Some Really Frozen Grass

At the tail end of our spell of hard freezes, the grass in our yard turned a very unusual yet lovely burnt sienna color.

I can't remember ever seeing grass quite this color before. I'm glad I took a picture of it when I did, because later we had rain and today the grass is a completely different color–more of a nondescript beige.

I wonder how long it will be before the grass is green again?

A 100-Year Record Cold Spell

I've counted 12 nights in a row that our low temperature has been below freezing, with quite a few nights of hard freezes included. Our local paper says that this spell of freezing weather is the longest recorded in the past 100 years.

Forrest reminded me that this prolonged cold spell could make for a very beautiful spring.

Tonight's low is forecast to be in the mid 30s. That's above freezing. It almost feels like we should have a party!

Plus, as I left work tonight, I was greeted by this beautiful sky—clouds like this everywhere, over the whole sky from north to south and east to west. Just beautiful.

A Spell of Long, Hard Freezes

We are deep into what is most likely going to be a record-setting number of days of hard freezes, more than I can ever remember all at once and definitely longer than the ice storm spell of 1989.

Yesterday, there was snow to the south of us–Ocala and Orlando areas–but our air was too dry to permit the white stuff to make it to the ground, for which we are cursing our luck because if it's going to be this cold, we might as well have something pretty to look at!

This morning when I got in my car to go to work (yes, I work on Sundays), it was 16 degrees and the frost had painted these beautiful little star-like designs on the side of my car. (You can click on the picture, above, for a better view.) Driving in to work on a rural highway, it was frosty on both sides of the road, and as I was driving there were bright little twinkly lights emanating from the frost.

I keep hoping we will at least get one of our beautiful heavy frosts, so I can post a picture of something besides my car in the cold weather—but so far the frost has not been heavy enough to really show up well in a photograph. I guess the air has been too dry.

Brrrrrrrrr!

The last time it was this cold for this long was in the winter of 1989, when I moved back to Florida from California. Two days before Christmas, there was an ice storm—which I had never experienced before, and may never experience again.

This week, we have had several straight days of hard freezes, with more to come. I know that much of the rest of the country is in much worse shape from the cold than we are, but since we're only used to a couple of days of hard freezes at a time, we are really feeling it.

This morning, three faucets in the bathroom (sink, tub, shower) weren't producing hot water. My husband had to crawl up into the attic and thaw the pipes out with a hair dryer; very luckily, none of them was broken. Tonight, our freezing temps start at about 8 p.m., and you'd better believe we will be leaving those faucets on to drip.

Here's a big OM MANI PADME HUNG for all animals and humans that have to be outside tonight. (That's the bodhisattva Chenrezig's mantra that carries many blessings.)

Steve's Sycamore, and a Late Freeze!

Here's my neighbor Steve's big sycamore tree. If there's a better barometer of the changing seasons, I don't know what it is. Delicate green leaves in the spring, bigger and deeper green leaves all summer, finally turning golden-brown in autumn and then shedding all over the place just like yellow feral cats.

Look for this same view of Steve's sycamore as we move through spring into summer and then fall and winter. (As with all pictures on this blog, if you click it, you'll see a bigger version.)

We've been lucky lately; we've had rain (spring into early summer is our dry season). Now, tonight, there is a forecast of a freeze that is expected to set records for our area—down to 31 degrees! This isn't unheard of in April in North Central Florida, but it's rare.

If I'm up early enough tomorrow morning, I'll try to get a picture if we have frost—but since frost doesn't really photograph well unless it's heavy, I'm not sure I'll have much luck.