Snowing in October! Oh no wait! It's raining. No, again. It's both -ing.

Maybe that title doesn't make sense. It doesn't make sense out there either. This is the 27th of October! It has been unseasonably warm most of the month and unseasonably wet but not unseasonably cold. Tonight it is predicted that our rain/snow mix will turn to all snow and drop below freezing. Ugghh.

I knew this was coming and that I would be "post-call" when I would have to face it. I came home this morning through a driving rain and with the need to replenish myself first before taking on what I needed to do.  I couldn't go straight out after I got home around 9:30am. I should have, though. The weather only got worse.

I always put on my knee high red rubber boots to go out, even in the middle of July: Shorts or jeans with rubber boots, coupled with a tank top and my broad-brimmed hat. I might bring a pair of garden gloves to put on but even if I put them on, they come right off only a few minutes after I get started. So, I don't usually put them on unless I know I'll be in poison ivey. There is something about touching the earth directly with my fingers that's very important. Not sure why. Wearing gloves is a disconnecting experience and here I am trying to connect. Maybe that's why.

 Today wasn't too different. Pulled my rubber boots over my jeans, had my thermal long sleev-er on, fleece jacket, rain shell, scarf, but no gloves. Our outdoor thermometer read 36F. Outside it was pelting snow mixed with rain. Our fields are so so wet from the previous rains that boots are essential now to get across the soaked ground to the garden gate.
I grabbed my hand clippers and a larger old plastic plant pot for a basket. "Here goes!", I thought. I felt like I could create a do-it-yourself garden reality show out of this. And, just so I could save our remaining peppers and eggplants? You betcha! I squashed out there, boots, hooded and gloveless into the snow and rain.

I lasted, ohhhh, 15 minutes. My hands were pink with cold and in pain. But, we had beautiful eggplants this year. They have beautiful purple flowers with yellow centers that seem to nod one way or another. Each flower peers up between a gorgeous broad purple tinged green leaf as if to say; "I'm still here". How could I resist from caring?

I grew these mildly sweet stir fry type peppers that are long and skinny. They turn red over time. These were prolific and there were many to get today, too. I only kept going long enough to fill my large plastic bucket then I had to quit because my hands got too cold.

Inside, I cleaned out the woodstove to start a fire to get the chill off.  32F now. There is one heartening observation that I can make. The earth is still warm enough to melt the snow after it has fallen. Perhaps, the peppers and eggplants that I may have missed will be just fine.