Happy New Year and first Saturday of 2026 to all! Thank you, Natalie, for hosting #WeekendCoffeeShare and bringing this small group of bloggers from around the world together to share highlights of the week.

2026 arrived with a splash and by splash, I mean wet weather. At the beginning of the week, there was an abundance of sunshine but frigid temperatures. Then, it rained and rained on New Year’s Day. That went on the whole day, which is rare for these parts as this region is generally some of the driest in the US. It continued to rain until the clouds finally parted on Friday afternoon.

This week was my holiday break from work. I will return to work on Monday and thinking about work is stirring up mixed emotions. On the one hand, I am excited to return to work and give myself something to do to keep busy but on the other hand, I fear of the amount of work that’s waiting for me. Will I remember how to do my tasks?

I spent the week doing mostly nothing, which wasn’t my plan at all. I hardly went out other than to go for a walk in the park. I only drove twice – once to drop off some items for donation and the other to buy some essential items and dry food. Almost getting side-swiped on the freeway two weeks ago still has me rattled, I can feel my anxiety spike and images of worse-case scenarios play in my head when I got into the car. I love to drive and am typically careful on the road but these bad players on the road are ruining the experience for everybody.

I did read, which was part of my plan for this break. I flipped through a couple of magazines looking for garden and photography inspirations. I didn’t find much inspiration on either front.

The most exciting thing of the week was installing a temperature and humidity sensor in each of the three covered raised beds this week. I love collecting data and numbers and I was curious whether my theory was right, that the front garden is drastically warmer than the back garden. I’ve always had a hunch that the front garden is at least 10 degrees-Fahrenheit warmer than the back.

The data told me it’s the sun. When the sun is not present, like on a cloudy day, the temperature in all three raised beds are pretty much the same. When the sun is present, the temperature would shoot up 20 to 30 degrees-Fahrenheit within the hour. For one of the beds, it went from 18 degrees-Fahrenheit to almost 70 degrees-Fahrenheit in the span of an hour. I had to flip the plastic and frost cloth back immediately before the plants got baked.

But it’s amazing, isn’t it? What a difference the sun makes!

Unfortunately, most of the sun would only go to the front garden. Most of the back garden would only get about 2 hours of sun in the winter months.

I pilled back the double covers to check the vegetables in the back garden bed yesterday. Thankfully, even after the five consecutive days of hard freezes, most of the vegetables looked all right. The only plants that sustained frost damage were the lettuces, which had already bolted in the warmth of November.

I appreciate you reading my updates and I wish you a wonderful week ahead.