After the chills

So now we've had two nights of supposedly below-freezing temperatures. On both these nights, we ferried pots of torenia and a couple of the largest chile plants indoors and then returned them to the open air the following morning. One of the chiles has a few blossoms, perhaps from being indoors and somewhat warmer. Not even the basil in pots has been tinged by whatever the coolest temperatures were around here. As to flowers, we continue to have a very few morning glories, quite a few Bright Lights cosmos (although many seed heads are forming), fennel, nasturtiums, pink oxalis, paperwhite narcissus (in just one clump so far), a few wild sunflowers, and thriving thunbergia alata, along with violas and cyclamen blooming in pots. There has not been the slightest skim of ice on any containers of water. There are still some loquat flowers, although most have now been pollinated. We see many bare pecan trees in the neighborhood, but ours still holds on to about a quarter of its leaves. We see both white-wing and mourning doves. A week ago, as the sky was just barely beginning to show signs of incipient dawn, two armadillos crossed the street. I've never seen two together and it has become quite rare to see one at all. When the sun is strong, even at this time of year, we occasionally see an anole or a tree lizard. We still hear resounding reports as acorns drop onto metal roofs, but there don't appear to be many more to come. Some creature is feasting on all this mast, to judge by the empty acorn shells everywhere.