Good thing we've had so much rain lately. Last night there was a killing frost. Extraordinarily early; we shouldn't have night-time frost conditions for at least another three weeks, normally, and then it's only threats pending; usually it takes to mid-October before one comes along. Not this year. It's been a quite different type of summer altogether this year of 2014. No real heat waves, no prolonged hot and humid weather, but plenty of wind and rain and cool temperatures.

Not complaining. Just stating a fact. Personally, we enjoyed the cooler summertime weather, and appreciated the rain, it kept our garden looking lovely with minimum effort on our part.

And here are some facts to make anyone hereabout scratch their heads in disbelief. May, June and August all set global heat records this year. The important word here is "global". In the Pacific and Indian oceans and Africa, August was found to be the hottest on record, according to scientists at NASA. Cooler by a wide margin however, in much of North America, Europe and, good gracious, Australia. And the world's oceans tied June for the all-time heat record.

So, the reason it was a good thing we've received so much rain especially in the last week, is that moisture helps plants withstand the chilling effects of frost. Which translates to losing very few of our flowering annuals to last night's frost. When we woke this morning -- late, granted -- the temperature had managed to push itself back up to 5C. It was, however, 15C in the house, and that signals time to put on the furnace. Again, early this year.

And this morning is when I turned my attention to baking a key lime pie, courtesy of Flavor of The South cookbook, a recipe that my taste-conscious husband found rummaging through our cookbooks on the hunt for something good to eat for Friday night dessert. He found a simple enough recipe, straight from the Governor's mansion in Tallahassee, Florida.

The recipe called for a crust from 1-1/2 cups of graham cracker crumbs, 1/2 c. sugar, 1/2 cup butter, baked for ten minutes at 350 degrees, filled with 2 eggs, 15 oz.sweetened condensed milk and 1/2 cup lime juice, beaten well, baked for another ten minutes, and finally topped with 1 cup of sour cream, 1/3 cup sugar, baked again until set for ten minutes, then sprinkled with grated lime rind.

We'll know tonight how successful my product is, but my husband, viewing the results, claims it'll be luscious.