I don't do anything when perennial foliage sprouts early. The weather may nip it back, but it will regrow just fine.

As for this weather, it is making me crazy. I'd love it if: (a) we could know the warmth would last, and (b) it didn't feel so much like January and February of my least favorite year (2011).

It is not natural for us to be this warm and dry in the middle of winter in an El Nino year. It sends La Nina chills up and down my spine, and that's not good. I knew when snakes were out in January that we were in trouble.

Oh, and the fact that we are seeing a sharp increase in fire activity is just depressing. I hate, hate, hate when fire seasons stomps on my planting season. I spent the whole day today just shopping for fire supplies and food to be ready for the next big fire. When we came home from the Thursday fire, I think all we had left in our box of snacks was 2 packages of crackers, a few cookies and three small bags of chips. I spent Friday baking in the kitchen and hoping we wouldn't get paged out on another fire until I at least had the cookies all baked. That kept me out of the garden all morning.

I stocked up today on fire supplies, so the house and fire station are fully reloaded, but that kept me out of the garden today. I'm hoping tomorrow can be ALL about the garden. : ) It is supposed to rain here. We need rain, but I hope it doesn't rain because I have big garden plans for tomorrow. It can rain some other day when I don't have a To Do list that needs to be done.

The weather sometimes tricks crane flies/May flies into coming out early, and they can withstand freezing temperatures, so a few here and there don't make me instantly believe the cold is all gone. Now, if there are huge clouds of them out early, that is very telling. I have seen clouds of gnats already and I'm not ready for them either. Down here, fleas and ticks have been around all winter because we really haven't been all that cold. We haven't dropped below 20 at our house. I like having a zone 8 winter and wish we had one every year, even though it means we have had mosquitoes all winter long as well....and bees and wasps.

Yeah, I've been reminding people of the fire hazard, especially our Cali friends and to stock up on bug spray. I've been scrounging around the last couple of days for some window screen to add to the exterior stove pipe. I must burn the stove to maintain the heat in the house for seeds and seedlings. I hate doing it when it's this dry and not really needed. I keep praying for central heat and air or a house with central heat and air. One day ...

I had one and left it for a camper.. that should tell you about me. Lol