About the time Brownie and I were set to go collect dirt yesterday Vera came to spend the day, so rather than desert her I did more miscellaneous yardwork: finished trimming the mini hedge of oleanders under the lemon tree, refilled hummingbird feeders, did another watering session out front, etc.  The dirt patches are sprouting extensive tiny greenery, so I predict that it won't be long before those patches disappear completely under a new carpet of dichondra.

In some places dichondra, a low growing plant and member of the morning glory family, is seen as a weed. In other places, however, it is valued as an attractive ground cover or even a substitute for a small lawn area. Dichondra is a perennial ground cover plant that has a somewhat upright, creeping habit with circular leaves. It is not usually over 2 inches in height and retains its bright green color in temperatures as low as 25 F. When this ground cover becomes full, it appears as a dense carpet-like grass and is often planted in places where other turf-type grass does not grow well.

That dirt run is on this morning's agenda (after a soak) because it will probably <g> be quite toasty again in the afternoon.  Yesterday we hit 91, so we've set a new record for the number of 90+ days in November, along with latest date for one of those. Today, however, we might 'only' make it to 89, and then we are not expected to hit 90 again (at least a few months...) 

Of course weather-related records are being set around the globe.

Next week will start off in the 80s, but Thanksgiving will be the coolest day of the week, predicted to reach only 74.  Obviously pleasant enough to have the windows/doors open, but not likely we'll end up eating poolside like some years in the past.

Last evening I finished The Nickel Boys, and then started in on Erik Larson's The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz.  While I haven't gotten too far into it yet, I am expecting it to be an engrossing read.

It's a sprawling, gripping account of Winston Churchill's first year as prime minister of the United Kingdom, and it's nearly impossible to put down.  Larson's book starts off with a recounting of "a singular event that occurred just before dusk on May 10, 1940, one of the loveliest evenings in one of the finest springs anyone could recall." Earlier in the day, Germany had invaded Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, sending a shockwave of alarm in the U.K., which was already dealing with political unrest — Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain had resigned, and King George VI appointed Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty, to replace him.