The sun has been shining for three days. We're going to be in the 70*'s this week. The Tropicals have been moved out of the garage. I am so tempted to move the houseplants back outside. Alas, I must remember it is only January and we have a Texas February to endure!

One never knows here in Texas......the past couple of winters have been mild......sorta,......wondering if we should expect more of the same in coming years?

It may be mild right now, but we were seeing mostly colder than normal temps for about a month before we got this break! Good for the peach growers, but not good for my southern blood!

Linda, my little Bonanza dwarf peach has buds all over it. I thought I'd lost it to the heat and drought. We seem to always get icy weather around the end of January here, so I'm not getting too comfortable just yet.

As much as we are drinking in this sunshine, I am always leery about winter weather until March 31st! We got caught with our pants down in a freeze I will always recall on March 30, 1983 or '84. All our new annuals were frozen to the ground. They came back nicely and even bigger, but it was still a heartache. In the meantime, I have my garden gloves on and doing winter deep clean up.

I'm spreading compost today. We have a small greenbelt behind us. I usually toss leaves over the fence and retrieve them in spring. I was out there Saturday and the ground was soft and springy. I started hauling the top layer back into the yard! I didn't bother with it last spring. Got too busy. I'm glad I left it. it'll come in handy this year!

Kind of early for peach tree blooms!

Bubbles said:Linda, my little Bonanza dwarf peach has buds all over it. I thought I'd lost it to the heat and drought. We seem to always get icy weather around the end of January here, so I'm not getting too comfortable just yet.

No blooms yet, just budding out.

So much for chilly weather! We're going to have a warm 76 tomorrow afternoon. It'll be up to 80 on Thursday.

I know! They are predicting "warmer than normal" weather for the Houston area for the next two weeks. We will be in to February by then. Then what??

I predict that it'll turn cold again by early February!

There was a year that had the great early spring after some big cold front. Wasn't that in early or mid-February? But I live in the hills, so I'm pretty sure we'll have plenty of freezes still to come!

Really windy last night & today! Two power outages today, neither one brief. But at least it's been back since late in the afternoon, so we have heat tonight. I hear that a lot of people still don't have power!

I spent part of the afternoon trying to keep my hoop along the fence line from going airborne. We had 50 MPH winds with gusts of 60 MPH. Our yard is covered in branches and leaves. I had a mtg tonight and at 9 PM, it was still whipping stuff around the roads. Supposed to be blowing all night, but the worst is over. Lots of power outages from falling trees and fences down.

The biggest story in the morning will be the Dillo Dirt "compost" piles that have caught on fire and are still burning. The fire dept. can't put them out because of the wind, and the stench from the smoke is terrible out near the treatment plant. They may have to close the road out there.

Another "Mulchie"? Unbelievable! About 37° last night. Wednesday and Thursday night it might freeze.

We can see the smoke from here and it's clear on the other side of Austin. They're telling people the smoke is not toxic. Really, with all the metals and stuff that runs off and eventually into the treatment plant?

Went from mid-80's high on Monday to a freeze last night! And wind so high yesterday morning that it blew my very large garbage can over and blew some trash blew all over. I just LOVE picking up trash! NOT!

Wow, what a drop in temperature, and for sure no fun picking up trash.

This weather has been very strange. The wind blew some shingles off of my roof, broke a wind chime, and knocked over some of my small pots with seedlings in them. I love Winter, but now I'm ready for Spring lol.

A local "dirt factory" here also had a mulch fire that burned for days, and the wind spread it to all the mulch piles on the yard. I wonder if they will be having a charred mulch sale?