... but I think it'll be awhile before it gets this far south. Which is fine by me. Maybe I'll be harvesting sugar snap peas this year instead of next spring, though I'm not sure if I got them in the ground soon enough.
I've determined that beets just do not grow in clay soil. 90% of them never grew past seedling size, and of the 10% that have decent-sized leaves, the roots are no larger than a quarter. I'll have to do a raised bed and buy dirt if I want to grow them, I think. Not sure it's worth the expense.
The carrots, on the other hand... looking forward to a nice spring carrot crop. I may have to just have a peas, carrots and herb garden, since tomatoes, peppers, and squash don't do to well when we have crazy-hot summers. I'm about to start harvesting, drying, and crumbling basil. I have an enormous amount of it due to the 100% sprout rate of the 5+-year-old seed I sowed in the spring. The rest of my herbs continue to amaze me with their extreme cold tolerance - lots of parsley and cilantro seedlings already up that will sail right through temps in the teens if I mulch or cover them with plastic.
It's cold enough that I've broken out all my winter layers for motorcycle riding. I can ride moderate distances down to about 40F (maybe 30 minutes), with 8 layers on top and 4 on bottom. The thing with riding is that one must dress for a 65mph wind chill! Wind chill of 60mph at 40F is 25F, and the wind is constantly looking for a way inside; any body heat that makes its way to the surface is immediately carried away.
I tell you what, if you want warm gloves for winter, look for Manzella or a similar high-quality brand, and find ones that say 'windproof' and are rated 2 or 3 out of 3 on their warmth scale. Then get a pair of those super-stretchy thin gloves (that look like cartoon character hands when you're not wearing them) to layer under the windproof ones. Keeps my fingers toasty at 40F, and decent at 32F, on the highway. And that combo is waaaaay better than waterproof/breathable (should be windproof too) ski gloves. For some reason the dense fleece of the windproof gloves is so much warmer than the poofy insulation of ski gloves.
I did the local Celtic Fest two weeks ago, and it was about like last year as far as sales. Some different bands, but they all sounded energetic this year, which is a relief - sometimes you get a group playing slow, simple, sad folk tunes, and those just kill the energy of everyone listening. But this year was good, though there were no true rock groups - not a single drum set graced the stage. Alas.
Awhile back the thought occurred to me that I might want to pick up another instrument. I've settled on the violin, because I love the sound of Scotts/Irish/Welsh music, and would love to learn to fiddle like that. Friend of mine still has his violin that he played in high school, so I might wind up borrowing that; I can't really afford to rent or buy.
I donated to Wikipedia today, and if you use it on any kind of semi-regular basis, I encourage you to do so too. It's kind of like an NPR radio station in terms of what they need to keep going, and in what they do for their readers. The information contained within isn't perfect and isn't 100% free of bias, but it is the only repository of information of its kind on the web (that I know of).
I'm recovering from bronchitis and a sinus infection. Went to the doc Thursday after losing two nights of sleep to coughing. Not fun. I think the hydrocodone-containing cough syrup has finally started working, so I'm off to bed.
