It's already back to 32 and supposed to get to 40 today. Sun is shining. However tonight and tomorrow night we will have about 12 hours of below 32. Not good! I covered a few things in the garden beds, have a frost blanket over potted plants on the patio and moved a few tropicals into the garage. I have a question though. How long can things stay covered before lack of light harms them? Do I have to uncover everything everyday? I have fluorescent lights in the garage and will turn them on each day. Will that be ok until Friday?

It snowed here last night. Not much, but enough that it was still on the ground this morning. I was up at 6. Pulled the drapes open off the gameroom ( where the "house hoop" is) to see a sticky note on the glass door from DH. 'Said, "temp was 40 on porch at 3 am, and Happy New Year!"
Was a nice start to 2018!

I'm afraid we have a couple more freezing nights here. The sun just came out. Guess I'll go check on the bromeliads. Keeping my fingers crossed they're okay. I didn't have a heater to put in such a small hoop, and could not find outdoor string lights that we used to have across front of house over holidays.

I covered my infant citrus trees yesterday and do not intend to uncover them until Friday when it will no longer drop below freezing. I expect they will do fine in the dark until then.

The sun is coming out here - supposed to get to 30 degrees today. I relented and let DH turn on the furnace today....got a little nippy. Spitting rain/slush last night but then it cleared to see the beautiful moon.

The temp at the farm right now (actual air temp) is -8 degrees - wind chills in the high -20s.....may get up to zero there today - yes, glad we moved.

Making New Year's Day supper: fresh ham with rice and gravy (to move forward in the new year), white beans (for abundance in the new year), smothered cabbage (for money in the new year), mashed potatoes (for the kids who won't eat cabbage), glazed carrots (for me who needs something other than carbs)....the kids are coming so I couldn't be happier.

Then a quick yard check. The roses and azaelas were blooming yesterday - the lantana was coming back after the snow....the gingers looked ok. The neglected camellias share one bud between three spindly plants. No new shoots on the agapanthas. The mums were pretty spent. I need to use this cold time to plan new beds and plants.

Happy New Year Everyone

@SALL20 ~ I have read (Neil Sperry if I remember) that you can put frost cloth on and leave it all winter. I know a week has not harmed plants for me.

Hearing those northern temps make me rethink whining about these temperatures...

At least the SUN is shining. That alone makes me feel warmer.

I just went out to check on plants. I could not make myself stay outside. It's bitter cold. Very little wind, but just a damp cold that seeps into the body. Bromeliads look okay, so far. I think I'll have to move them into the garage when it warms up, tho.

The sun is out! It seems like it has been overcast for the last week. But that means it will really get cold tonight.

Sandi, I will be super impressed if your bromeliads were alright covered with no heat. I covered a few things myself with no heat that I am dreading looking under the cover to see what happened. If your broms across the lake made it my stuffs prolly cool too

@teacup754 , I would actually pay money to see the sun right now.

It's nice to see the sun out. It seemsit's been weeks since we've seen it? I have yet to venture outside. Its up to 38 right now.

@Bubbles. Snow? Snow is good and very insulating. Our 1" of snow did no harm to the landscape even though everything was blanketed in it for 6-7 hours. I dn't think they are predicting any snow for us. Just this bitter cold for 4 more days. It didn't get as low as they said it would. And the freeze was light and short. I did my very best to protect everything and i can't do any better than that. It's out of my hands now. What is out of my hands are the house pipes and the water heater . The water heater is up in the attic. I am especially worried about them this time. I guess I have to have something to worry about.

@sall20 Darkness vs freezing , I choose darkness. I think the plants would choose the same? They all seem to recover even while under a cardboard box which many of mine are for this round of cold. I was lucky my recycling bin was full of them. The Be Prepared Person inside of me wants to hoard all this cardboard until spring.

Us poor Southerners are just not used to this!! Dh is still in basketball shorts and a tshirt. If he complains about being cold one more time....

I just found a bird in the cold with a hurt wing. Yellow and black?? (m looking it up right now) I have him in the greenhouse right now where it's 64 degrees. Will transport to the WildLife Center when I can.

I'm amazed at how many of the bromeliads are cold tolerant. When mine multiply enough I plan on putting sacrificial bromeliads out in the ground to test. I think long term low temps or hard freezes with no breezes are tough.

@Teacup754 ~ Sun equals cold is NOT what I wanted to think about but you are so right. Clear nights are usually bitter aren't they. It also seems we see hard freezes around full moon which is tonight.

@ShadyGreenThumb ~ if you are worried about plumbing freezing, I would select a few faucets and set the warm to drip. The hot water should prevent freezing and if they do, it will take the pressure off to keep them from busting. I was amazed years ago to see some folks buy anti freeze to put in their commode tanks. I'd have trouble staying in a house that the commode could freeze up.

@Esperanza Hmmm... paying money for sun??? I understand that and could chip in if you need...

We've had so little sun recently that some of the solar fence chargers are not working very well. I hope the cows don't find out...

Thank @pod. All the cabinets are opened. I have set the washer to "delay" cycle and have it go off for the longest cycle around 4 am lasting until 6 am. I hope thats good enough. I will set the "Delay" on the dishwasher when it's full. I don't want to get too crazy about this. Am looking into getting a new water heater today. Ours is 17 years old and living on borrows time. Dh says "It works" but he doesn't remember that when it stops working its immediate and could leak through the ceiling.

@ShadyGreenThumb Very kind of you and the best of luck. My experience with wild birds is to leave them outside even when that seems the least best thing to do. Sometimes stress of being enclosed just keels them over. Every bird is different and I hope this one is humble to your offerings.

@pod seriously ........I would be gullible enough to buy a bridge right now if it was promised to come with sunshine

I should have brought him inside instead of the Gh and taken him to the rehab center. IDK how I am going to get him out? when it warms up, I will open the doors and let him decide. In the mean time I will place seed and water out for him. He is lucky I have birds and a turtle who eats meal worms. So he will get a feast.

Cheryl -- Looks like a goldfinch. Hope can get it to rehab. They're such beautiful little birds.

I need to put up my finch feeder and check the other feeders too. The birds have been MIA for months, probably due to some Coopers Hawks. But 2 days ago I saw a couple of jays at the peanut feeder. Yesterday around 4:30, I took out the mixed seed and fruit feeder. Within 5 minutes a male cardinal was at it and a female was perched near by.

The short adventure is over. The little Goldfinch flew away. He must have been very cold for me to be able to catch him with my hands. 20 mins in the warm Gh helped him. I brought out some seed and water and saw him flying all around the gh. So I opened the window and he flew right out. I heard him "Tee Diiiii" out in the trees. I hope he learns to stay warm somewhere!

Great news!

I was trying to remember a term for the little bitty beads of frozen water. We so seldom have them. Some of the frostweed has done their icy thing, also. Maybe I will get pics later. They won't melt today, I know that!