tunneled all over the place dislodging our nice grass and making a mess.

I hope the weather in your part of the world is to your liking today.

I wish I had some cute boots like the little girl in the pictures….

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Tagged as Mother Nature, playing in the rain, we finally have rain!!!!

January 16, 2017 · 11:22 am

Beautiful Morning

It was really foggy earlier this morning, but I tried to catch how beautiful the morning was so I could share it with you.

We got some rain overnight, and it’s supposed to be rainy this morning, but it’s just wet with really nice clouds between one ridge line and the next.

This view is really calming. It’s very quiet right now, and we can pretend it all belongs to us. As far as I’m concerned, if I can SEE it, I can claim it as ‘mine.’ :0)

These photos are all taken from our deck, facing in different directions.

I love the way the clouds form kind of a roll between the ridge lines – like a roll of cotton.

Mother Nature is being good to us today, putting on a really nice show.

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January 6, 2017 · 10:38 am

Snow Day

This is my new hat, purchased at the hardware store yesterday, and worn with pleasure today, while putting new suet and feed in one of the bird feeders on the deck this morning. I’m also thankful for my new boots with Thinsulate and rubber on the soles and toe. It’s 17 degrees in Greenwood, Arkansas right now. High is supposed to be 25, with 11 tomorrow morning. The public schools are closed, due to road conditions.

Happily, we don’t have to negotiate the bad roads to get to work! We got 2 – 3 inches of snow overnight. It’s not supposed to melt during the day, though it IS melting a bit on our sidewalks and driveway pad, due to the fact the temperatures didn’t plunge until a couple of days ago.

My husband said we could make it to Lunch Bunch, but I enjoy the option of not having to drive in it, unless we have to. When I called one of my Lunch Bunch friends, she said that she and our other friend didn’t want to get out in it, either.

Our son, who lives and works in Thailand now, asked me to take pics if it snowed so he could show them to his Thai pals, knowing they’ll be amazed. He said, “Thai people are bundled up against this ARCTIC BLASTWAVE, temperatures PLUNGING, sometimes the daily high is NOT EVEN 80°.” :0)

I’ve enjoyed walking around (carefully) in it today. I’ll probably go out again this afternoon to appreciate the crisp, cold air, the slight breeze, the hint of sunshine, and the fact that I can come back into a warm, dry house when I’m finished appreciating Mother Nature.

I’ve switched gears to working from my INSIDE list today, happy I can practice my yoga in the comfort of my living room this afternoon.

This is a complex of three (I think) evergreens that are a boarding house for MANY birds. A bunch of them are already enjoying the black oil sunflower seeds and two fresh packets of suet I put out for them.

Smoke wishes you a HAPPY WINTER!

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December 28, 2016 · 4:44 pm

Wonderful Birds

“Seagull” – Paul Militaru Photography

“Two Souls – A Destiny” – Paul Militaru Photography

“White Lady and Little Stars” – Paul Militaru Photography

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December 21, 2016 · 9:51 pm

1st Day of Winter 2016

What’s On

Today is the 1st day of winter. I like to think of winter in abstract terms: hot chocolate, fires in the fireplace, warm boots, hats, scarves, mittens – plus snow angels, snowmen, great big fluffy flakes falling like you’re in the middle of a snow globe. Sledding down our driveway with my son in the front, laughing with glee, his hands in the air….

Reality is that in Arkansas, winter isn’t done well. We almost always have ice first, then snow, then more ice. Tree limbs snap as I stand on the porch. Huge limbs fall into the driveway, causing my husband and I to have to use the chain saw to clear the driveway before we can get out. One year we had so much ice that the public water stopped. We were stuck on top of our ridge line with well water. We had no public power, so we started our Chinese diesel generator. The generator overheated, so my husband and son had to put 40 gallon barrels on saw horses and fill them with water in order to keep the generator cool enough to work. We had to monitor it every 30 minutes, day and night. This went on for 14 days.

Since then, we bought a new propane-powered generator that turns itself on when the power goes out, and turns itself off when the public power is again available. We haven’t lost public water since that awful year about 10 years ago. Last year we were proactive, hiring a man to cut down trees on either side of the driveway that might fall in another ice storm. We had enough snow and ice that all the evergreen trees bent over into the driveway, making it impossible to get down. We had to wait until we could cut down a bunch of the evergreens and haul them to one side in order to get out.

We do have snow tires on our truck which make it possible for us to go down – and come up again – unless we get a bunch of ice. Then we just stay home until the ice melts.

Thank goodness that Arkansas is not a state known for getting lots of snow in the winter!

I still enjoy making snow angels and making snowmen. I still enjoy big, fluffy flakes of snow, feeling as if I’m in the middle of my own, private snow globe.

I love pretty pictures of snow ELSEWHERE, and I LOVE the creative snowmen people make.

The main thing I like about winter is that it doesn’t last forever. It’s a chance for me to get some stuff done inside. I might actually have time to get up and play in my art room! I can plan what I’ll plant and in what squares in our new raised bed square foot garden in the spring.

Hot chocolate (no sugar added) and fires in the fireplace are things I can look forward to.

Have a great winter, my friends!

GifAbyss – Alpha Coders

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December 5, 2016 · 1:13 pm

More Rain Forecast for Tonight!

S-Media-Cache-AKO.pinimg.com via Yolanda Vanveen via Cathy Ruggiero

I love the whole new thing of gifs, where there is motion in an image. I have no clue how it’s done, but I’m so impressed. This company has made a LOT of these. Each time I see one, I think, “This is my favorite.” AND THEN I see another one…. Glorious!

We’re supposed to go bowling tonight with friends tonight. I don’t know if we’re actually going because we haven’t heard from our friends yet. Another good friend who usually goes with us has opted to enjoy the Christmas parade tonight in Greenwood. I hope they don’t get rained out.

Even if we drown tonight, I won’t complain. We really need the rain.

While it ISN’T raining, though, I’m going to go out and see what I can do about clearing the residue of my harvesting out of our square foot garden today. I’d like to get things wrapped up for the winter out there – which seems to be starting Wednesday evening, with possible SNOW!

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Tagged as I hope the forecast for rain tonight is correct, Mother Nature, winter probably starts Wednesday in Arkansas

December 4, 2016 · 5:05 pm

Rain and Smiles

Nino Chakvetadze – Zen to Zany via Cathy Ruggiero

We’ve enjoyed a cold one today. The temperature hovered in the 40s with a bit of rain off and on. Tomorrow is supposed to be the better chance, and then a freeze with a chance of snow!

I just came in from harvesting the rest of my fall garden. With three days of hard freezes this coming week, I’m taking it down a bit at a time. I’ll post pics in a bit.

This has been the perfect day for seeking comfort – with a pot roast in the crock pot for dinner, lemon pudding made for my husband, chocolate pudding for me, sausage balls for lunches and snacks and a nice pot of hot coffee to ward off the chill.

My hands got so cold while I was harvesting, I’ve been sitting here for several minutes with my hands around my coffee cup – not drinking, just enjoying the warmth!

I wish I could tell you I did all kinds of productive things today. I enjoyed reading a favorite book, tried to take a nap under my cozy throw, but basically did only what I felt I had to do. I happy to say I enjoyed every minute of my sloth, though. :0)

Hope you’ve had a good day, too.

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Tagged as cold rainy day, cooking, last harvest of the fall garden, napping, reading a favorite book

December 3, 2016 · 5:34 pm

Last Rose of the Season

My husband brought this in on his way back from the shop this afternoon. It’s probably the very last rose of the season. This is our favorite rose, called, “Rio Samba.” It has a long blooming season. It starts out as a tight yellow bud with a very narrow coral band around the edges of the leaves. As it opens, the yellow is in the center and the outer leaves are coral. As it ages, the whole bloom turns coral.

Here’s another view. This will have to hold us until the spring. I hope you enjoyed this.

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December 3, 2016 · 1:11 pm

Appreciating the Rain

Anita Opper via Zen to Zany

I’m delighted that we’re having rain today. Not a good, soaking rain, but rain nonetheless, and for that I’m grateful. The temperature has finally gotten to 50 degrees F. here, and I think that will be the high for the day. The next few days are supposed to be very cloudy with another chance of rain Monday. AHHHH!

The sad news is that Tuesday night or Wednesday a strong cold front is coming with killing freezes for several days, probably spelling the end of my fall garden. If the temperatures get down to the 20s, it won’t do any good to cover the plants with sheets. :0(

I’ll plan to harvest all I can by Tuesday evening.

We’ve had a fun year of gardening!

The biggest thing we did was build six 4’x4′ wooden planters. We installed three of the raised bed planters while the spring and summer garden lived to give us more tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, etc. We planted our fall garden in the new raised bed planters, enjoying broccoli, some cute little cauliflower heads, lots of lettuce of three different kinds and radishes. I also tried to grow celery from what I bought at the grocery. I planted the cutest little bright green plant in the garden. It STILL is a cute little bright green plant, but no celery. I’m trying some more inside, just for giggles.
When the spring/summer garden finished, we installed the other three planters, so now we’ll have six ready to go for the spring. We’ll plant our tomatoes in two brick planters we converted to square foot planters. One gets lots or sunshine and wind. The other is more protected, in the hook formed by the back of the house and the porch. I’ll have the winter to figure out where I want to plant things, using my fall printout to make sure I achieve crop rotation on the south side of the main garden.

Meanwhile, we’ll enjoy today’s cold rain, hope for more rain tomorrow and Monday, harvest the veggies we can in preparation for the freeze Tuesday night into Wednesday.

I hope the weather where you are is either pleasant enough to enjoy being outside, or that you can stay safe and warm inside.

Make it a wonderful day!

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Tagged as freezes, gardening, harvesting, rains

December 1, 2016 · 3:01 pm

Stellar Fall Day

The temperature is about 63 degrees F. The sun is shining. There is a bit of a breeze, but nothing like the awful, gusty winds we had yesterday. It’s hard to think of how this could be a prettier day.

I feel rich today, looking out over the valley beyond our land. Even though we didn’t have much fall color this year, due to the summer-like temperatures we had for so long, I love our view.

If you can look at it, it seems as if it’s all yours. We’re very rich in view on top of our ridge line in Arkansas.

I’ve decided to quit WORRYING about whether it’s going to frost or freeze each night. I’ll simply go out and cover the plants each night before it gets dark, and then we’ll be in the best shape possible.

When the first really hard freeze comes, the garden will be over. We’ve had a fun year in gardening, moving from our square foot garden on the ground’s surface to our raised bed planters now. I’m enjoying every minute of our fall garden, however long it lasts, hoping that the cute heads of cauliflower will get a bit larger before I need to harvest them. I’m looking forward to planning how I’ll plant the spring garden, since we’ll move our tomato plants out of the main garden and into planters on the east side of the house in the spring.

I’m going to try to get out in the next day or so to finish mulching leaves for the year. I’d like to make enough mulch for two more large leaf bags to store in the garage for the spring before I call it quits.

I hope the weather is such that you can get outside and enjoy it today.

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Tagged as covering plants, enjoying our view, mulching leaves, raised bed square foot gardening, square foot gardening, stellar fall day

November 30, 2016 · 6:56 pm

Arrrrgh!

Ramblings from a Desert Garden

This gives you some idea what I’ve been doing for the last 30 minutes or so.

I’ve been watching my local news website for the weather forecast, particularly seeing if we’re forecasted to have a freeze or not. Earlier today, the website said, “No.” I was clear until next week.

Then I checked the 10 day forecast from the weather channel, plus a 10 day forecast from Google. They said, “Yes.”

I then listened to the local newscast. They had changed from “no” to “yes.”

Of course, by this time, it was pitch black outside. If I had known it was supposed to freeze tonight, I would have gone out and covered everything up about 4:30 this afternoon. :0(

My husband reminded me we have flood lights that we can shine on the garden. I couldn’t remember for sure where the switch was, so he came out with me, carrying the teeny tiny flashlight he has on his key chain.

We turned the switch on inside the shop, but nothing happened. We then spent the next half hour trying to figure out what was wrong. We weren’t getting electricity from the switch to the lights for some unknown reason. After messing with it for awhile and not being able to figure out what the deal was, my husband went out to the garden with me and held the flashlight while I spread huge sheets over the three raised bed garden planters and secured the sheets with clothes pins.

I was freezing by that time and wanted to come in. My husband decided he would fight with the problem a bit longer, so he’s still out there now. I tried to get him to come in, saying we could look at the problem tomorrow when we had light and hopefully a bit more warmth, but when something fails to work as it should, he feels he has ‘let me down.’ He’ll work on it for awhile longer tonight, hoping to figure it out pretty rapidly. If that doesn’t work, he’ll come in and quietly stew about it until he figures out something else to try…

Luckily, we still have some homemade chicken soup/stew I made the other day that will warm us up tonight.

I guess I’ll start covering up the plants each night while it’s still light so I don’t have to worry about the weather forecasters changing their mind.

______________________

P.S. It’s about an hour later. I fed animals and went back outside, just to keep my husband company, if nothing else. He figured out the switch had failed – the first time we’ve ever had that happen. He replaced the switch and the two floodlights came on outside as they should.

HOORAAAAAY!

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Tagged as arrgh!, cover plants or not cover plants?, freezing or not freezing?, frustration about weather forecasts

November 30, 2016 · 12:21 pm

Crayons

Tree Sisters – Women Seeding Change via Cathy Ruggiero

My friend Cathy posted this, and then recently posted a pic of a crayon box with 64 crayons and a sharpener, bringing back lots of memories. I always wanted to have that box of crayons. My parents had two children to provide for, and they said, “No.” I never asked again, but I never gave up WANTING that glorious box of crayons!

Crayola Crayons

Isn’t this wonderful? Look at all the glorious colors – all nice and sharp. The sharpener is built into the side of the box, as I remember.

I’m having a birthday in March (I’ll be 70!) I stopped typing this and ordered a box of 64 crayons with a sharpener as a present to myself…

Clipart Kid

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Tagged as birthday present to myself, Crayola Crayons, Mother Nature's crayons

November 29, 2016 · 3:51 pm

Gorgeous Photo

7 wonders

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November 28, 2016 · 11:51 am

Beautiful Fall Rain – Ahhhhh!

S-Media-Cache-AKO.pinimg.com via Cathy Ruggiero

We had a nice rain last night and into this morning. We saw lightning and heard thunder, and it was great sleeping weather. The rain has stopped for now, but I’m hoping for a bit more, if Mother Nature is in the mood.

It’s a bit too chilly for dancing in the rain today, but I’m celebrating, nonetheless.

Hope your weather is nice, too.

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November 25, 2016 · 11:53 am

“Snail’s Pace”

“Snail’s Pace” – Paul Militaru Photography

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November 22, 2016 · 12:05 pm

Fingers (and all other appendages) Crossed for Rain

123RF.com

If the ‘weather weenies’ (as my husband calls them) are correct, we have a 60% chance of some rain this afternoon and evening. I have all appendages (including my eyes) crossed.

Although we don’t have many wildfires happening in Arkansas right now, we are about 15 inches below normal and burn bans have been issued because the risk of wildfires is high. Since we turned off our irrigation systems for the winter, it’s a lot of trouble to water my fall garden, so it would be great if they get a good, long drink. If we actually get some, I can then send any remaining moisture to my sister-in-law, Mary Lou, who IS suffering from wildfires in North Carolina.

I have lots of errands, plus a haircut, this afternoon, and if I drown while doing them, I promise you I’ll be smiling.

Clipart Kid

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November 18, 2016 · 5:44 pm

Brrr!

gabWorthy

Wow. Were the weather people right! I went out at 4:30 to harvest some stuff from the garden, in case the weather people were right and we would get a freeze for the next three mornings. I wore a quilted vest and added my gardening gloves, thinking I would probably get too hot trying to cover up the garden plants.

Was I wrong! The temperature has gone down to about 50 degrees with a really strong, whippy wind. By the time I finished covering the plants, I was practically frozen!

I came in a turned on the heat in the house and shut the door we still had open. We’re just about finished with our getting-ready-for-winter list, but not any too soon.

I hope you’re staying warm and snug as a bug in a rug wherever you are this evening. I’m going to be on the lookout for some sugar-free hot chocolate this weekend!

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Tagged as changing from summer to fall to winter in one day, covering up my fall garden for the freeze, weather in Arkansas

November 18, 2016 · 4:39 pm

First Freezes

We’re supposed to have freezing temperatures tomorrow morning, Sunday morning, and Monday morning before temperatures warm up again. I’m hoping to bring my garden plants through this three-day period, and will go out to harvest again – just in case we lose them – and then cover up the plants with sheets for the night. The idea of the freezes makes me a bit nostalgic.

We had a really nice summer, and have been enjoying a longer than usual fall. We just had a bunch of stuff cut down in the back by Shane, a young, strong hard worker, so our view is opened up again and the danger from wildfire is a bit less.

We enjoyed lots of flowers this year: mandevilla, wave petunias, periwinkles, impatiens, purslane, zinnias, phlox, lilies, iris, and more. I’ve just finished cleaning out the flower planters and filling them with mulch I made grinding up leaves.

We’ve unhooked our irrigation systems for both flowers and the garden now. The past two days we had temperatures in the mid to upper 80s. We’re due to have a freeze tomorrow morning and then a high of 55. We’ve had a strong wind for a couple of days now – blowing from the south until last night and now from the north, taking our temperatures down.

Most of our flowers are gone now, but we still have some mandevilla blooming. I went out to take some last pictures, as I’m sure, with the coming freezes, they’ll be gone.