No matter where we live we all appreciate a change in the temperature it could be up or down. Our temps are getting a little on the nippy side, some days it's really raw. The other day turned into a lovely day a bit of warmth in the air, it was great being outside puttering in the garden.
Flower, where are you putting the pavers down, got a special project going in? Are we going to get a peek? Last night it poured here, we have double pane windows and you'd swear we had the windows open. It actually sounded like thunder in the distance.

Annette

34 here this AM and very sunny now. We had our 15 minutes of rain on Wed. night and now the front has passed and we are much cooler. Very refreshing. The leaves are still on the trees...sigh...and on the ground ...sigh...time to get out there AGAIN and rake.

I too would love to see the paver project. c

Annette ~ You are having bundling up weather. It will be time for you to start thinking about next years gardens. We do enjoy getting cooler weather as it is so dang hot and humid here most of the year.

Caroline ~ Oooh you did get some chilly weather. Sorry you didn't get more rain. I know you all need it badly still.

The paver project will be shown when finished. We made the cement pavers years ago, had these 4 as part of the patio off the kitchen. We took these up to dig a hole to plant our Queen Crape Myrtle this summer. We have other small brick-type pavers that we scavenged, curb-side shoppers that we are. Most of these smaller pavers were picked up in front of a home that had paved their driveway and these were headed for the land-fill. DH went up to the door to ask if they were indeed throwing these away and they were. These will be fit in wherever as some are cut at weird angles, and what we don't fill in with these pavers, we will fill in with cement. This is the small patio area off the back of our cottage, where we have the jacuzzi, clawfoot tub, and outdoor shower. We live frugally, on a shoestring, have always done so. So projects for us are a lot of times spur of the moment, going with what we have found, or things on hand. We do visit Home Depot on a regular basis for supplies, etc. though.

I'll have to remember to take some pictures of this project while we are working on it. I do have a couple of pictures of the shower pad made from a round cement tiled table top we found. Boy was that a heavy monster to get into the back of my Aero-Star. We keep saying we've got to quit picking up heavy cement pieces. : -)

Keep warm ~ FlowerLady

Hey, how's the Queen doing, anyway? As I remember, she was a beauty. : )

Glad your temps are cooler. We go back and forth with cooling this time of year. One day, like today, it's barely 60, then we'll have several days of 70s. No rain on the horizon - darn!

Is your hurricane season over?

Diana

Do you ever get frosts? (maybe a silly question) :)

*rubbing my palms together* Oooo a project, how fun! I still swoon over that Crape Myrtle of yours. It's on the top of my gotta have someday list. Be careful lifting those heavy cement pieces, we are not as young as we used to be *lol*. But I'm guilty too.

It's been nippy here for some time. We didn't have many hot days of summer. The leaves on my Black Ash trees have turned a flaming red color. It's quite spectacular to look at when the sun rises in the morning. The hummers use that tree as their 'guarding the yard' post.

*Raising my coffee cup as a toast* Here's hoping we have steady soft rains this winter.

Edna

I talked to my Dad today who said the same thing, it had gotten chilly. My father moved last month from Huntington Beach, CA to Port Saint Lucie. He and my step-mother are loving their new life in Florida. His very first purchase was a golf cart. That's when I knew he had finally retired.

Do make sure to post pix of your path when you finish. I think it's great that you give materials destined for landfill a new life. We waste so many things.

Enjoy your great weather!

And Edna - I raise my glass for gentle rain too. And maybe post a pic of that Black Ash. It's really surprising just how much fall color we get in the Bay Area.

Steven

Diana ~ 'Queenie' is doing fantastic since we planted her in the ground. I trimmed all the spent flower heads off and did a little pruning and she's happy. We mixed two bags of Miracle-Gro garden soil with our soil and planted her in the mix. I can hardly wait to see her blooms next year, especially at the rate she is growing. Her trunk looks a little thicker also. ~ Hurricane season is officially over the end of this month. Hooray! ~ Right now, it is 73 and supposed to get up to 77 this afternoon. So much for our chilly weather. : -)

Edna ~ That Queen Crape is definitely a beauty. If we hadn't lost the shade from two pine trees next door, we would not have bought her. We needed something to shade our screened porch during the summer as the sun blasts right in there in the mornings. I had seen this tree in bloom for a couple of years around the area and had no idea what it was, but I loved it. The blossoms have a nice light sweet scent too, so that makes it even nicer. I hope you can find one of these in your area.

Libbyshome ~ We rarely get a frost. I can't even remember when the last one was.

Steven ~ Your Dad lives about 1 - 1 1/2 hours away from here. He will enjoy cooler temps than we do. We are borderline tropics. ~ DH and I have been rescuing stuff our whole life together. He did it before we got married even. We can't stop now. Although we are more discerning these days as to what we pick up. : -) One of these days I'll have to make a webpage up of our 'rescued goodies', if I can even remember them all. The most recent piece is a Dell computer. It looked brand new, and he did check on it with Dell and it is 5 years old.The hard-drive was shot, so he used one from an old computer, then installed a Fedora operating system that he downloaded the other day. He hooked it up to online this morning. Has it out in his workshop.

Have a great weekend everyone.

FlowerLady

Good morning everyone ~ Did I say chilly in FL? Ha, ha, it is 7 a.m. and 75 degrees out and very humid. It is supposed to be in the 80's for the next week or so. Dang!

Hope you are all staying warm and enjoying the start of this holiday season.

Miss seeing a lot of regulars here. Life has a way of needing us to take care of things, sometimes more than others. This has been a great place to visit, and I miss people who have moved on for whatever reason.

So, wherever you are, may you be blessed with each new day.

FlowerLady

FL, it's CHILLY in Atlanta today. Drizzle and bone chilling. Someone came to work and wanted 4 bags of pine nuggets in the POURING RAIN. COLD pouring rain.
What on earth could they need them for today? Not that I mind loading them up, just what on earth, lol.
Not complaining about the rain mind you. I enjoyed the rain!!
It has been unseasonably warm here and of course DRY as a bone.

GGG

GGG, I am so glad you are getting rain, finally! I have seen the news reports on how bad things are in your area. How is your garden fairing? Are you having to buy bottled water?

Rainey, I would rather have the warm temps than the cold. But you can keep the humidity. We really enjoyed our recent trip to Kauai but my hair was relegated to a pony tail nearly 24/7. Even then there were strands that kept escaping, immediately turning to curly ringlets around my forehead and ears. Once upon a time it was cute - like when I was SIX! ; )

Last Sunday we almost hit 80. Today we barely made it into the 50s and we've had freezing temps for the last 3 nights. We also had another devastating fire in Malibu. Over 50 homes were lost - very sad, especially this time of year. I so hope we get rain soon!

Diana

GGG ~ Glad to hear you are getting some much needed rain. Chilly and wet weather though are miserable. Have missed you Glynnis. How are things going with your house?

Diana ~ We like our mild winters but really wouldn't mind more days of temps in the 50's or so. Having maybe 5 at the most is not enough. :-) Last night we were talking about how we really wouldn't want to move somewhere where it gets really cold, we've lived in these tropical climes way too long. The humidity is AWFUL down here, and we wish we didn't have so much of it. It makes you feel sick during the summer months. Not as bad now. ~ I bet you looked sweet with your pony tail and escaping curls. ~ Your weather sounds cold. I was sorry to hear about yet more fires in CA and sorry for those who lost everything. I hope you all get some rain out there soon.

Yesterday morning and after lunch I wore myself out laying 'found' shingles as flooring in my potting area. Even though it is NOT a perfect job, I like how it turned out. I used up the stack of shingles. I'm getting ready to plant seeds and to make cuttings from roses and other plants around the property. I was sweating as it was around 85 and the humidity was up there, so I sat and took breaks and drank water.

That's it from Plum Cottage for now.

FlowerLady

I posted about the rain. It certainly is much needed. We have been 50's in the day. Will be sunny again starting tomorrow and 60's/40's. We have not had a 1st frost yet. This winter does not bode well for the peach trees as they need a certain number of cold days and also the "bugs" don't get killed off as they should .

I am glad to hear your projects are progressing Flower. Would love to see pics.

Diana I hope all cont. to be under control in your area. It looked so scary again.

GGG I know you are soaking up this rain too !! c

We are having such a mild Fall I can hardly believe it! We were in the Algarve in early November and it actually was warm enough to go to the beach and sunbathe. That is rather unusual as the normal weather for November is already too chilly for such adventures.

As a result of our warm and dry Fall color hasn't been very good this year. The sweet gum in my front garden put on a decent show, as it does reliably every year, but other plants were not as showy. Last week we had a major rain storm on Monday and that was the end of the pretty colored leaves. We still see some nice color in sycamore trees on the roadside and the vineywards near us are looking spectacular in their russet tones, but one can sense Christmas in the air, even though the temperatures are still very mild.

Diana, I couldn't help laughing at the image of your hair curling up in humidity - mine does exactly the same, except that it doesn't *curl*, it simply *sticks out* of my head. If I lived in a high humidity climate I would end up looking as a distant relative of the Adams family, LOL!

Eduarda

Caroline ~ So glad you have been getting rain. We've had a little. Today it looks like we 'might' get some and that would be nice. It's still warm and humid here, it does NOT feel like December at all.

Eduarda ~ I remember very cold, wet and miserable Novembers when DH and I lived in Spain in the early 70's. We were not used to that kind of weather and it took some getting used to. ~ Sure have missed your posts here. Hope you have a wonderful Christmas.

FlowerLady

Hey Flower...we got that 2 inches but then no more. It was 68 today and SUNNY and I was sweating while RAKING leaves. We were supposed to get rain on Sunday but now they say we won't get it but the TN valley will. So more lovely warm weather...which I would love but I know the repercussions are going to be pretty bad by Spring. We will have 30's Mon and Tues and then back to 60's in time for the porch tour. Oh well...there is a power at work that knows more than I. c

Caroline ~ Thought we were going to get some rain today, but we just had a few sprinkles. We are supposed to have temps drop into the 50's mid-week. That will be nice! Is the porch tour this coming weekend? Have fun and don't stress. Your place will look lovely!

FlowerLady

Hurray ~ It is brrrr weather here again this morning. Right now it is 53 and feels like it is 51. This kind of weather is so welcome down here.

I hope all of you up north are staying comfortable inside, and have ho damages or long power outages from the winter storms you are having.

FlowerLady

We spent 5 hrs yesterday in groups of 3 doing all the porches. The figures are dropped off on Monday and then the volunteers from the neighborhood meet and assemble the scenes. We put out the "snow" and sparkles and adjust the figures and the various things that each needs. We have notebooks w/ a photo to remind us. I have been doing this 6 yrs. since we moved here. There are approx 60 scenes. We have the official opening tonight and a kickoff party for hte neighborhood. Then it ends Sunday night and the scens are dissmbled on Monday and stored to prevent deterioration. This is the 15th year.

They are now saying rain off and on the rest of the week. I hope not !! I spoils all the snow and the walking tour is ruined if it rains on Saturday. So cross your fingers that it hold off . Caroline

Oh Caroline ~ I hope you have beautiful weather this week for the porch tour. I know how much you all need rain, but it could wait until next week. It sounds like you have been very busy getting things ready. Looking forward to seeing pictures that's for sure.

FlowerLady