The First Freeze

The birdbath has a layer of ice this morning.

So did the Jeep.

It took a bit to find the head of a scraper I had saved when the handle broke off. I have an intact scraper which I found when I got to work. It was on the floor under the driver's seat. It's now in the glove box where I will find it.

Winter is now coming. It's been a rough month for my joints. I don't remember if I was this stiff last year. I love fall even if it tacks another 15 minutes onto my getting going in the morning.

Because of the forecast, I brought the geraniums in last night. It's been in the 40's at night and not a whole lot warmer during the day. I guess this coming weekend is the deck clearing one.

It's been a good growing year, but I am ready to put everything away and hunker down with soup and tea and stew and hot cocoa.

Step one is making sure the places in the house are ready for the geraniums. Step two is removing all the dead leaves and flower bracts from the plants. Step three is placing them inside. Step four is giving them a good drink of water if they need it. We got rain overnight on Sunday so not all the geraniums needed water.

The heat is on in the house now so, while the back door is open as I stood to the right deadheading the geraniums and removing leaves, I tapped the door closed when I went inside with the plant. That lead to an unintended consequence.

Oops. The door's not closed. If she knew to put her front paws on it and push, it would pop right open, but neither cat has exhibited that behavior. Instead she stood outside meowing pitifully until I opened the door. I just never turned around to see if they had come outside. It was chilly and I figured they would stay inside. I did this to Mija too, unfortunately.

But, the geraniums are inside. I have the four in the back room.

The giant pink one on the left will need to be pruned back in a month or so. It's got a couple of buds on it so I'll let those blossom and then prune it. I repotted all of these in May and their lush color and the height of the pink one are testimony to good soil.

I put one in the living room.

There will be some initial leaf drop as they went from an air temperature hovering around 55 to an air temperature of 70, but, once they get used to being inside, I'll have my geraniums over the winter. Occasional flowers? What's not to like about that?

Beverage:  Yorkshire Gold Tea

Deb