January just flew by. It started with a little bit of travel. Alice returned to Calgary on the 7th and it seemed that the airport was busier than last November when Kumiko went. I had the same impression a few days later when I flew to the Netherlands. Things must be getting back to normal. This time I did not stay in the Hague but in Leiden, which during the summer must be a very nice little town. This time, I only managed to see it after dark (which means after about 5 p.m.). One day I will have to go back to see what it looks like in the light of the day.

We also had our first frost attack. Temperatures fell to a few degrees below 0 Celsius, which may not seem all that cold, but in Houston it is potentially a big deal. The primary reason is that water pipes are not buried very deep and typically attach to the house wall above ground and then run through the attic. So, we made sure all the faucets were dripping and luckily did not have any problems. We made one last pass through the vegetable garden and collected few more tomatoes, peppers and eggplant. January 6 is the latest I ever harvested anything. Some of the sub-tropical and tropical plants did not fare that well. We moved some to the garage, but others, which are in the ground were on their own.

(Click on the images to see a larger version). Unfortunately the papaya which grew from a seed put in the ground in August and was blooming did not make it. It is actually not supposed to grow here anyway, we are two horticultural zones to the north of its natural habitat. But maybe the roots survived. If not, we will start from the seed again and one of these years we will get lucky.

Dragging flower pots in and out of the garage can get old in a hurry and so with a little bit of vinyl we converted out verandah into a small winter garden. Of course, vinyl is not much of a protection, but the house leaks enough heat to keep the temperature inside above freezing even during fairly cold nights. Earlier this week we had a few days of unseasonably high temperatures (around 20 deg C) and that immediately lead to the appearance of dense flocks of large mosquitoes. So, unless we get another, more powerful cold spell, we will have a fun summer.

The little freeze finally terminated the hechima plant (loofa) and it was time to harvest. After harvest came the processing, which is still going on but is almost over. Next month I will have a detailed account of the incredible loofa sponge story.








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