Last freeze for my garden was December 25, 2022……WTH. I have blossoms on 4 of my tomato plants and one of the small one, Sweetie is setting fruit, albeit not many. Lo and behold, a few may even ripen. Freeze date records go back to 1889 here in Houston……..quite remarkable! Source – National Weather Service and https://spacecityweather.com/houstons-last-chance-at-a-freeze-in-2023-comes-later-this-week-and-its-a-slim-one/.

Quite a history here. I find it interesting that in the last 70 plus years the long duration between freeze dates is a year or longer, with 1932 being over a 2 year duration between freezes…..Hmmmmmm!!!!! Global what?????
A green Sweetie
A red one
Hopefully soo to ripen
Not holding my breath to see these set and bare fruit!!!!!

It won’t be much of a harvest but it does make me smile a bit. My lemons are doing well, beets are coming up and I will be planting more of them. The bees are flying when the sun hits the hive and when above 50ish degrees F. I have feeders on the front of the boxes but it is too cool to feed syrup. I am using sugar blocks that I make, about 1 pound each, and place them on top of the frames in the top box. Recipe…..6.25 pounds of sugar, 1 cup apple cider vinegar and packed into a 9X13 jelly roll pan. About 3 pounds per pan. Dehydrated and when hard and firm they are ready to go. Typically they last about 1.5 weeks. I do grab the back side of my hives and heft them…..If I grunt a little bit as I lift I am happy with their weight and won’t worry about them starving…..yet…..

Pretty active…..and surprisingly they are still finding pollen but I missed the chance to photograph it coming in. Trust me……a nice yellow pollen…..no idea what flower though…..Some dandelions are in the area. This hive and the one adjacent to it will be bartered and delivered to a friend this week end….Bartered for a day or two guided fishing ……, Thanks Clayton and Aurora. Yee Haw, the Redfish are biting.

TTFN

Bishop