Goodbye, garden

The forecast is for a low of 34 tonight and 30… possibly 27… for tomorrow night. The bell pepper plants are loaded with peppers that will never see maturity. I went and picked all of them that felt firm and ready.

There are dozens and dozens more; the real shame is that after this weekend it's going to stay above freezing for awhile. I may throw an old blanket over a couple of the plants, just to see if I could save them for another week or two.

Cliff and I still hope to go to Arkansas one more time before winter, but it seems to be raining there almost every weekend. Cliff mentioned waiting until the leaves change color, but I told him if we get a time that the weather is good, we'd better go for it and not worry about the leaves.

I haven't seen hummingbirds for several days, so I guess they've moved on. I have the goldfinch feeder out, but haven't seen a single finch for a long time; everything I've read about them assures me they will return to spend the winter. Right now, things are pretty dead in my back yard, as far as bird activity. Before February, I want to get a bluebird house and a martin house. I read online that if you get two birdhouses and put them ten feet apart, sparrows will use one and leave the other for bluebirds. Both sparrows and bluebirds are territorial, and won't nest too close to their own kind. I sure do hate to think about providing housing for a nasty old sparrow, though.