We have had a couple of 'semi-' hard frosts--enough to partially blacken a lot of things but not cause complete winter kill except for the tenderest of my perennials.    The temperature fluctuations are beginning to stress some plants. I don't dare go ahead and cut back much-we keep getting long series of warm days and mild nights that induce plants to sprout new growth, or cause bud-swell, that later get frost-nipped. The leaves are just coming off my mophead hydrangeas, but there are new buds swelling on the newly bare stems.

    I have violas in big strawberry pots on either side of the lower drive, and they are thriving. All but the latest and hardiest of the chrysanthemums are finished or frostbit. The self-sown larkspur and opium poppies have sprouted and carpet many of the beds. I need to go ahead and do some thinning now.

    We are having salads full of chickweed I have weeded from both the vegetable and the flower gardens, and I am trying to talk myself out of weeding out the common speedwell from the flower beds--it carpets the yard in late winter and early spring with tiny sky blue flowers that look utterly charming with daffodils.

    I spent this morning mulching leaves and piling them on my neglected veggie garden. I didn't plant a fall garden because hubby has not yet dealt with the resident groundhog. Now I wish I had done so. We do have a little kale that I planted in spring. Red Russian Kale is my choice for our area, and the leaves have turned a lovely wine red with the frosts. If the weather continues mild, I may at least go ahead and seed lettuce under a plastic tent.

Janie