Snow, Memphis and Art

My new IPad app for word press does not work, so I could not blog last night in Memphis. So I will catch up now.

Yesterday I woke in the middle of the night and thought my neighbor’s roof was white. I got up at 3 a.m. to check the temperature and see what was going on. It was only 31, but our deck was covered in snow.  I was not expecting that!  I went back to bed and it snow was still on the ground when I woke up, but the temperature was a whopping 28 degrees.

Needless to say, the remaining summer annuals and tropicals are now toast. I am hoping to cut back the tapioca plant this weekend and mulch heavily, keeping my fingers crossed that it will come back next spring.

I left LR to head to Memphis to speak to the Shelby co. MGs.  They have a large group–over 400 members with numerous projects.  They also had elections last night–and they do a paper ballot with a lot of nominees.

They have director positions divided up to handle the various groups of MG members–junior, senior and life.  The junior members are 1-5 year; senior 6-10 and life is over 10 year members.  I think this is a good concept.   They meet in the evenings, and before the official start of the meeting they have a local MG who has a “show and tell” type of demonstration.  Last night was on holiday decorating.  After that, they have some refreshments and then the meeting starts.   I spoke and they had a lot of questions. After I finished, they had their business meeting. I went to dinner with the new Tennessee MG coordinator and state horticulturist.  Natalie is stationed in Knoxville, but had been in a meeting in Nashville and drove over to meet with me.  We had a great visit last night, and then met at the county extension office in Memphis with their agent Chris and Natalie to discuss the MG program. It was a great discussion.

The county office is located in a huge complex called the Agricenter, which is where they train MGs and have their monthly meetings.  The facility is large with multiple meeting space available to them for free if it is not booked. The Memphis Flea Market was setting up for this weekend.

Then this afternoon I drove home. I found most of my vegetables thriving, but pretty dry.  The raised beds and container plants dry out quickly in windy conditions. A few of my large flowering kale and cabbage look a bit worse for wear after the cold.  I did water and hope they bounce back.  Then tonight I went with friends to the 2nd Friday night art downtown.  They had a good crowd in spite of the cold, with great art and music at a variety of venues downtown. I even bought a few Christmas presents.

Tomorrow morning I head to Benton for the Saline County MG meeting.  Off to bed now!