Very Nippy Night

At about 6:15 am this morning, my thermometer read 5 degrees. That's cold. It took that kind of a night to finally kill (or at least maim) the artichokes (pictured below) and the chard I had planted earlier this year. The thyme doesn't look like it's been hurt at all.


Our small fountain is pretty but the I'm sure the pump is toast.

And lastly, the contorted filbert (Corylus avellana 'Harry Lauder') is really showing off at this time of the year.

Another World

Our family did a very different thing over the Thanksgiving break -- we took a cruise. No hassles with cleaning the house and cooking for relatives (this would be hassles for my mom, not me).

Anyway, our cruise took us to Key West, Cozumel, and Belize. Belize was probably the most interesting place we went. This is relative since we only had about 5 hours in Key West and got totally rained out in Cozumel. Regardless, here are some interesting things about Belize:

• They are a country with about 300,000 people
• They are the only English-speaking central American country
• They make cashew wine

This is the cashew tree (bad picture, taken from a moving boat)

Here's the wine bottle (I was pleasantly surprised by the taste!)

So this has nothing to do with horticulture in Pulaski Co, but just thought I'd share....