Yes indeedy - the last day of May was one for the record books. Well, perhaps not, but weather-wise it was certainly interesting.
The day started off cool and breezy. Clouds and rain came and went. About 10:00 AM I headed into the garden to plant tomatoes. The sun was warm, the breeze cool. I filled two and a quarter veg beds with tomatoes, topping off the last one with some pathetic-looking broccoli and cauliflower seedlings.
As the afternoon progressed, the winds picked up. A neighbor stopped by for some tomato plants and mentioned that frost was in the forecast for that night, so I put additional row covers out over the tomatoes. I had to keep scrounging up rocks to hold them down for the wind was threatening to send them into the next county.
About mid-afternoon I went inside. The winds continued to accelerate. About 4:20 I decided to go out and put a row cover over the remaining unplanted tomato plants. I went only out to find they had been blown off the picnic table and were scattered (some in their pots, some out of them) on the ground! As I hastily tried to figure out which plant went in which pot (they had been labeled as to which variety they were), I heard a crack! and turned around in time to see a tree crash across the road. Quickly I shoved plants into pots and put them all under the picnic table (too bad if there were slugs), and wrestled the rowcover over the whole mess. I looked up to see it raining...no, hailing...no, sleeting...no, snowing! The dog and I raced for the house. I stood at the back door and watched the storm - big flakes were crashing to the ground, and the wind whipped the grass (which I had just mown) like water on a lake. It was something to see.
By 4:45 the sun was out and blue sky glittered above.
Toby and I went for a walk - checked out the fallen tree (turns out there were three, and several more are leaning precariously). Someone was already on the scene with a chainsaw clearing the road.
When I returned from our montly book club meeting later that night (around 9:30), the air was calm; a crescent moon shown in a cloudless sky. Sure enough, this morning we woke to white ground: a hard (and killer) frost.
I haven't had the courage to check the tomatoes.
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