Good day on this decidedly chilly Saturday.  The patio thermometer read 38F and the sun hasn't come up just yet so that will probably go lower.  We are going to make sure the bedroom window is fully closed and the storm/thermal window is lowered and get the plastic over it and the living room window.     Part of our yearly winter prep.  It was cool enough last night that we were both tempted to bring out the extra blankets we keep on the beds during the winters.  We brought them out this morning when we made up the beds.  (The weather person had a 34 on his map for us so the temp has gone down a bit.)  I  think I should take the remainder of the peppers and pull those plants.  I read a couple of blogs yesterday whose authors rushed to get the last of their summer plants in before their frosts--they are up in Montana and Idaho so they already have measurable snow.
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Good Sunday morning, All.  Another cool morning--not as cool as yesterday.  About 45F.  We haven't turned on the heat yet.  It wouldn't do much good anyway.  We keep the winter temperatures inside at 68.  This morning the thermostat read 66.  I don't think it will get much colder overnight for at least the next week.  The patchouli isn't very happy with the cold but the cuttings inside are doing very well so far.  I did take down the hummingbird feeder--we haven't seen the lady hummingbird for about three weeks.  Nor have we seen any of the bees that used to buzz around the feeder in large numbers.  Talking about bees--I just remembered a quirky story I saw over the week (sorry but I don't have the link) which described bees suddenly and mysteriously producing bright blue and green honey.  They finally traced the source to a company that used waste colored sugars they got from a M&M plant.  Now that they have put their stock in storage areas the bees can't get into the honey has gone back to its normal color.

Just brought out my wrist warmers, gloves and knit hood/scarf.  May not need the gloves and hood yet but I know where they are and can get at them easily.  I am wearing the wrist warmers now and my ancient shawl (one I crocheted some 30+ years ago).  Haven't done that since early April.

Something else I haven't done for a while--brewed up a pot of hot tea.  That is a cold weather beverage.  We didn't do much tea over the summer.  Oddly, I preferred iced water with a splash of lemon this year.  But this first pot of hot tea is pretty good.  I used two bags of green tea with half a tablespoon each of lemon balm and spearmint with a teaspoon of stevia.  I grew all the herbs in the garden.

I followed the link Yves Smith provided to read this interesting article.  I wonder how many more independence movements the economic down turn will precipitate.  We haven't heard much about others (like the Catalonian movement in Spain) on our (s)news media.