Just arrived back from a whirlwind Christmas and New Year’s vacation in various freezing locations (Maine, Indiana, Shenandoah National Park) – and the snow is finally gone in D.C. – mostly, that is. Apparently it’s been freezing cold just about everywhere and that includes the District of Columbia, so there are still huge frozen gray piles of snow at random locations throughout the capitol. The good news is that my garden has been freed from it’s prison of 3 foot snow and it *looks* like some of the plants might have survived! The chinese cabbage and herbs look alive, although I’m not sure how they get water if the ground is frozen solid? Anyone know?

Well, on Saturday, December 5th, DC had its first big snowstorm of the year. It snowed allll day, but it was mixed with rain and was quite heavy and gloppy and didn’t seem to stick – except in our back garden/deck where there was no sun to melt it away. Now our back deck is coated in 1/8" thick ice and extremely hazardous! The plants seem to be ok though – the storm was the final straw for the one remaining cayenne plant on the back deck, which magically continued creating – and ripening – red cayenne peppers right up until this weekend, but the leaves are now brown and shriveled.

So, on Tuesday, I made homemade beef pho. It was wonderful. Do you know why it was more wonderful? Because it was December 1st – and I was able to sprinkle chopped handfuls of cilantro, japanese mustard, arugula, parsley, and mint on it. I can’t believe all that stuff is still growing! It’s been cold and rainy (although today’s sunny and unseasonably warm in the high 50s) but mostly there’s NO SUN in the back garden – yet the Cascadia Pea plants are 2+ feet high and the dill is growing like crazy!