oh gosh, know that weather all to well, Toronto where I live, was just unreal scortching temps the entire summer and no rain!

keep well, I hear ya.

Just picked probably the last of the maters and pepeprs as we are suppose to drop into 40's. Low 40's. Going to make some green salsa and try cannng some slightly hot peppers. I ended up with 3 mild banana pepper plants that must have thouht they had to make up for their siblings dying young because they have produced like crazy.

They're saying thirty five here, and that's too close for comfort. It can frost at that temperature. After the sucky weather we've had all year, you'd think we would at least get a break with frost! I have corn in silk now and three more weeks would buy me a second crop. Last year, even though it got chilly the killing frost held off until November. I was canning green beans in November.

I just got back in from the garden with an half wheelbarrow of ripe tomatoes, and about a peck of green peppers. All my tropicals are still outside and I'm not bringing them in...........they live in the solarium in winter and are large. I need a dollie to move them. Alright, I'll bring in the tree hibiscus and the clivia, both of which are too precious to loose. The rest can fend for itself. I also have to go back out and rescue the jalapenos for my salsa.

Look at it this way, with it getting that cold, the kitchen will be nice & cozy while you're cooking, caning, or whatever you're doing with all those tomatoes.

Here we're going down to the upper 50's tonight & it will seem like heaven to shut off the a/c & sleep with the windows open. We won't see a frost here until sometime in November.

We dollied in the tree hibiscus and other assorted tender tropicals and covered the still blooming annuals with old sheets. Then horror of horrors, i realized the poor hummers couldnt get to the nectar producing plants and i ended up in a mad rush to make some goodie for the feeders.
Finally broke down and shut the windows tonight and gave the heat a little bump. If i were here alone id most likely sleep with the windows cracked and under a pile of blankets..i sleep like a rock this way.

Muchachas pobres, desafortunadas! Something just shy of 58 years ago a 22 year old fellow was share-cropping 80 acres of taters and raising hogs in Walnut Hill, Florida. His 19 year old wife decided that it was time to download the lump she'd been hauling around since the previous June and the nearest facility was next to "Old Sparky" in Atmore, Alabama. Usual grousy first birth, no problems except the kid had a full head of black hair that was continued from the eyebrows to the nape of the neck. Fuzz monster! It's mother did a lot of crying and dad had to go back to the farm.

March 14th, 1950, his whole potato crop froze to the ground. Within a year hog cholera wiped out the critters (ag folk came in and required the destruction and burial w/o any compensation).

Of course that was my birthday. Dad used to move my birthday back to 1947 (the year before he and my mom got married) when I sinned (often!) You can figure out what THAT meant! ;o)

Dad never farmed again. His comment was "you have to have a good job to support a farm!"

The weather is beautiful, wish you were here.

Last week was mostly rain. A day or two was the result of that there tropical depression that came up for the Gulf through Texas. But yesterday began the one time of year that we can count on glorious weather. The high was just shy of 80°. Humidity was/is nigh perfect. Did I mention we have sunshine? Spent yesterday on the river sailing in prefect winds of 10 to 15 mph. Last night the low dropped to an unheard of 50°. Spent the evening with the telescope and was accompanied by a fire in the fire pit. Communed with nature I did.

Today will be more of the same. Since the winds settle during the periods around sun up I took the kayak out on First Creek. Around noon-ish, I will head back to the marina and take the Hobie 14 out. Might get a picture or two. I have a new cell phone that knows how to swim. It's shock and water resistance. It has a two mega pixel camera. The sunset over Wheeler Dam is usually gorgeous. Must learn how to get the pics off the camera though.

Our light frost won't be here until a day or two before or after Hallowe'en. The killing frost won't come until mid to late November.

We are entering the best eight weeks of weather we gets around these parts.

Ta ta, I am out the door and down to the river.

Elia

Why do we say "Up the Creek" and "Down the River" to indicate something's gone wrong?

Just being cheeky. By the way, neither condition applies to me. Not for the moment, anyway.....

Will be moving my largest tropicals in tomorrow since my housekeeper will be here to help. She and her daughters will undoubtedly inherit a few...some always outgrow their space or my interest. The smaller ones I'll bring in later a few at a time. Probably no frost for awhile yet (I'm south of Elia) but no guarantee, and they will be better acclimated to reduced light/humidity by the time heat is turned on.

We've had a couple more inches of rain and everything looks great...hope to see some nice fall colors soon. My very favorite time of year...now through next May. josh

Well, it got cold enough my nose was cold all night and I had to pull the dog and cats up around me for warmth. LOL. It did not frost or freeze, at least on my property. Now, I have that mountain of tomatoes and green peppers to do up I harvested in a panic.

It's a lucky thing for those tropicals, as I did not bring them in. I watch the weather on nearly an hourly basis, because of my business. I've stuff in g'houses to winter over for next spring, I can't afford to lose and I have all the heaters turned off and they've not had their winter inspection or maintenance yet. I suspect we'll get our Indian summer directly and I'm leaving the tropicals out until I have to move them in. I don't cover flowers with sheets. I let nature take it's course. My vegetables, however, that's a different story.

Micheal there is nothing negative about being up a creek, as long as you have your paddle with you. LOL. Around here there is also nothing wrong with being down the river, unless somebody spirited you away to sell. Living on a river one can literally traverse clean to the gulf, I've studied a lot about it's early history. I'd suspect that saying came about because when this territory was first entered, everyone was in the same predicament. IOW, land rich and money poor. Everyone also grew the same crops and the only way real money could be earned was to grab what you could afford to do without and stuff it in a flat boat down to New Orleans, or "sell it down the river". The corn often ended up in a fermented liquid product, if you know what I mean. LOL. You couldn't barter your taxes paid.

So are you cooking up a storm?

You wanna know how it played out? I spent the afternoon painting a front door wine red and then got take away Chinese. I did, however, have my first cup of hot chocolate yesterday for a night cap. Awoke around six this morning with the mug by my side, ice cold and half full. Talk about powerful sleeping-aids, cold air and hot chocolate.

Tonight, instead of an instant, I'm digging out my little block of Cibarra Mexican chocolate my dear cuz brought me and I'll grate some down and do it properly. You think the swiss know chocolate? LOL. I go right to the source of the bean!

There's nothing like hot chocolate is there? Now if you added a little Fra Angelica to the mix it would really send you quickly off into dreamland - LOL!