Our (very) early temps are definitely an improvement--+10* instead of -10*. The weather people say by the weekend we should actually get near freezing on Sunday. My cough came back with a vengeance--I think because we did our shopping in the sub zero weather yesterday.

I finally got my seed/plant orders in and I am really glad I didn't get them done before Christmas. My notions of what I will do this year have changed totally. I had a long list of herb seeds I wanted but I won't be gettin any. I plan to buy transplants locally and make a note as the year goes on of interesting items not available here. I thought I would replace the blueberry I lost and try the citrus again but I decided to put both off to next year--maybe. I did double up on the bare root strawberries and ordered seed for the malabar spinach and the perpetual spinach. The only flower seeds I ordered were a calendula, a black-eyed susan vine, and a sunflower. Any other flowers I will buy locally.

That cold I came down with and the time it has taken to get mostly (though not totally) over it have convinced me that I need to simplify what I do in the gardens. Also I found the heat exhausting.

I don't read many predictions for the new year ahead but John Michael Greer's are always a fun read. The one for 2018 is no exception. His prediction for the Damnocrat's chances in the fall elections are interesting given that he predicted, in the spring, the Repthuglican win in 2016 when almost everyone else was absolutely sure Clinton would wipe the floor with #45.