O.K.
It looks like the joke’s on us this time.
Yes.
It’s true my husband and I, in the past, have taken a certain amount of pleasure in poking fun at people who live in places with much harsher winters than ours—and much more humid summers.
My husband’s from outside Boston. He was recruited for a job here in California in 1985, and takes great pride in saying he will never live on the East Coast again. Not after his first winter without snow.
Oh yes, friends and family have come to visit and we’ve taken them to the beach or the wine country or we’ve dined al fresco with them in our own back yard basking in the warm sun.
My husband will say something like “How do you like this California weather?”
Their answer usually goes something like this: “All this sunshine is fabulous, but I think if I lived here I would miss the change of seasons.”
Then my husband will say, “Yeah, I miss sliding sideways into guardrails, too.”
At this point we both double over in fits of laughter, as our bewildered guests stare at us.
My father-in-law called us once at Thanksgiving time to tell us that he had just purchased a new snowblower. Once again my husband doubled over with laughter. Through his fits of giggles he said, “That’s too bad, Dad. Chigiy just bought a surf board.”
But, gone are the good ol’ days.
It’s January.
Normally January brings chilly daytime temps of high fifties and low sixties and frosty nights of low forties and fifties. We bundle up in our sweatshirts and jeans, sometimes even wearing socks with our sandals.
But not this year—nay, nay.
It was 24 degrees last night. 24 degrees! It’s been between 24 and 29 degrees for the last 5 days.
My brugmansia plants are frozen sticks. My cuphea are all crumpled and brown. My Princess plants are sad, gray, and withered. I did manage to get towels over my citrus trees. Then it rained.
Today I have wet towels all over my yard and I’m too cold to go outside and collect them.
I was born on a tropical island.
I moved to California when I was ten months old.
I am not used to this. Stop already with this climate-crisis thing. I was sitting in my house watching the news and shivering the other night. They were doing a piece on the weather in Chicago and how they were having a record-breaking warm December.
They were interviewing some joker who said, “If this is global warming, hey, bring it on.”
At that moment I looked up to the heavens and said, “He’s just kidding, please go back to the way things were. If you do I’ll buy a biodiesel car and never poke fun at people who live where it snows again.”
Especially since I seem to be one of them now.
Whoah, snow on the flamingo!
The main trouble with this cold spell is that it doesn't want to seem to end. My princess tree choked and sputtered the first night of frost, but 5 days in a row with the temps in the 20s? It looks worse than the Xmas tree in the Charlie Brown special. We'll see if it comes back. The citrus, too, have not been happy. Oh well.
One thing to note, morels love a good frost. You might find them popping up this spring.
Welcome to the blogosphere, Chigiy!
Posted by: Elise | January 18, 2007 at 09:16 PM
Hi,
Welcome to blogging. Sorry to hear about your cold weather, but hopefully most of your plants will recover. I'm in Utah and I'm always surprised every year at how the perennials and shrubs bounce back in the spring. Look forward to reading about your garden when the weather gets a little better.
Posted by: Kalyn | January 19, 2007 at 05:15 AM
Hi Chigiy! Welcome to blogging! Yours is a lovely voice, I''m sure it will be a hit among other garden bloggers. You might check out the Inadvertent Gardener, hers is half garden, half food and her posts and links might help you introduce yourself to the community. And the really special thing about blogging isn't so much the blogging, it's the blogging COMMUNITY. Have fun, best of luck! AK
Posted by: Alanna | January 19, 2007 at 07:55 AM
I just found your blog through a comment at the Inadvertent Gardener. Nice blog!
My 1st though on seeing the picture was "that's snow? Yawn, what is all the fuss about, that doesn't seem like much snow. Looks more like a bad case of bird dandruff." But, if you are a tropical person, I am sure it was quite a shock.
Posted by: Carol | January 23, 2007 at 01:57 PM
Carol it's true us Californians are pretty pathetic when it comes to weather. We can take rain for a few days in a row, but snow??? The snow got me all flustered. I had to run inside next to the fire, drink hot brandy while I gave myself a petacure and rubbed instant tanning lotion all over my body. My kids loved it though. The snow that is.
Posted by: Chigiy | January 23, 2007 at 02:32 PM
Should I have covered my passion flower? It's looking a bit yellow. It's not doing well. Maybe I should send a pic in and you could help me? Thanks M
Posted by: Meesewy | January 24, 2007 at 10:39 PM