The Good Times Ain't Rollin Any More

There's a saying here in the Rochester, NY area -"No sun? November!" Well, not this year. It may have reverted to the old, familiar November today (windy and gray), but we have just come off of a record-breaker. We have yet to experience any snowfall, and this is the latest that's happened in nearly half a century! The temperature stats are even more amazing. This is the warmest November here in 70 years. It has been an incredible run - I think we only had clouds and/or rain 4 or 5 days this month, and only one of those days had more than a trace of rain. Nearly every day was sunny, with cloudless blue skies. It was an absolute joy to work outdoors and not freeze my assets doing it. I noticed that a lot of folks took advantage of the weather gods' benevolence and got their outdoor Christmas decorating done. Can't say I blame them. Especially since there was a noticeable lack of wind - and I will state unequivocally that I have never lived anywhere as windy as here. It's an event when it's NOT a windy day. Much to my amusement (and amazement), the natives don't agree with me. Here, winds of 20 mph are considered to be a "light breeze". Which has always made raking leaves a real undertaking. But oh, this year - this November was one to savor; one to keep in memory and relive in years to come, when November reverts to normal again......

A Plague of Mealybugs

I've been spending the last several weeks trying to get the outdoors buttoned up before the winter shuts us down for the next four months, and as a consequence the conservatory has been sadly neglected. Just how neglected was driven home to me this morning. We had an overnight low of 24, with a heavy frost that more resembled a light snowfall and didn't disappear until nearly noon! My feeling is that if it's too cold for the frost to melt, then it's too cold for me to be out there. So I puttered in the conservatory instead. I had a flower arrangement to do for our library's monthly fundraiser, and once that was completed, I decided to take the rubbing alcohol to a couple of plants that I spotted mealybug on. WELL.......there were a great many mealybugs on several plants. The upshot was that I spent an hour and a half swabbing down 5 Christmas cacti and 3 clivias - and tossing out the large, venerable jade plant that had been given to me by a now-deceased dear friend. That really hurt (I did locate a half dozen branches that were clean to make cuttings from), but there was just nothing else for it. It was absolutely polluted with the little bastards, and after looking at it, I'm convinced that it was the source of all the problems. Time will no doubt tell on that score, but it has to help. While I labored away, I began to wonder what it would be like to encounter a mealybug the size of a vole. Natural history is reticent on this point, and for good reason. I guess the moral of the story is, as Roseanne Roseannadanna (Gilda Radner on Saturday Night Live) used to say: "It's always somethin'".............