Oh no!

I was quite proud of myself yesterday afternoon.  I had anticipated last night's forecast for a hard freeze by getting my cold frame prepared;  the plants all staged to go into their assigned winter homes earlier in the week so all I had to do yesterday was to close the cold frame.  It went without a hitch. . . .

 . . . until 3:00am this morning.  I was sleeping, toasty warm in my bed, when the sound of the furnace kicking on woke me up.  It suddenly dawned on me that I had left my beloved pencil tree on the back deck!  I had repotted it and left it out there to drain well before bringing it into the house.

I leapt out of bed, grabbed a sweater ran down the stairs, and out the back door to rescue my poor tree.  It wa
s too heavy for me to lift easily, so there I was, barefoot and in my pajamas, dragging a tree in a pot across the deck, over the threshold and into my kitchen.  It was a good thing that it was dark.

I am quite sure I heard that tree breath a sigh of relief.