cold again

it's a skosh warmer than the nine or so ( fahrenheit ) degrees it got down to last night...

and stumpy and friends tell me there is a dusting of snow falling this morning...

that this is inadequate for insulating the grains is immaterial since the temperatures here are forecast to yo-yo between above and blow freezing with a mixture of snow and/or rain over the next ten days...snow doesn't matter much at the moment...the thaw of the past week is what has had an impact over the last two nights or so..and, while that impact has not been devastating, it did give a fair indication of what long term exposure to temperatures that cold can do...

a few days ago, at the height of the thaw, the rye was very green...

it has begun to lose chlorophyll in the cold and, unlike the locust trees in the background, it isn't being stored in the dormanr roots...

the wheat...

is suffering the same effect..if we do not have another round of sub zero temperatures the crops will likely be alright and produce some grain...just possibly not as much...winter will begin ( actually has begun ) to wane here...the snow that fell fell in enough quantity and time to do what was needed..i did not pry up the winter vetch and what snow there is to have a look at the egyptian walking onion's nests of rooting aerial bulbs...perhaps later in the week wern things are warmer.