Here in SoCal, we get your 'Friday' almost every day,
all year around. ;-) We love California.

It has been way too nice. I still haven't repotted my cuttings or put down the newspaper&stuff to extend the east bed, been running around doing other things. This coming weekend in the 50's I think, still not bad as long as it isn't windy!

Hi Patrick,
I am glad you got some nice weather for gardening. We have had a series of rainy windy storms the last few weeks, but in between the sun shines between the clouds. I am have been slowly cleaning up beds, weeding and removing my garden art. Now that the time changed there is no time after work, so it has to be done on the weekend.
K

I have found that as long as the temp is 40 degrees or warmer then I can garden no matter what time of year it is. I've been known to put in raised flower beds in December. You have to keep a sharp eye on the weather reports so as to take advantage of the few "warm" days. Spotlights also help when the daylight hours wane.

Of course nothing beats a California growing season but then again, at least I know what a white Christmas is like. I also have a real wood burning fireplace. Think about it - a snowy winter night, snuggled up in my favorite chair by the fire with the latest David Austin English Roses catalog and steaming cup of hot chocolate.

PRICELESS

LOL!
Pauline

Nice weather days are good

Carla

Our fireplace burns wood! White Christmas? Hmmm...
Does Powdery Mildew count? roflmao.

It is great for a weekend, the snow, but surfing in
the morning and snow skiing in the afternoon,.. well.. it's
so California especially in January.

This may be the land of Sodom, but what a way to go.

And you hardly get black spot. So there!

Once in a great while, I do see BS, blackspot!
Not often and it is very short lived.

PM and RUST are the culprits, here, and I have it
as I don't spray, but just for a month or so.
This year I am going to try, TRY, and defoliate everything
so the old leaves are gone. I've heard this might help.

I'll take the rust and mildew for shorts at Christmas
and my wading boots in Feb. and March with the shorts! lol.

Warm days in the 60's or 70's in November are truly a treat. I mowed the lawn/mulched the leaves in shorts and T-shirt on Saturday. Sipped a beer on the patio. Just like the first days of spring. It makes it worth dealing with winter, just for the glory of our spring.

Would it be as great if every day was 70?

Just don't ask me on January 20th!

Ah, the old snows were good. I love to see snow falling. We don't get much snow here anymore. Last year we didn't have a "winter". Sam, stop gloating. I already want to move there.

Carla

I know how good that unexpected surprise "treat" experience feels:

Yesterday a friend & I drove through a little sheltered area where the road curves & the trees have grown undisturbed, a rarity here.

The sky was brilliant blue & the leaf colors were breathtaking.

My friend remarked that if you could see only this one area, you might think you were in New England...

until of course the car rounded the curve & you found yourself once again in Texas blackland prairie!

What's the fun of living in Paradise if we can't gloat?
Of course we can't grow Gallicas, but oh well.

In the 80's today. Bright sunshine and roses everywhere!

That curve in Texas sounds gorgeous, too.

Gotta go and water and my gloating is over!
Have a wonderful day.

Just wait until her "slice" of paradise slides right into the Pacific OR she looses everything to a another wild fire OR drought (I've heard the water restrictions are downright draconian in CA) OR her property taxes price her right out of house and home.

BTW, I've never been tempted by Southern California. Too dry. Now further north along the Mendocino coast where the summer days are misty and cool ... THAT is my idea of paradise.

Having your home slide off because of a natural disaster isn't funny. Taxes are through the roof everywhere it seems. I live in Florida, I hope a hurricane doesn't wipe us off the map. We live where ever our hearts desire. Florida is my home of choice, it is all I have ever known. Tornado's are a given in other places. Drought is in other places.
A blizzard can happen to any one up north. But like I said, home is where the heart is.

I sincerely hope no ones home is destroyed by a natural disaster....I would cry with them. It isn't something to gloat about at all.

Deb

Lighten up Deb. My comments were meant to be a witty retort.

Patrick, if there is that big of an earthquake as far as I
am from the beach would probably make me on our hill, oceanfront.. the new oceanfront property. Also, there was something back in the 70's called Prop 13.. which froze our property taxes.. so we pay practically nothing and we can take our tax exempt status to most counties in California.
As for water restrictions, they are for the 'northern' folks for some reason, not here. We could water 24/7.. in all seriousness, I don't understand why we aren't restricted, but we aren't. My town is on it's own services, so even if L.A. County was restricted, it could be possible that we are not. Quirky California.
I know you were kidding... I'm sitting here smiling cause I know you were kidding.

Debn.. he was kidding.. and have I told ya' lately that I love ya'?XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO You are just too precious for words.

PS... 86 here.. barefeet and shorts! God, what a gorgeous day!

Okay Patrick...I'll lighten up..sorry!!! Anyway, ocean front property isn't a bad thing....I'd love to sit on a deck and fish for supper!!! Just the skeeters here would eat you alive...LOL

Deb...can you imagine the taxes on that ocean front property!

Fortunately for us, they would remain the same!
Proposition 13.. what a great idea Jarvis had.

Debn.. no skeeters here, or many, and we could fish for
whatever can live in the Pacific Ocean, but would we really
want to eat it? I don't like fish. lol. I'll have 'Malibu Chicken'!

C'mon Sam, admit it. You envy us getting to sit in front of our fire places, watching the snow falling, as we sip from our glass of wine. Each winter, we get to do that at least once a month. The rest of our time we spend shoveling the $#!+.

Our seasons are nice, but winter is too long. It should be confined to a 2 week period. I know its a sign of ageing, but each February 1st, I'm ready for 6 weeks in California. Or Florida. I think I'd prefer an earthquake, hurricane, swarms of biting insects, or a drought to another month and a half of looking at piles of melting blackened snow. With all the trash hidden within.

I'm making myself depressed.

Everyone's climate has its pluses and minuses. Here in Oregon in the winter, we don't get sun and we don't get snow, just rainstorm after rainstorm. Sometimes there is a break in between, and then, like Patrick, we emerge from out houses and blink up at the sun and get as much done outside as we can. In between we either rust, or mold! ;-) (But don't tell anyone....the summer and fall are beautiful).
Kathy

My backyard right now, this instant.

{{gwi:209196}}

After all this talk, I went to check out my new view.
This will be my view when the BIG one hits!
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Another 85 degree day, shorts and no shoes required.

Hi all....sitting here in the middle of a huge wind/rain storm and ready to be back into reality...it's been 60s for like the past month almost. Very unusual.I have never been so connected to the weather since I've become a serious gardener. And this is the first real fall flush I've had in the garden after about 5 or 6 years and I'm trying to get an eyeful and inhale all the fragrance I can until they all go byebye for FIVE MONTHS? That's so not fair. But, if I look at it as ONLY 3 1/2 months till I can start to prune the roses, then that's something to look forward to. Think of it that way Harry.And, yeah, the ugly part of winter really sucks bigtime.

gorgeous blue skies by the way......wanna see my gray skies?? and the rain??

oh well, rain is GOOD.

I took this last week in Wasco, CA.
{{gwi:209199}}

Fields and fields of roses.. everywhere!

Susan you are being greedy , keeping all that rain for yourself.PLEASE SHARE LOL!!
As for that beautiful ocean view Sam it is fantastic. (Only somebody nice could live there!!LOL)

actually come to think about it , our beaches arent too shabby either!!

{{gwi:209200}}

Meant to post this here, not on the OJ one.

Gee, youngquinn, that is gorgeous.
Too gorgeous for even 'shabby chic'.

Those are beautiful pictures of what you all see out your windows.

Deb

I dont see this out my window Deb (wish I did LOL) My pic is from NSW and I live in Victoria Boo HOO!

Hi, Debn, I'm rosie.
I don't see that out MY window, yet, either!
It is a 'friends' home at the beach. I guess
they'll be living with us when the earthquake hits.
I'd better tell them.

Hi Rosie,

Welcome to our conversation place!!!

I hope you enjoy the friendship here.

Earthquakes scare me worse than a hurricane!!! But then, I've never been in a earthquake before.

Deb