Brrrrrrrrrrr!

And I don't want to hear one thing from my Yankee friends! This is COLD by Florida standards.

Yesterday we never got to 45 degrees. That is not a good sign for the night ahead. My late Grandfather always said that if we didn't get to 50, we were in for a long, cold night. As you can see, it's a balmy 28 at my back door this morning. There was frost on both the newspaper tube and the mailbox when I went to get the paper. John and I rigged up some blankets to cover my Earth Boxes that have tomatoes, mustard greens and spinach growing in them so they wouldn't freeze. I even put the chick warmer light inside the blankets to help give them some additional warmth. They say that we won't get to 50 today either, so tonight will probably be a repeat of last night. And it looks like Thur may well be the only day this week we'll see 60 degrees. Highly unusual for us. We generally see cold for a day or two and then it warms back up. This looks like it will last all week. Last time I remember it being this cold for this long was wayyyyyyyy back in 1961. That was the year that the orange and grapefruit trees were exploding because of the sap freezing and expanding. THAT was a devastating freeze for my Grandfather and other citrus farmers in the area. I remember hearing the sound as another tree would explode. Sounded just like a rifle shot. Then the smell of the trees burning in the Spring as they were cleared so new trees could be planted. Lots of citrus farmers never replanted after that freeze. But Grandpa did. It was the only thing he knew. And because he was one of few who did replant, his citrus business grew by leaps and bounds. It ended up being a wise business venture for him.

Edit:

I went out once it got light and took a couple more pictures. Disregard the bird bath that has nasties in it because it's been too cold for me to clean it! This bird bath has a dripper on it. Otherwise, it would be frozen solid like the other 5 I have! Icicles should not be hanging from a bird bath in Florida!