Half-Frozen.

There was a freeze warning up for Raleigh and down east and upstate SC last night, but not for us, though we've gone below freezing both nights. Just not enough, I guess. This morning we've got high gray clouds and no real breeze to speak of and maybe 40 degrees. Between last night and the night before there's been a kind of drive-by effect: some plants down to whatever shade of frost/freeze we've had, some not. I'm still holding out for one last rose bloom out back on the bush my mother gave us. The last living morning glory is still, well, living.

I love the cold.

Down the street the house that went up for auction last winter has a new sitting garden over to one side: mowed grass, ornamental grass, a Japanese maple, an iron bench. The bench is set up directly in front of the A/C, facing it. So you can sit there in all the beauty and view the compressor. There's a little flagstone path leading to the bench. It's not just some place they're keeping the thing. Somebody wants to sit right there.