Flaherty Wines

We had a really long fall this year, stretching well into June, but last week we finally had a cold snap. Seemingly overnight, we went from this:

to this:

Now, cold is a relative term, and we certainly don’t get Wisconsin-level cold here. (I lived in Madison for a couple of years, so I do know what a real winter feels like.) Our winters are quite mild, with nights dropping just below freezing and mostly pleasant, sunny days. It’s usually colder in our house than it is outside midday.

It’s also been remarkably dry this year. Again, dry is normal here, but this is extreme. The boys, in particular, have badly chapped hands and faces and itchy winter skin, just from the dry cold air. We had our first rain on Sunday night, though, and more is forecast for later this week. We generally get most of our rain in July and August, so it may yet turn out to be a reasonably rainy year.