Frosty Nights and Fall Colors

The night before last was the first real frost, last week there was a bit of frost in places, and last month there was also a bit of frost one night, enough to kill the plants in one of the squash beds. That was an unusually early frost. Emerald Earth is in a frost pocket, at least parts of it are.

Since we thought it might frost we prepared, picked all the winter squash left, and the basil. There were some huge basil plants, the largest one being the one I am holding in the picture, yes that is only one plant. We also harvested all the peppers off some plants and covered the rest and the tomatoes, to keep them a bit warmer. It worked they survived. We finished right before dinner and didn't have time to put the squash away until late so Anastasia and I each pushed a wheel barrow full of squash down and into the house she is staying in, she put a flashlight into the squash at the top of the load to have a headlight so we could see since it was already quite dark. It was all quite funny.

It is hard to get good pictures of frost, to capture the sparkles, but I did my best. It was very beautiful, the picture of the bridge is from last week, the rest from yesterday morning.

As for fall colors, there quite a few wild plants turning colors, oregon ash, poison oak, maple, some oaks, and a variety of fruit trees too, the pears are turning a really nice red, the apples yellow, some of the grapes waiting on pots to be planted into a half finished trellis have bright red leaves. I know Eastcoasters don't think of California as having fall colors, and we don't as much, you need to look and pay attention, you don't get hit in the head with them.