Looking around

Hard freeze warning for tonight.

Yesterday I was trying to plant shrubbery, when it started to hail. So the shrubbery and I ducked into the garage.

This morning, fat white snowflakes were falling when we walked the boy to school.

And a hard freeze warning for tonight. So much for fruit trees this year.

Neighbors, family members, garden shop workers, all keep commenting that this seems to be a particularly cold April.

I shrug. I grew up here.

I remember looking forward to Memorial day -- end of May -- because we would drive four hours south, and it would be warm enough there -- in the south -- that I could finally wear my shorts and get a farmer tan on my knees. I remember that.

So cold Aprils? Not unusual.

Depressing, but not unusual.

Just for fun, Tim and I went looking for family homes in the nice neighborhoods in the cities where we used to live. The warm ones. The ones with really nice summer programs for kids. (I need to write another post about the lack of good stuff for school age kids to do here, summers, but I will save that for when I am in a better mood or I will get myself into trouble.)

We looked at moderate size houses (~20,000 square feet) in the neighborhood near the children's library, by that university where I went to grad school. Back then, those houses were over $1 million. Today they are $2.5 million. That after the burst housing bubble.

Boo.

I guess we'll just have to stick around here and endure the hard freezes.