Did
I say it was like summer out there in my last post? Well, it will be
deep winter next Tuesday and Wednesday as they are predicting a lows
of 31˚ and 29˚. Ack! No freezing! My yellow trumpet flowers both
have unopened buds on them. Though it will turn the gingko trees
bright yellow and all their leaves will fall off two days later and
the tallows will get bright red and orange.
So
in anticipation of the cold weather I started bringing in the plants
yesterday. Got all the smalls, a few of the mediums, and none of the
bigs which is my plan for today, to get the rest and I thought I
would have all day, but now the oft wrong weather app says rain
starting early afternoon. Shit! I need to rearrange the garage first.
Which is what I did yesterday, not the garage, but the work tables. I
finished the flower with bee and leaf wax (two separate pieces),
the
last of it's kind for the foreseeable future, and put away all the
wax and model making tools til after the first of the year, cleared
off the small work table that I had been using to fill molds and
moved all that stuff to the big work table now devoid of model making
stuff and moved the small work table to the back bedroom which is now
covered with plants.
And
I wrangled this monster in and, as you can see, had to tie up it's
gangly branches to get it through the gate and the door.
Its
two seed pods are turning bright red.
Several
hours later...
I
got the rest of the plants in that go in the house and got the garage
rearranged and the big plants moved in, the plumerias will go dormant
and will stay in til spring, others will be moved in and out as the
weather allows, with about 20 minutes to spare.
The
oft wrong weather app on my phone said rain at 1 PM and at 2 minutes
til I looked up and it was raining. I guess I won't get the pansies
and violas I bought yesterday planted this afternoon.
So
now that I've got everything in I just looked at the weather forecast
and it has been revised again with a low now of just 30˚.
Give it a couple more hours and it will probably in the 40˚s. Oh
well, it all needed to come in as it will yo-yo until winter sets in
for good.
And
now it's back down to 29˚.
Your quilt seems to be some sort of flower basket. It's lovely, and what is is. And, how nice your guest room looks. And your garage. My tool shed should look so tidy! But then, I haven't set foot in it for the last two years.
ReplyDeleteas for the garage, you can't see the other half where all the stuff that was where the plants are is crammed along with all the stuff that was already there. I had to make room not just for the plants but to make sure there was enough clearance for the kiln which is out of sight to the right. the quilt is one many my sister brought back when our great aunt died 40 years ago and she went with our father to clean out the house.
DeleteI noticed yesterday that the landscapers have been out and about with their pansies -- they're everywhere. I turned on the heat for the first time, just to get the smoke alarm business out of the way. It always goes off the first time, probably because of the dust that's collected in the vents. Now I'm trying to keep myself from turning the heat on. I really want to keep the electric bill down this year if I can, and keeping the house at 68 ought to help -- if I can stand it.
ReplyDeleteour heater is propane, more costly than natural gas so we keep our thermostat at 68˚ and 65˚ at night when we go to bed. we supplement it with a little heat dish electric heater in the living room. another reason, besides money, we keep it so low is our belief that extreme and sudden changes in temperature (from indoor to outdoor and vice versa) isn't healthy. summer thermostat temp is 78˚ but the low humidity function helps. it's supposed to be in the 50s and sunny next week so I'll get the pansies planted then.
DeleteWe have no freezes in our forecast so I am not freaking yet about bringing the plants in but I know it's in my future to do so.
ReplyDeleteSigh...
I love your flower and bee with leaf wax. I can't wait to see the finished piece.
I can't plant pansies and violas. The chickens love them.
Well, it's good you got them all brought inside, but it would be nice if it doesn't freeze. Seems a bit early for a freeze, doesn't it? At least by my Floridian standards! Even here in England we haven't had a hard frost yet.
ReplyDeleteI need to take the amaryllus out of pots and put in sacks for the winter, but all the others are left to die...execept for my citrus trees, of course.
ReplyDeleteI love the bee on the flower piece(s).
ReplyDeleteBringing in the plants reminds me of the ceremonial driving down of cattle from the summer pastures in the Alps to the valleys. Or something slightly less grand.
I have one smallish plumeria which is about to flower and keeping fingers crossed may even do so indoors. Would be my first!
you need a small greenhouse, went out all day yesterday and still not warmed up enough.
ReplyDeleteAs you know, we moved our girls in this past weekend - and good thing too since there was frost everywhere Sunday morning!
ReplyDeleteBringing in the plants is such a big deal every Autumn. This year, I decided to let Mother Nature take some. We had a freeze the other day and now they are gone. I feel so guilty.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE that flower and bee - even as a wax mold! Looks like the influx of oxygen will be high in your house this winter - you have a hell of a lot of plants! I must have the same weather app - INaccuweather, as I call it. Last time I looked at it, it said there was no precipitation for 120 minutes, as the wet snow pelted the windows.
ReplyDeletewell, there was a time in the not too distant past when we really didn't have winter and I didn't have to worry about the tropicals and semi-tropicals. I had a plumeria in the ground that grew to 10' x 10' and bloomed profusely. Then we had a winter when it snowed in December and had about two weeks of temps in the 20s in February and that was the end of that. I did take many cuttings.
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