Winter's last gasp?

Today, on the second day of Spring, we had the fourth Nor'easter of the season.

Frankly, I don't remember ever having more than one or two Nor'easters in a season, but someone who grew up on the coast in New England assured me that Nor'easters can come in clusters just like hurricanes. Then again, I don't ever recall hurricanes following one after another in such relentless succession as they did in 2017. Maybe this is the new normal.

I say "we," but Nanticoke has been spared much of the worst of these storms. Some parts of Northeastern Pennsylvania got socked pretty hard, even today, but for us the storm amounted to a sustained snow squall that dropped a few inches of loose, wet snow - ideal for making snowballs - that melted quickly on roads and sidewalks and was already mostly melted by the time I took the garbage out tonight.

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I have some tomato seedlings started. I started some tomatoes from seed two years ago and had an impressive harvest. Last year I didn't do anything, didn't even buy started plants to put in my garden. I decided to patronize local farm stands to get ripe red tomatoes and green tomatoes for frying. As I shelled out $1 apiece for the tomatoes, I realized I had made a terrible and expensive mistake.

I put seeds in peat pellets last Saturday. I had to start them on top of the refrigerator, far from the East-facing window I would have preferred, and by midweek I had a bunch of leggy seedlings reaching for the light. I repotted them, burying them as deep as I could, and put them in a more favorable location. If they don't work out, I still have time to start a few more seeds. I hope Winter leaves us soon so I can start hardening off the seedlings in another four weeks or so.