The forecast all week has been for rain today and staying in the 50’s, light frost tonight is the usual cold spots and then warming up after a cold day in the 40’s tomorrow. Yesterday they changed it to a light freeze in the upper 20’s tonight and in the 40’s today. Well I think spring got lost somewhere along the way. Here is what it looks like now!!
Off the front porch looking toward the garden.
This was taken two hours ago and it is still snowing so there is even more snow on the ground now.
This is taken from the front porch looking south toward the fruit trees.
At first the snow melted in the road but now it is collecting there also. The trees look like mid-winter, there are no smiles and no birds singing today. Now at 10 am it is 32.2 degrees and still snowing lightly. Norman is down in the garden hilling and putting mulch on the potatoes to try and save them. We know they can take a frost but a freeze I don’t know? This is just too long to be at or below freezing. I am hoping the collars I put on the seedlings will give them enough protection to keep them alive, I have no idea how low they can take. Seven years ago on April 21 and 22 we had a freeze in the 20’s for two days and it killed all the fruit and berries in the state of TN. I hope this is not going to happen again this year as my blueberries were going so great and my grapes are just beginning to open. We have decided not to fight it any more and will stay in Florida an extra month. We will not come back home until the end of March, that will delay the planting by a month so we don’t have this worry. It will delay the kitchen garden but that is alright too. Sunday and Monday we had a salad from the kitchen garden. The lettuce and spinach both needed thinning so I thinned both for a small salad for supper. On Sunday I also got enough asparagus to make a nice big salad. Now everything is covered in snow and I have no idea what will survive, I’ll keep you posted. They call this a dogwood winter as the dogwood are blooming and now they have an extra coat of white on them- not as pretty to my eyes. Try and have a good day. Even the snow does not know which way to go. One minute it is falling to the south and the next it is falling sharply to the north, once in a while it even fall straight down- pretty sad when all a farmer has to do is sit and watch which way the snow is falling in April.
Oumapetts's Blog 
So sorry you are having such bad luck. Hope it warms up soon for you. Yesterday it was 75 here, but today it is cold and windy, and raining. It s 60, but cold. I ended up just having my pre-cancers, sprayed for now. They are messy and bleeding now. Just a nuisance. Better than cutting though. Good luck to you with your gardens. Love, Don and Joyce….
Hi Joyce, I hope your spray took care of your problem. Do they give you any idea what is causing it? My brother-in-law knows his is caused by the sun but he does not want to stay out of the sun so spends all day outside and then has the skin cancer cut out over and over again. I have no idea what I would do. I do wear a long sleeve shirt when ever I can so I don’t get bothered by the sun but that is not enough for Frank I am sure. Our gardens made out well from the freeze we had Tuesday night because Norman put mulch on all the plants that were up and that kept them from getting frost bit. Today I went down and pulled the mulch back from the plants and everything looks great. Hope that was the last frost for this year. Love Carol
We are getting rain here but it is nasty. We will get it colder by tomorrow a.m. I haven’t been able to get anything done in the yard in Richmond. Don’t know if anything is up or not. Always is a miserable, rainy day when I have planned to go there and work. Can’t put the house on the market until water gets turned on and yard cleaned a bit from the winter junk, also the usual stripping of personal items…..possibly the slowing of the whole process is a warning to not be too quick to sell my own home. So difficult to know what is best to do. I go back and forth with the wind!!!! Any luck in selling your other house down there??? Any prospects??? Is the market improving at all? All in the family are well…for the time. David, my youngest, was laid off from I.b.M. after 26 yrs. as a chemical engineer last month. He will be paid for 7 months and has prepared for the future well so not in any financial bind but…….shows how the economy is still going around here. He has 2 kids still to put through college but……..has that taken care of also. Glad he has a good head with money and investments. Sorry so many are in trouble with finances today. Nothing else to report except I am still breathing. Love you and stay in touch. Nancy
Hi Nancy, I hope your weather is getting better. We had a freeze Tuesday night so Norman hilled the potatoes and put mulch on them and on the plants that we had set out earlier last week so they all made out great. The only things that got nipped were the leaves that didn’t get under the mulch so I was very pleased. Now they say we are all done with the frosts. I sure hope they are right. We have not had anyone interested enough in the Whitwell house. We have to sit here in limbo until someone wants the house as all our savings are tied up in that. When it does sell we will fee so rich we will celebrate with a nice trip to the Builtmore in NC. It does look like the weather has taken most of the fruit on our trees this year but I do hope we get just a title. Do enjoy life now and don’t worry about what will happen tomorrow, that will take care of itself. love you Carol
Hi Carol and family, Thinking of you folks on this Easter Sunday! Also have Shirley on my mind. Are she and all her family o.k? Are you cooking today?? Thank goodness I am not! Peter and I will go to Dick’s for a nice ham dinner. Dear Suzie who loves to cook and entertain!!! Later we will go to Greek friends of Peter’s that will be roasting a whole lamb. I’ll be o.k.if I don’t look at the lamb……all food will be fabulous! Everyone will be chattering in Greek so I can just meditate out into some quiet time of my own. Learned to do that long ago and it comes in very handy often. So don’t work too hard in that garden……you folks aren’t ” Spring chicks “! Love you, Nancy