It is tough to live in Georgia in the wintertime.

The year before we moved to Georgia (1969, i think) we lived in Oneonta, New York (a lovely place to live) and in December of that year we had a lot of snow.  In the driveway we had two cars: One was a Saab of the kind (and year) that Columbo used to drive on television (a 250 or 520, I forget) and a new 1968 Ford Econoline van.  After the snowfall I had to go out with a broom stick and probe through the snow to find the cars.  (The Econoline was closer to the surface than the Saab).  It didn’t make much difference because by the time they plowed the road it added ten or so feet of hard snow to the other snow that was there.  If we hadn’t brought cross country skis home from Finland when we were Fulbrighting two years before, we would have been stranded in the house for almost two weeks.  (I still have the skis, I have tried to yard sale them away two or three times, but they don’t sell well in Georgia.)  Our kids got to our cars before I could.  They tunneled their way (I was using a snow shovel)   The tunnels terrified their mother, but they got there.  We had a wonderful red retriever (I can’t think of the breed) who lived in the back yard most of the time and it was a delight  to see him bound under, then over  and through the snow (pretty soon he had trails.  smart dog). 

Now we are in Georgia.  One of my tomato plants still had blooms and has three little tomatoes that are not quite ripe yet. (actually this wasn’t even a tomato that was planted.  We had a big flower pot outside the door into which we tossed stuff that was to be taken to the compost pile. I went out to dispose of it and I had four little lemon trees and two tomato plants.  The lemon trees didn’t make it but the tomato thrived. We had the first tomato about two months ago.

It is December in Georgia, the Confederate roses have fallen off , but the Mandevilla are still climbing the pergola in the back yard and we have three separate kinds of Camelias blooming in the back yard (with two others in bud).  The weather is really nasty and rainy.  I had to wear a jacket this afternoon (it was down in the sixties).   We had tornados predicted for day before yesterday, and Savannah dismissed schools at eleven A. M.   The tornados stayed away, though some rain came and the children were delighted (I hear it was pretty bad in Atlanta.)  Janet has suggested that with this cold weather, we might consider building a fire in the fireplace, but I haven’t done it.  Instead, I am puttering on the computer, writing this post (I will post some pictures, but I left my camera in the car and I’m too lazy to go get it) and doing some computer Christmas Shopping.  It is really tough to live in Georgia during the winter.