► 68ºF/20ºC @ 10 AM. Temperature climbing fast with moderate south wind blowing. More "seasonable" temperatures on the way, though. A dry cold front is supposed to bring 30 for tonight and 20s for tomorrow night. Our chilliest temperatures of this fall.
► Noon: Sun shining brightly in a cloudless sky. South wind picking up a little. (76ºF/24ºC)
Afternoon:
► With below freezing temperatures in our forecast, Jo did a large, last harvest of tomatoes (mostly green) and peppers. The peppers plants are currently looking better than they have all season, but won't be in a day or two. (75ºF/23ºC @ 3 PM.)
Growing peppers is usually a no-brainer. You just stick the plants in the ground and they grow, producing lots of tasty chilies -- not this year in our garden, though. The poblano chilies eventually produced a decent crop of peppers late in the seasons. We got a handful of jalapenos and no bell peppers.
The cause of our pepper growing difficulties is a mystery to me, but as you can see by looking behind the poblanos in the foreground, the other pepper plants barely grew any larger than the transplants we set out into the garden in June. Several times during the growing season, the plants looked as if they were going to take off and start growing, but then they'd suffer a set back and lose most of their leaves. Now that we are at the very end of the growing season, the peppers are looking better than they have all summer. The bells even have dozens of tiny peppers on them. A lot of good that's going to
do with below freezing temperatures in our forecast.
Another concession made to the upcoming freezing temperatures was bringing a hanging basket of impatiens inside. These were another of the dollar-a-plant closeout bargains Jo purchased from the grocery store in early summer. Normally, we leave annuals outside to suffer their predetermined fates in late fall, but these impatiens were looking so beautiful Jo just could not stand to let them freeze. She brought them inside even though with all the other houseplants now inside the house, we really do not have room for them. They are sitting atop Rusty's dog crate where they will no doubt fade rapidly in our too dark house. Still, they will be pretty to look at for several days.
► Back from PM walk. Methinks the wind direction may be shifting to the north. Kinda swirling around in our holler. (72ºF/22ºC @ 5 PM)
► Gusty north wind has dropped the temperature to 56ºF/13ºC @ 8 PM. Temp heading down to 34ºF/1ºC tonight NOAA says. I doubt it gets quite that cold up here on the ridge.
Follow my updates on
.
