The snow piles are much reduced for which I am glad. I like to dump my coffee grounds and expended tea leaves in the gardens directly and hadn't been able to for a week as the snow was piled high atop the pots and containers. But it is turning colder again for a few days.

Found this article which indicates a shift in kitchens to reflect the growing number of men who are cooking now. The cynical joke Mom and I often uttered in looking at kitchen designs was the men who don't cook designed them for women who do and they simply didn't work well. But now that men are cooking the designers are actually listening. Glory Be!!

I read sometime ago that tomatoes won't set fruit above 95F which explained why I had decreased yields after our usual mid summer heatwaves. Peppers and eggplant seemed to have a similar problem. Even if the temperature in the general area didn't reach that level my little micro-environment on the patio easily did. Just this morning I found this article which indicates our hotter conditions (all but one of the first 18 years of this century were on the list of the warmest ever) may indicate problems for corn as well. It doesn't reproduce above 95F. I got curious about the effects of higher temperatures on other crops and found this article.