Rare Visit From A Trouble-maker
(Nature • )
At this moment, we are having what qualifies as an episode here in semi-South Texas:
It is snowing, hard. Big, fluffy, real snow.
I should point out that it almost never snows here. It isn’t supposed to. The last time it snowed here was Christmas Eve, 2004, and that’s the only time I remember it snowing since I moved to the area in 1998.
Where I grew up, in Northeast Ohio, under Nature’s icy paw, there were many seasons when, by late March, we were pretty sick of nothing but snow. And escaping the dreary frozen tundra of North winters is what drove me to the gentle, sunny South more than 25 years ago.
Yet enthusiasm for real snow is infectious, and I must’ve caught it from the kids. Pictures later, if this keeps up.
This unusual early season cold snap is a lot more fun today than it was for the previous two, which I spent almost entirely hauling hibiscus and plumeria plants into the house and garage, respectively. Had to “winterize” the garage, too, which consists of pounding boards and bending fiberglass panels along the opening between roof and rafters on the north side of the garage – a space I’m happy to have in the summer.
The plumeria are perfectly content to remain packed together without water or much light, for most of the next three months. They’ll just kind of go to sleep standing up until further notice.
The hibiscus are happy enough in the spare room that I turned into a full-fledged plumeria plant nursery last year. This year, no need for plant lights and daily seedling care. The hibiscus get by on less light and water than usual, although they don’t really go dormant. In fact, some of them bloom more strongly through the winter than at any other time. Those I put in pots in front of the large downstairs windows, where they masquerade as houseplants.
Meanwhile, my fall tomatoes haven’t had enough time to ripen up, although they’re the size of green tennis balls. Probably I should just pick them and fry them up, but just for fun I made a big tent out of an aging tarp and an old painter’s cloth, and enclosed them in there along with a row of pepper plants.
My best guess is they won’t survive the expected 12 hours of 29-degree weather, yet I’m feeling lucky.
→ B.Dunn, Dec 04, 2009, 10 30 am
I moved here from the north to escape snow.
Where is global warming when you need it? Mr. Gore, please help.
— Robert Williamson Dec 4, 11:54 am #
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