Wednesday, May 25, 2011

No Tornadoes . . . Just Frost

Let me state upfront that I'll take the frost we had this morning over the terrible tornadoes others are having any day!

Yepper, we did indeed wake up this morning to all roofs and vehicles covered with that white stuff called frost. Fortunately, the temp warmed up rather quickly and the frost was gone before we knew it. No young plants were nipped in my fallow garden (I may have picked the best year not to garden, don't you think?) but I'm wondering how other gardeners in the area fared.

I was sitting here at the computer right after breakfast this morning getting ready to do a post when my husband announced, "Power's going off!" And it was off until about a half hour ago when he reported that great progress was made today. Great progress. Love the sound of those two words.

My services were not needed to help him with his "great progress" so I headed outside. I suppose part of the reason for our overnight frost was our very clear sky. And we surely did have a lovely day today full of bright sunlight.

When I first went out, there was a heavy dew everywhere in the yard area so I decided to attack a much neglected flower bed on the side of the house. Unfortunately, it was also in the shade first thing this morning. I had on a long sleeved t-shirt, heavy flannel shirt and down vest . . . which wasn't enough. Hubby stopped out at one point and commented that I looked half frozen and wouldn't it be smarter to do something out in the sunshine until the sun got up high enough to hit the corner I was working in? Hmmm. Right. Good idea. Turned out it was so much nicer in the sunshine that I quickly shed my vest and flannel shirt and worked with my t-shirt sleeves pushed up.

At noon I came in to make us soup and a cottage cheese salad for lunch. I had it ready before the man working underneath the house in the crawl space (nasty work area) was done with his task there so I took advantage of a few spare minutes to sit out on the deck.

I tried to capture Mrs. Cardinal on the bird feeder but she doesn't show up very well. Her mate was farther on down in the yard in an apple tree.

Everything certainly has greened up since our recent rains. Looking out at this view felt very relaxing.

I continued my battle with weeds this afternoon and think I'm gaining on them. Also went back to that flower bed and filled a whole wheelbarrow full of prunings and debris which went to our ever-growing burn pile.

Now to make a simple supper for tonight. Leftover spaghetti noodles and sauce from last night mixed together for what my mom always called goulash. A tossed salad on the side and we're good to go.

I just checked the weather forecast and it is for frost again tonight and tomorrow night. Whadda spring.

Hope you all had a good day and aren't in an area where you're having to deal with bad weather. Keep that generator and those emergency lamps goin', Erin. We're thinking about you.

11 comments:

Jane @ Hard Work Homestead said...

What happened to your power? Did something happen to the panels? The way this Spring is going, nothing would surprise me anymore. This has to be the deadliest Spring yet.

Jenyfer Matthews said...

We've had tornado sirens go off twice this week already - my children have decided that they do not like "weather". Hmmm... I'll take my chances with bad weather over political instability any day!

Leigh said...

I agree with you about the frost versus a tornado! We haven't had any weather related problems as such, except that all the rain keeps going around us. Things are beginning to dry up!

Mama Pea said...

Jane - Nope, no problems with the solar panels. Papa Pea just wanted to do some rearranging in the garage so things were more where he wanted them . . . inverter and that kinda stuff.

I can hardly believe the way tornadoes just keep happening all over the country. Supposedly we don't get them way up here but we sure do get some scary straight-line winds that do damage. Ugh.

Jen - Yup, gotta admit I'll agree with you there, for sure!

Leigh - Hoping you can gather some of that rain. I know there are parts of the country that are still suffering from flooding and too much moisture. If we could just hit a happy medium all over!

judy said...

WELL,EVEN THO IT IS COOL IT LOOKS SO PRETTY UP THERE. I HAVE CARDINALS IN MY YARD TOO. SAW A FINCH COUPLE TOO. SOUNDED LIKE A HOT CUP OF SOUP CERTAINLY DID THE TRICK.WE'VE HAD CRAZY WEATHER ALL WEEKEND. GARDENS ARE NOT FAIRING WELL I CAN SEE EXCEPT IN TEXAS-WHERE EVERYTHING IS BIG, DON;T ASK ME WHAT I'M DOING POSTING THIS LATE. IT IS WAY PAST MY BED TIME. IF I DON;T MAKE THOSE BOYS GET UP FOR SCHOOL-THEY WOULD JUST SAY"WHAT THE HECK
THE OTHER MORNING I WAS ON THE COMPUTER-PUT SING- I DIDN'T REALIZE THAT THEY WHERE NOT UP YET- I TOUGH LOVED IT OUT AND SAID GET A MOVE ON OR YOU WILL MISS THE BUS. SOME DAYS I FEEL LIKE A WARDEN

Sparkless said...

Yup this is the perfect year for you not to be gardening.
And I agree with you about the frost over tornadoes! I hope the worst of the tornado season is over now. I can't even imagine living in an area where you'd have to deal with tornadoes. I think I'd have several bunkers dug in the ground stocked with food and water and most likely I'd sleep in them at night through tornado season. LOL!

Amy Dingmann said...

I can't believe the weather this year. I have this sneaking suspicion that this might be the year we don't get a garden in either. Frost towards the end of May. Has that ever happened before?

judy said...

shiver m'timbers--fire-up that wood burning stove- you must be freezing your arse off this morning---go back to bed-I almost did

Mama Pea said...

Sparkless - We experienced tornadoes when we lived in Illinois and, frankly, getting away from them was one of the best reasons for moving up north!

Mama Tea - When we first moved up here in '73 it was normal to have frost right into the first week in June! Then we slid into a warming trend . . . now we seem to be going backwards again!

judy - Our temp was 34 this morning at 5:30 and no frost. Looks like lots of sunshine again today. Hooray!

Erin said...

You're freezing and we're sweating LOL! Sadly I'm not confident that this is just an "off" year, and I fear this is the new norm.

Mama Pea said...

Erin - Not sure about your part of the country but these long, cold springs are what we always used to have when we first moved up here in the 70s.