Early Winter????

The weather this year has been very unusual.  That is probably the largest understatement of the century.  Unusual is a word we use when we don't want to type what we really think.  Spring was wet and rather cool, then came a hot and dry summer that quickly turned very wet again.  Harvesting crops from the garden was a challenge.  The question in our minds was "will the vegetables ripen before they rot"?  Despite the weather, we were blessed with a decent harvest and the freezer is full.

One of our favorite perennials is the short yellow Irises that my Aunt Millicent gave me many years ago.  They bloom twice a year, usually in early May and again in September or October.  Notice that word "usually"?  This year, they waited until November to bloom.  The blooms were not nearly as prolific but still beautiful.  I was thinking about taking a photo but waited too long.  On Thursday, November fifteenth, we received snow along with sleet and freezing rain.  By Saturday the forty-two degree temperature melted a lot of the snow and I was able to take a photo.  This photo shows a few of the buds that will never get the chance to open.

At the lower left of this photo is an Iris that managed to produce one last bloom just before the snow and ice.