Didn't go out yesterday, but it looked cold. (Had to wait for the plumber to come unblock a sink that's been running slow since we moved in. All fixed now!)
No snow, no appreciable rain yesterday. Very clear out. It looked chilly when I got up earlier - thermometer in the kitchen window was reading around zero C, or just a bit below. And I can still see a bit of frost on the grass. We're a few floors up, and the thermometer is in the shade, so it probably is close to accurate, but maybe reads a degree warmer (cold air sinks). Clear as a bell out there again today. No breeze that I can see moving the trees.
Yes, it's getting light earlier and dark later! We have some little strands of twinkle lights that we leave up around our livingroom windows all year long, set to come on when it is just dark enough to not be able to really read by the ambient light in the room. (Was around 4:00 earlier this winter.) They are now coming on when there is still some light. The plants are behaving oddly, too. The four cayenne pepper plants have about a half-dozen blooms now among them. They seem to like being behind the kitchen sink on the north side of the house, oddly, rather than being in the southern-facing windows. (I moved them a week or two ago.) Whatever, as long as they are happy and producing. I wasn't expecting to be getting peppers from them over the winter, but there are three turning red on the plants right now. At this rate, with the number we have hanged up and dried on the pantry shelves, I'll never run out of cayenne! The jalepenos are also making fruits. Very small fruits, but it counts. That's so weird! The cowhorn peppers had a bloom, and I'm not sure if they can self-polinate or not. The two of those plants are now two feet tall, and all of them seem healthy. I am surprised peppers do so well here - I would have thought some of the other plants would do better, but it seems like hot peppers are going to be the plant-o-da-house. And are happily surviving winter.
