to my eyes, thrilling.....

We are going to have some nasty, cold weather blow in very soon. Like, in about 15 minutes, the temperature is going to drop from a balmy 63 degrees to about 45 degrees real quick, and we expect a freeze tonight. Hopefully, this will be the last freeze of the year.

So, in advance of all that, I was out trying to take care of some of my new tender foliage that I am so proud of, and I found this.
Tucked in among many weedy things is this little clump of Dianthus. They have been here for at least 3 years, and they just flourish. I will tend to this area this weekend, after the weather clears.

It is here. The cold, the wind, the rain. Yuk.

But I do have this patch of dianthus. It doesn't take much for me.

Signs of Spring

I have seen many signs of Spring here lately.

I saw Mr. Robin RedBreast. He is so fat he can't fly. I worry that a cat might get him.

I see new foliage, decorating stems that I thought were dead, and that have yet to be cut back.


I saw the first shorts of the season, and a halter top as well. It was
76 degrees F after all! I was NOT wearing either, by the way.

I see tractors in the field, planting that corn. I think most of the farmers
are done with the planting.

I saw crop dusters working already! That's always exciting!

I see all the students out of school for Spring Break, including ME! WhoopEE!

I see roses blooming, but that is about all. I am very fearful that my
gardens took a major hit this winter. It could well be "Time to Shop"!

I see tomatoes and marigolds in the vegetable garden; also peas, onions,
cabbages, cauliflower, broccoli, asparagus, cilantro, dill, oregano, mints,
Laura Bush petunia (although they are not blooming yet), and volunteer
pepper plants.

We are having lovely weather; pleasantly warm during the day, but a
little cold at night. Actually, it has been downright cold at night, but
that will change, and I am asleep then, so I don't care a lot. However,
cuttings don't root very well until the night temps are consistently
above 70 degrees.

We have seed racks full of wonderful packets of seeds, the packages being
small works of art. We have plants in the nurseries, and the nursery keepers
are looking forward to having a good year.

Life is good.

Starting to whine.....

It is raining at my house. It has been raining since midnight, and will continue to rain all day, all night tonight, and most of tomorrow. Ordinarily, I would not mind the rain, but it is also February, and that means it is also COLD! I hate cold! My feet hurt, they are so cold.....

It seems it is either Feast or Famine for us. This past summer, we were without rain for about 5 months, maybe longer. Crops died in the fields, the cattle were being fed hay brought in from North Texas. We had green grass in our yard, but we have St. Augustine, and it can go awhile without rain. We were running sprinklers every day for awhile, every other day at least, but only in the vegetable garden or the flowerbeds; never the grass. It was a terrible drought.


.



It finally started to rain around the first of September. I know we were happy! We had nice rain, an abundance of rain. Plenty of rain, lots and lots of rain! The ground is soaked, the farmers are ready to plant, but the fields are so wet they can't get in them! We are not complaining, because I would almost bet that that is what caused the drought....

However.....it is raining again. This is our little river, the Lavaca. Normally, it is a small river, peaceful, nice to tube, or canoe on. Good fishing in this river, good place for a picnic.

It is about 4 times it's normal size now, out of it's banks and about to cut off traffic. We have seen it where the road was completely covered over, and the water was running pretty fast. I swear, catfish were swimming across the road!




As soon as it warms up a little, the banks of this swollen river will be covered up with people with fishing poles.





These last two pictures were taken from the bridge.

I just want my feet to warm up.

Not complaining, tho.