Damned cold day

It's a clear, sunny day and the air temperature has soared from 0 to 5, but that's on the Fahrenheit scale, so for the rest of the educated world our high temp today is -15 C. That's cold! It was a great weather sequence, starting Friday evening with freezing rain, so Saturday starts out ice-coated and it's one of those you can barely see it coatings of ice. TPP slipped down his own front steps, while being terribly careful because it was obviously slippery, and the newspaper was out there somewhere, but it was slippery-er than was imagined, and fortunately no physical damage was done beyond slightly spraining a thumb. Then riding in on a blast of Arctic air a layer of snow was deposited on the ice. Actually at this low a temperature, it's way less slippery now than 24 hrs ago.  Tonight may well be our coldest temperature of the calendar year, and the '16-'17 winter season; the temperature is expected to be 3 to 4 degrees below zero F (-20 C).  
Plant-wise this is close to the hardiness limits for a number of plants so come spring, TPP expects some die back.  For example, one species of beauty berry is less hardy than the other and Callicarpa  bodinieri may well die back to the ground level.  Last time it took it two years to recover and flower again (this year), so the clock will get turned back again.  TPP worries about his big leafed Asch magnolia, endemic to the Florida panhandle.  It survived 0 F last year without damage but 3 to 4 degrees colder pushes the  envelop a bit further, so to help out it was heavily mulched and the bit of snow will also help. The Sinocalycanthus is also a worry at these temperatures.  This is no where near how cold it could get here, and twice in the past 40 years the low temperature has hit -19 F.  The neighbors have a very tough mimosa tree, and it may well die back and come spring they'll just have to wait and see where it sprouts, and then prune back accordingly.  
Yesterday was spent in part making currant-cherry-berry jelly, outstanding taste and bright red. Currants tend to ripen when it's too busy to make jelly, but they are easily frozen and then wait patiently for our attention. These are from the 2015 season. 2016s are waiting. 
Today will be a soup-making day - parsnip, sausage, and lentil will be a good choice. 

Campus fashion citings

You can observe lots of interesting winter fashion on university campuses.

Bare-ankled weather nut - It was 5 degrees below zero this morning, and there walking down a sidewalk was a bare-ankled weather nut.  Yes, short shoe-top socks and low sneakers as your basic Arctic winter clothing.  Won't your mother be so proud that you've learned to dress yourself.

Weather-defying cargo shorts - Some people are just in a fashion rut or saving a lot of money by not buying any clothes at all.  So nothing like the all purpose, all season, khaki cargo shorts, well-wrinkled.  Do they feel a certain chill?  Of course their converse sneakers don't help much either. 

Chic and impractical - Nothing like a pair of high-heeled, knee high leather boots to show off you long legs otherwise wrapped in sprayed on jeans. The traction on icy sidewalks is unparalleled.  The short, little leather coat looks like its weather approved for temperatures down to about freezing, but it's all about looking good, not staying warm. The white faux fur ear muffs actually may be the most practical accessory possible.

Fashion-be-damned uni-sex, over-stuffed, cucoon sleeping bag trench coat - Well, it most certainly looks warm, and it is moving, so we must assume a person is enveloped within that Michelin-man cylinder of down-stuffed nylon. This could also be survival gear for a foreign student from someplace like Thailand.  TPP's Thai students always wore all of their clothing at once during the winter.

Muk luks - If there ever was a season for muk luks, this is it. Yes, these massive furry boots can make any foot look like a sasquatch. And as for the ties with fur pom-poms at the ends; well, this is a dead giveaway that you don't live with a cat who would tackle you in a nano-second.

Of course in his day, TPP remembers a year-book group photo of the dear fellows he hung out with that was quite simply labeled, "Send food, money, winter-clothing".

 

First day of spring - hardly!

The calendar is telling us today is the first day of spring; the weather is not.  It was blustery and in the low 20s (-6 C) this morning, and the walk to the coffee shop and then to campus just about froze my arse off.  Such is the particular magic of wind chill.  Walking into a warm and moist coffee shop on such a day and your glasses totally fog, so happy spring to all the unidentified regular patrons who greeted TPP this morning. Tonight the low temperature is supposed to be 13 F (-10.6 C), diametrically the opposite of last year, and quite a few people asked, "Will this hurt our plants?"  Possibly, but not fatally.  As late winter advances, buds swell and bulbs send up leaves and buds, and they progressively become less cold hardy.  This varies greatly with the state of plant growth and the temperature.  If peach blossoms were showing pink in such temperatures, they're toast.  If your hellebore blossoms are showing pink, it's no worry.  Even so, the peach tree is hardy and will survive because flower buds as the approach flowering are among the most tender parts of the plant.  Of course the point in having some plants is to have them flower and fruit, but some years the weather gods get you.  Still TPP would rather not have temperatures get so low this time of year, and we may hope that this is the last of the really cold temperatures.