Our weather rollercoaster

I've started writing this post on Thursday wondering where the heck the week went? It wasn't a particularly busy one, at least for me. D and Eli - different story.

The heat left us on Tuesday and the temperatures dropped like a stone. 28C/82F on Monday afternoon, but it barely made 17C/63F on Tuesday! We had near frosty temperatures overnight both Tuesday and Wednesday. I did not cover my veg containers and everything came through unscathed. There was frost in other areas of the province and the photos of fall harvest filled the Saskatchewan Gardeners group on FB. 

I had decided I'd do some harvesting of my own on Thursday but the weather had other ideas. We had nearly an inch of rain overnight, and the temperature was a mere 10C/50F in the afternoon. Add in 60km/37mph winds and it was mostly an indoor day. We did run to the grocery stores to pick up a few sale items before picking up Eli at the store.

As you saw on Wednesday, the tomatoes are coming on and I nearly filled the container. So far, I've had Caprese salad, sliced tomato on sandwiches, a omelet with tomato, green onion and cheese, as well as grabbing a few for snacks. My daughter is planning to make tomato sauce or salsa. The green peppers are looking good though small. The weather is supposed to improve over the weekend, with no frost in the forecast, so I'll hold off picking for a bit yet. We did pull the potato plant on the weekend and got about 4-5 pounds from the single grow bag.

Exciting news (to me at least), is the gladiolas beginning to open. Everything seems to be late this year. I seem to remember the flowers being in bloom in mid to late July in my mother's garden. I didn't plant the corms until June so that likely explains the late flowering. But the peonies were late this year, as were the hollyhocks, and of course the tomatoes. I'll need to dig up the corms before the first heavy frost, as they won't survive our winter.

Speaking of frost we had another night of near freezing on Friday evening, and another expected for tonight. (We'll be covering the tomatoes and peppers!) Then the weather is supposed to warm up to more seasonal temps, days around 22-23C/71-73F, and overnight between 8-14C/46-57F. It will be perfect weather for starting our clean-up of the yard. Summer, I hardly knew you. 

Eli has had a good first week. He has only attended school in the morning, with his mom spending time working with him in the afternoon. Unlike last year, he is spending some time in the classroom with his peers, and joins them for physical education. I'm happy that he isn't being isolated; if you recall his previous teacher wasn't willing (or perhaps prepared) to have him in the classroom, after a single episode when he acted up in class. His current teacher seems to be much more accommodating and is welcoming him to attend for as long as he can tolerate. What a change!

D has met with the team, including the school counsellor, principal, school board personnel, and one other person whose title I don't remember. The support that Eli receives (and by extension D) is amazing. The team will continue to meet bi-weekly to discuss progress and adjust the schedule as needed throughout the year. That's one of the benefits of living in a small community.

It will be another quiet weekend, baseball and football to watch, knitting (dishcloths), a bit of housework, and I suspect, more tomatoes picked. 

Have a great week ahead everyone!

P. S. A gratuitous photo of Saku, as I only took a couple of photos this month. Don't I wish I could relax that well!

P.S.S. I've noticed that the number of views of my blog have continued to climb. Last week's post had over 900 views in the span of a week, and even my wordless Wednesday had nearly 400 views in less than 24 hours. I have no idea what is happening or why. Has anyone else noticed a similar trend?

P.S.S.S. An update on the kids next door. D said something to the father one evening about the kids attending school. Since then, I've seen him driving off about 9 a.m. with one or two of the kids. The oldest child one day and two younger ones another day. I should note, my bedroom window looks out onto their backyard, and I'm usually reading blogs or checking e-mails in my room at that time. Really, I'm not that big of snoop!