Some yellow "sunshine" for my frigid friends

While most of the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. are having the typical cold weather one expects in January, others are having a particularly cold blast right now. Oddly enough, our little part of the world is experiencing some bizarre but wonderful warm sunny days. Monday's temps broke records throughout the Bay Area. It was 72F (23C) here. I was stunned. As I went about my garden work, my body was loving the warmth like it was April or May but then I would notice that the light was different with longer shadows. Tuesday and Wednesday were not as warm but the temps were still over 60F (16C). Normally out temps are 10-20 degrees cooler. In 2007, we didn't see the sun for the entire month of January--literally.

Because this feels like such a special gift from above, I really wish I could share all this warmth with all of you, my dear friends. If I was a billionaire, I'd fly all of you here so you could soak up the real sun. Since I can't, I decided to share little bits of yellow "sunshine" from around the gardens.

Along with the warm days came the bloom of the first daffodil in our garden. I found it tucked up under the hydrangea in the front garden.

The narcissus at the base of the olive tree in the back garden are still blooming. When I was photographing them, I kept getting wafts of their heady fragrance. It was heavenly.

The Eureka lemon has a wonderful cheerful crop hanging on its branches. The great thing about citrus is that I can leave it on the tree for a long time after its ripe, and it's just fine. Some citrus will stay on the tree for months without going bad. Hubby had me pick a couple on Monday so he could make me some delicious pan-sauteed lemon chicken. It was so yummy.

And there's still many lovely little Kinnow mandarins that are ready to be plucked when we feel like a sweet treat. Similar to Clementines, these are wonderful guilt-free sweets for us both. Did you know that there really is no such thing as a "tangerine"? The proper name for the fruit is "mandarin". I didn't know that until a few months ago.

What the...????

Okay. So I'm out in the garden yesterday harvesting the last tomatoes and other produce...

The tomato bed was located next to the Pippin apple tree that hasn't fared well because it doesn't belong in our climate. The apples all fell off long before they were edible (always do). The raccoons and other critters eat the bounty because they obviously don't get a sour stomach from unripe apples. I've been tempted to remove it so many times, but then I feel bad and leave it because I can't bring myself to cut it down.

Anyway... as I moved around the tree, I didn't pay much attention to the fact that the leaves aren't turning like the rest of the trees around here, like the liquid amber just across the garden from it. It really didn't register that the apple tree's leaves are a deep, lush and vibrant green in stead of the usual crispy brown that they usually are this time of year from being zapped by our August heatwaves.

I was too focused on harvesting the tomatoes for it to register. But...

Then something caught my eye. I thought I was seeing things in the late afternoon autumn light. Is that what I think it is?


I moved closer. What the heck?

Okay, did someone switch hemispheres on me while I wasn't looking? There are apple blossoms on my Pippin... and it's the 14th of October! And last I checked, California was in the United States in the northern hemisphere! What in the world?????

It was too late to photograph the blossoms yesterday, so I waited until today to go back out and get shots of them. As I was shooting the blossom cluster I discovered yesterday, I realized that there's another cluster of blossoms higher up. This is insane!


The tree still has an apple hanging on the north side, and on the south side it's got apple blossoms--in OCTOBER!!!!

I've got friends and family that have just had their first frosts and snowfalls. They all live in the northern hemisphere (where I thought I was).

Seriously, did someone relocate California when I wasn't paying attention?

Okay, I'm officially freaked out now. The wisteria blooming in September was explained by my pruning it in August and encouraging a second bloom, but this??? Somebody explain this one for me.

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