Arizona Winter ....

Weather update from Shamba's front yard:

Flurries, yep, snow flurries ... at 2:45-2:55 p.m. today.

I wondered what that white stuff was on my black pants hanging on the patio furniture ... then it was all around me for a few moments .... and I recognized it, snow, very small flakes and nothing lasted very long once it hit the ground or bushes.

One of my neighbor's kids cried: "Look, snow!"

Haven't seen it in almost 20 years here. It sometimes hits the ground but it doesn't last beyond a couple of minutes.

Just my few flakes worth,

Shamba


Southern Arizona is very cold today and northern Arizona is inundated with the snow from a large winter storm the past 24 hours. Roads to Flagstaff have been closed just past Sedona, the snow and wind creating great snow drifts make driving too dangerous.

It's 1:00 p.m. here MST, in Phoenix in my front yard and our temps are dropping from mid 40s the past hour I'll bet.

We had good rain from the storm but now the sky is mostly clear and it is cold out there. It's only 48-50 in Phoenix today! And there's a wind of about 15-20 miles and hour. It' supposed to be that cold for the next two days.

I haven't been this cold in years here at home! Of course, it was easily this cold when I lived in the Maryland-DC area.

We're not going to be much over 50 degrees for the next two days and very clear cold nights are starting tonight; temps tonight are supposed to be 19-29 degrees. I’m definitely covering plants for the next 3 nights.

One station this morning was saying it could be cold enough tomorrow morning to maybe worry about rained streets turning to ice. I haven't seen snow flurries here in 20 years and we can get fog in the winter but I've never seen ice on our roads.

I haven't wrapped my head up in years but my ears hurt so after being in the wind today I had to put on something. I just had too much to do today to let it go another day.

People who ccame to warm southern Arizona to see the bowl games here are in for a surprise as far as daily temperature are. Northern Arizona is all snowed in. Most of the roads north from Phoenix were closed the last day or so. The roads may be open this afternoon.

peace, Shamba

A Very Late Merry Christmas ...

A Very Merry After Christmas and Happy New year!

Four of us had a very festive day at a heavily decorated house with lovely Christmas background music, homemade lasagna, green bean salad, green salad, lots of little chocolate cakes and “things” for dessert. And there were many friendly cats, so it’s good that all of us were fond of cats. :)

I have decoration of evergreens, pine branches and such in the house and it all smells very good.

A neighbor of mine gave me a “branch “ of Brussel sprouts since she had so many herself. I’ve never seen how these grow before. This is a neighbor I’ve given some extra greens to when my CSA share is a little too much for me.

We;’ve had some lovely winter weather in the 70s but this midweek we’re getting a very wet storm and 4-5 nights of freezing nights in the mid-20s. we’ll see if it gets that cold. I put out some extra bedding for the cats to snuggle into.

And I learned to make butternut squash soup this holiday season.
Peace, Shamba

Small Update in December

I have been doing things but it doesn't interest me to keep track of my small culinary victories like it did.

It seem like all the blogs, (food blogs, I call them) I've been reading for the past two years about food sources, preparing food, cooking, and other food preps are not what they were. There are good reasons for this, employement issues, growing children, just life happening for everyone. Some bloggers have also become more public spokeswomen for the causes they believe in, some are writing books and just involved more in the Real Life than the blogs of Cyber Life. Some post less than they used to.

In any case, I miss reading them the way I used to. Who else was going to tell me that red lentils cooked the fastest of lentils? For this woman who hardly ever knew how to cook much, the past two years have been a great education about food and especially food I'd never tried before. I will keep looking at the blogs that I've become so fond of and I do wish their owners to have the best success at whatever they're doing.

And, I've learned how to make pumpkin soup, it wasn't great but I'll be better next time. I have two large freezer bags of cut up butternut squashes in the freezer and I want to make butternut soup next.

that all for now, don't let the christmas Crazies get to you.

peace, shamba