I'm with you, Frankie! Would love some cool fall days. I worked in the yard today, and boy was it hot! 89 where I am. Seems like it got hot in June and hasn't let up yet.

Yeah except its too cold at night here for summer plants, too warm in day for winter. Soon it will be too cold at night for winter things too. Frost every morning...

Yikes, here in Escondido we were the hottest place IN THE NATION yesterday at 98 degrees. Makes me glad I have been slow to add any pansies yet.

I am very tired of hand watering things!

I have two new shiny copper-red leaves on a Japanese maple while the rest of the leaves are withering away!

The broadwalks in Venice and Santa Monica were crowded on Sunday.

This is California's autumn--misty mornings, glorious golden mornings, hot afternoons with all the summer's stickiness wrung out, the sunset that makes the dry brown hills glow pink, the crisp night. Simply glorious.

hoov...

I have to disagree with you there. I'm a native and have never seen it this hot in November. October is usually the month for Indian summer....just the first part of the month. But it is misty in the morning now. :)

Frankie

Come north, my native friends! We've had enough fog and cool weather for everyone to get a generous slice. :D

Ninety-eight degrees...that's awful!

Brenda

This must be a So. Ca. thing, it's been cold, damp and foggy here for the last couple of weeks in the Valley.

It was the same way last year. Only we had a couple teasers of rain in October. Then I think it didnt rain until Dec 1st. And then I think again til Jan 1st. I remember it didnt rain for a month and a half! And Northen Cal was getting hammered by rain. We had hot Santa Anas in December. I know because I had a bareroot cherry tree I was moving inside during the day to try to keep its chill hours going. I have been thinking it will rain late again like last year. But we did almost break the all time record for rain last year!

I don't know what happened to Autumn but I'm sure glad summer finally ended!!!! I had enough of heat to last for two years! It sure started early enough this year. It seemed we went from summer to Thanksgiving. Now it's Christmas. I don't hardly know where the 70's went we never have them for long and now the 60's aren't seeming to stay long either, but at least the heat finally left! I'm smack dab between Fresno and Bakersfield. My plants don't know whether to grow and flower or drop leaves. Leslie

We have always had Thanksgiving here, and one of the things that has always gotten done was the raking, mulching and tossing of the Bradford Pear leaves. This year the leaves are still "glued" to the trees... which are bright yellow/red. I imagine DH and I will need to do it ourselves when they finally fall. Rats! I appreciated the help.

Hi Westelle! Maybe you can make it a Christmas thing:) I know you said you did it at Thanksgiving. I was glad the rains held off until we got the gutters up on the house, which we do now, but this is just weird weather. I remember last Thanksgiving was warm. We had so much company we were also outside sitting around the patio table talking, this year the little ones were trying to hold a tea party and even all bundled up were cold. Yet I have trees the leaves are stubbornly clinging on. My roses still are blooming, as are other flowering plants. Yet the dwarf crepe myrtle in front is shedding leaves. I just can't figure out what's going on.

Anyways, with all that color I bet it's pretty where you are with the leaves still on the trees:) With the descriptions of your property in the past that's alot of raking you have in store also! Leslie

W only rake the inner yard -- Bradford Pears and some fruit trees.... which is quite enough, thank you!

Today I got a chance to actually walk the gardens since our return from a 2-week trip. Not only are the leaves not dropping, but the Brugs are in full bloom -- as is the rest of the garden. I picked the 4 Meyer Lemons, but haven't tasted them yet. I had trouble finding 2 Tblsp.s worth of Rosemary sprigs that weren't covered in blossoms -- and bees. The biggest of the beds is so jammed with over-abundant plants that I couldn't walk through if I tried..... pruning in Feb. should be a real challenge. The one lonely zucchini did pass-on, but the rest refuse to die. I can't work the veg. gardens until the plants stop producing; I just may have to pull it all anyway so I can plant the fall-winter crops.

Before we left I filled the Hummer feeder full-up so it would last as long as possible. I was soundly scolded by the 2 "Bottle Watchers" this afternoon; I guess it's cold enough that they want an evening drink before to going to bed. Needless to say... they got their drink tonight. ;^)

Holy Moly.....at last we have some rain here in L.A.....and it's a tad bit cold.
Our neighbors' tree keeps shedding it's leaves onto my beautiful potted arrangements and instead of getting mad this year, I bought a blower!! And it's electric. Wow...it does quite a job and for only $30 at Lowe's.
No more sweeping for me...it takes about 5 minutes with the blower.
We spent some bucks having the neighbor's other trees pruned (2) last month because of the mess they made on our property. I just don't understand how inconsiderate people can be. Anyway....just wanted to pass on the blower idea for anyone who is tired of raking and sweeping. :)

Frankie

Good to know, our blower bit the dust, $30 is a pretty good deal, thanks for passing the info on. So do you blow the leaves back towards the neighbors?:) We got a shower burst for about 3 minutes didn't even melt all the drops together much less dust the moving reindeer off like we hoped. The grandkids talked my husband into putting out the Christmas decorations. The rain from LA usually stalls at Bakersfield and rain from the north at Fresno, I'm in Visalia. Thanks again for the info on the blower, I absolutely hate raking and sweeping! Leslie

hahaha Leslie:
My neighbors and I share a wall....I blow the leaves down our driveway.
I don't know if we are allowed to name brands here...but my blower is a name that means bull in Spanish....got it?
I wish I had bought it when we first moved in. I had no idea that they made electric blowers. And it's light weight.

Frankie

I got a look around yesterday before our little cloud burst and found I've got bulbs peeping up out of the ground. Now I may be real rusty at growing bulbs in the valley, the last I grew were up in the mtns and the first popped up in like oh, Jan or Feb. The last time I grew here was in 1993 and I don't remember. So what are the crocus and anemones doing sending up shoots now and the new daylilliy bulbs are doing it also! Either they're going to die when it does get colder and ruin all my hard work or reverse themselves? Anyone else have bulbs starting already? Leslie

Here you're looking at crocuses and I'm trying to figure how to protect the citrus trees tonight!

Sorry Westelle for my flipancy, my 5 trees are all to young to figure out what to do with them. In any case there isn't. One is a coastal redwood too. I've got two brand new roses that at least I can plop a box over temporary. I hope your citrus trees make it, it was 28 in Visalia, colder than that there too? I hope this doesn't last, they said it was artic air coming down, they can have it back! I thought we had another month or so, guess it is about Dec. but thought we had until Jan. weather is just plain weird this last year. Again, Westelle I apologise for my smaller concerns, I have some 100 new plants/shrubs planted and of that 29 are roses and also have 150 bulbs spread around. Leslie

Leslie: It sounds as if you have had your hands full these last few days too. I didn't think you were being flippant, I was just envying your bursting bulbs while it was freezing here! ;^D

The original question was : What happened to Autumn. I guess the answer is: we went straight to winter! Brrrrrr.... shades of Minnesota.

Yeah, this Arctic stuff isn't too much fun, especially if there's wind. However, I'm thankful that I don't live in Zone 3 Canada. Someone over on the Ponds forum reported -43°F up there on Tuesday. Talk about Arctic!

I'm pretty sure they don't grow citrus up there. LOL

Brenda