Life Immitates History
Woman in the Middle | December 30, 2014I was working on a story for my local history column in our local newspaper. It just so happens the story is about the great freeze of January 1913 that had a very damaging effect on the citrus industry in our area. The number of boxes of citrus shipped from our county plunged about 85% because of the 1913 freeze.
Then I picked up the paper a couple of days ago and looked at the weather report. It said we could expect showers today and snow flurries tomorrow. Snow flurries??? WHAT???
But it is true, dear readers. A cold front has moved down from Canada that would normally go across the Rocky Mountain, and instead has moved much father south than usual. Today at 11:30 a.m. it was 52 degrees, according to my car. At 2:30 p,m, we had apparently gotten passed the “warm” part of the day and it was 46 degrees.
As long as we keep the cloud cover we are good, but if the temperature stays down and we lose the clouds, we might get a hard freeze. Most of my tender plants are in pots and can be moved next to the house or indoors, but I am worried about my orange and lemon trees. The lemon tree is young and especially vulnerable. As long as it doesn’t stay below freezing for too long we are good. But I will be picking all the oranges on the outside of the tree tomorrow, as those are the most susceptible to frost.
It is so weird, but I feel like I am living the story I wrote. The unusually cold day time temperatures, the worry about my citrus trees…it is 1913 all over again!
Meanwhile I am enjoying my sweatshirt and jeans and warm socks, my hot tea, and my central heating. An those of you who live where you get a real winter can chuckle about those silly Southern Californians and their “cold” weather. What can I say, we have thin blood!
No snow flurries here just bloody hot days that drain the energy out of a body, my New Year’s Eve will be spent watching little ones Blain & Leo hope they will be ok when I go to bed early and leave them up watching telly or playing the Xbox
What different holidays you have south of the equator!!!
Yes, Tuesday rained cats and dogs, that just HAD to be the ONE day that I HAD to run errands to beat a deadline!