I’m not talking about that “you got pwned” sort of snap, but one of a chillier variety: a freak freeze in early April. There we were, minding our own business, starting to take in the peas from the garden…

…getting things transplanted…

…and watching other things sprout and grow from seed.

Even the potatoes were having a fine time of it.

And then, Mother Nature reminds us why she is Mother Nature and we…well, we are not: a freeze warning for us the day after the photos above were taken. Out here in the country, it’s usually several degrees colder than the forecast for the city. Unfortunately, that means covering up everything outside that had already been planted and that would not survive even a light freeze, let alone hours of a hard freeze.

Like all those tomatoes and peppers I had painstakingly babied and then put out.

And the corn. Of course the corn.

Plastic sheets are heavy as hell. Although it did lend a certain wagon train quality to the landscape.

The peas and beans we left uncovered – those sugar snaps are hardy creatures (and besides, The Boy picked seven pounds of pods that day) – and I only lost a few of the bush green bean plants, which are easy to replace. The good news is, everything else sailed right through. The bad news is that I had to remove all the plastic sheeting myself, AFTER my visit to the dentist that morning, since The Boy didn’t emerge from his cave to lend a hand. So, just how cold did it get?

This cold.

I”m not kidding when I say a freak freeze. The days surrounding this freezing night were balmy and in the 70s. Veritable spring-like days, in fact.