How cold has it been here?

I know some parts of the country are under snow (New Mexico), and other parts have had horrible tornadoes.  Here in our little corner of the world, we just had the lowest overnight temperature EVER.  It was 21 degrees down in Thermal.  Now, Thermal is about 35 miles south of us, at the lower end of the Coachella Valley.  There are date orchards and citrus orchards down there.  There is a LOT of agriculture.  So, 21 degrees can be devastating for crops.  It was 32 degrees on our front porch that morning.

I went over to our local nursery that morning to buy some cauliflower plants (organic, of course!) and 1 more (organic) cabbage.  These were some of the pics I took that morning at 8:30.  They had just watered all of their plants.

Please stay warm, if you can!  Today was a lot warmer.  It was 34 degrees here this morning.

Natural History museum

Yesterday our daughter, son-in-law, 2 year old granddaughter, and our nearly 7 year old grandson and I drove into Los Angeles, to the natural history museum.  Grandpa Art didn't go as he has a back issue right now (severe arthritis).  He elected to stay home and rest.

We left about 7:30 here in the desert and arrived there about 9:45.  We got a convenient parking space and headed into the museum, which had just opened at 9:30 a.m.  Good thing we got there early!  By noon, there was a line out the door to enter!  We had it mostly to ourselves all morning!

The kids had a blast and the grandson was busy READING (yes, he is reading!) nearly every sign there!  They have a lot of hands-on exhibits for kids, and he was busy touching those.  He got to watch a scientist working in the dino lab, he got to touch replicas of fossils, and a coyote skin, and touch crystals.  The two year old just RAN everywhere!  She's high energy, FOR SURE!

I bought him some nice presents in the gift shop and let him take home a dinosaur tooth replica.

It was a fun, but exhausting day!

Beautiful fall colors at the Whitewater Preserve

After Friday afternoon's storm, I knew our local mountains would have snow, and LOTS of it!  And, yup...Saturday morning I awoke to see snow everywhere!  I didn't go up to the horses.  I will do that today.  Instead, hubby and I headed out about 9:30 a.m. the opposite direction, toward Whitewater Canyon, which is at the base of the San Bernardino mountains.  The Whitewater River flows into the Coachella Valley aquifer and replenishes our underground water supplies, so snow on those mountains is important to our valley.  And, there was a lot of fresh snow yesterday!

I was hoping that the trees at the preserve would still have some color and they didn't disappoint me.  What a beautiful place!  I'm thinking that once I retire, I'll be spending a LOT of time up there!

 This was the view from the parking lot.

 I got out and just wandered around.  Hubby went another way...

 I loved the sunlight coming through the trees.

Lots of beautiful leaves!

MORE flower photos to make folks in the east envious!

I know...I'm evil!  (heh, heh!)...Out here in Southern California, our winter growing season is just beginning.  The Peter Rabbit Farms owns the property on 2 sides of our school and they just finished putting in their watering sprinklers for the carrots they grow on two large fields.  One field is north of the school and the other one is right across the street.  Maybe I'll take some photos today with my cell phone...Farmers are growing lettuce, radishes, cauliflower, broccoli, and even asparagus right now.  I'll stop after school and TRY to remember to take some photos.  I always enjoy driving out through the fields...

ANYWAY, 6 more days of school (i.e. CHAOS this time of year) and then 3 weeks off!  Whoo, whoo! I CANNOT wait!  I'm SO looking forward to retirement!  However, this little class is so sweet!  I know I'll just be a big pile of tears when they leave...sigh...They really are sweethearts (well, there are a couple of exceptions!)  Yesterday, one of the district teachers on special assignment came by.  She has done some writing lessons with them and they brought EVERY SINGLE KID a beautifully-colored lead pencil and a bubblegum-flavored candy cane!  WOW!  You should have seen their eyes!  I'm one of the very few teachers who actually implements her ideas in the classroom and I've given her some work samples and I've taken photos and shared them with her.  I always enjoy trying new ideas!

Well, time to go...
Enjoy your day!
~Cheryl Ann~

More photos from my garden!

More garden COLOR!

I returned to the neighborhood nursery Sunday morning.  That was my only outing for the day.  I needed a day to rest.

Anyway, I wanted to fill in the now-dead daisy which I bought at Lowe's... :-(  So, I bought 2 more, 3 blue daisies, 1 red verbena, and 2 petunias.

TA DA!

Another weekend

I didn't get up to see the horses this weekend...I just had too many things to do Saturday and Sunday I was exhausted.  I did make it up the street to the local nursery and I bought 9 new plants for my front garden, including one red verbena, which the butterflies and hummingbirds will really enjoy.  I also planted a packet of nasturtiums in the same spot they were last year, since a couple have already come up from that crop.  I watered my sweet peas out back.  They are doing nicely.  I took a couple of naps yesterday and now I'm ready for another week.

 Quad is up in the round pen now, so he can't chew on Sunni's tail any longer!

 This is the ranch a couple of weeks ago.  I love the fall colors!

More of the ranch from a couple of weeks ago.