All snapped out.

The early cold front has come and gone quickly, and now we're back to our normal weather-- in the 80s during the day and 60-something degrees at night. The leaves on the trees are bright green, with hardly any change at all. Depending on the trees, we usually don't get many autumn-colored leaves here. The oak trees are the ones that drop their leaves, but it seems to happen all at once in mid-January when the leaves get to be a light gold color. Within 30 to 45 days or so, the oaks are re-budding and soon covered with green leaves again.

All the roses are still in bloom, as well as the hibiscus and mostly all of the azaelas. They will all bloom again in December, as long as we don't get another frigid cold snap between now and then. Hate those cold snaps.

Speaking of December.... I read in The Chronicle this morning that Galveston Island is planning to have their usual "Dickens on The Strand" Christmas festival. The article said this year's celebration will be like the "Dickens" carnivals of many years ago, when there were just street-vendors all along the Strand area of the Island. That was before all the vintage buildings were turned into trendy and touristy shops, boutiques, and restaurants. All those vintage buildings are still there, but have sustained major damage (six to twelve feet of floodwater) because of Hurricane Ike. Mostly all of the shop owners have counted up their losses and cut the strings that tied them to Galveston. For this year's "Dickens," mostly all of the shops will be closed up and empty. The Island is determined to carry on with their Christmas traditions, with or without the shops.

"Dickens" certainly will be different this year, but if they do have the festival, I think we should go. Sooner or later (most likely later), the island of Galveston will once again be back to its beachy carefree self. Until then, we all need to rally round Galveston. Let's face it-- if no one crosses the bridge from the mainland to the island, Galveston will be just a thin strip of land floating in the Gulf.