Not a bad haul for August – despite the snow

Bowl of winter tomatoes

In this bowl is a whole 26 grams of sweet summer goodness and I couldn’t be more excited.  These seven red orbs are more than just tomatoes – they are like a promise of what is to come.  They are summer encapsulated into 4 grams of juiciness.

This means more today than at any other time in the whole of winter.  I have been going on for months about how it’s not winter it’s just a wet autumn in fancy dress; it is too mild in temperature; I haven’t lit the fire or used any form of heating in weeks, blah blah blah…

Until this week.

It is cold.  Very cold.  We had snow on Monday!  We don’t get snow here.  I use the term “snow” loosely.  There were a dozen or so flakes falling amongst the rain drops.  They were all white and floaty while the rain was coming in at an angle and fast.  But we mostly got hail.

This is no good for building snowmen!

Even Auckland city had snow and that hasn’t happened since 1939! It brought them the coldest day on record of a “shocking” daytime low of 8.2^oC.  Although those caught in the snow further south actually had enough to make snowmen and many were made.  Many towns and cities are still struggling with the weather today, but not us – there is a nip in the air but the sun is shining brightly.

Some schools and business have been closed and there is concern for the lambs and calves entering the world in the midst of it all and for those still living in earthquake damaged homes in Christchurch – but the storm was such an unusual occurrence it was mostly met with awe and delight which was best captured in a video posted online which you can see here.

Then a strange thing happened – the population was overtaken with a condition called “snow envy” were towns were pitted against each other as to who had the best snow.  It was even raised that Auckland didn’t even have snow but a substance called graupel.  I’d never heard of it.  Apparently it’s “Very similar to snow to the naked eye but more like soft hail. It is little round soft balls of ice which can bounce, but it can also float in the wind as it’s not as heavy as hail. It melts quicker than hail and is softer. Doesn’t have that snowflake shape”. _{(http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/5456087/Snow-The-Cold-Facts)}  I’m sure the snow I had was proper snow – all 16 flakes!

By this time next week life will return to normal and one day people will be telling their grandchildren “I remember when it snowed in Auckland back in ’11”.  Meanwhile the cold will slip away and winter will be replaced by spring, the days will lengthen and the earth will warm up and seeds will be planted with such hope that this will be the best summer ever for veggies.

Bit of a change from a week ago - where's my woolly jumper?

Come again soon – the seeds are due to rise out of the seed raising mix any day now.

Sarah the Gardener  : o )