A surprising gift from "Indian Summer".

[bvar22]

We have been blessed with a very mild Fall in the Ouachita Mountains of Central Arkansas.
In the past, we would have called it "Indian Summer", though I haven't heard that term in a number of years, and am suspicious that it may no longer be Politically Correct. I can see no reason why anyone would be offended by this term.

We experienced a very mild frost in mid-October which lasted for a single night.
Since then, it has been wonderful.
Daytime temps of mid-80s...overnights in the 50s.
Plenty of sunshine...very little rain.
Southern winds, a little fog in the mornings.


The weather was so mild that our "June Bearing" Strawberries became confused,
thought it was Spring, and began flowering and making berries!

We ate this one this morning....
and YUM...an unexpected treat and a reminder of why we do this.
There are a number of blossoms and other small berries that are showing some red, and may be edible in a few days with some luck.
But yesterday, the overnight temps fell to just about freezing (32F).
I am covering this bed with a tarp hoping to harvest a few more berries.






We do have this Creole tomato which we planted in late July.
We put it up close to the house on the Southen side.
We are hoping for a few tomatoes.

I built this little Green House yesterday to give it a little more time.


I put a 40Watt light bulb inside to keep it warm at night.
It looks spooky after dark.