Hints of Spring

When I went out this morning to pick a few oranges to juice for breakfast, I could not help but notice that while I was away enjoying gem shows in Tucson the past two weeks, certain elements of the garden had decided that it must be spring. It is a couple days short of the middle of February, but one grape vine was already producing clusters of buds.

Several of the fruit trees were blossoming and others were covered with buds that would also be open soon.

And along the fence was a row of assorted daffodils.

While grape hyacinths that hag languished in a pot for years now lined the blueberry bed.

 

‘Tis The Season

The holidays are here, some decent rainfall in the past few weeks has resulted in the hillsides turning green again, and Christmas decorations are in place.

For the past two years because the COVID pandemic put a damper on holidays, we set up a smaller tree in the living room instead of our traditional 9 footer in the family room.  A new red rug was added this year in hopes of reducing breakage of ornaments in the event they slipped off the branches.

Having the lights pre-wired on the tree is a great time saver so it only took a few minutes to assemble the tree.

Then time for the ornaments.  I have been collecting glass ornaments for many years.  We have some really nice fabric covered boxes for storing the collection.

At this point I do not use all the ornaments on the tree.  I have decided on bird, flower and geometric ornaments for this tree.  (The Santas, snowmen, clowns, animals, musical instruments, toys and other random items worked out nicely for the smaller tree used the past two years.  )

It took a lot of trips up a ladder to decorate the top part of the tree.  Then the rest is easy.

Ready for Santa.

Happy Holidays, everyone!

 

Bobcat

I noticed something — not sure what at first — sitting down the hill from our house.  Decided it might be a cat.  But something seemed odd about it.  So I got out the binoculars and realized that it wasn’t one of the neighbor’s felines.  About then it got up and started wandering and it was obvious it was not domestic kitty.  It was way too husky and the tail was very short and the ears…  It had been many years since the last time I saw one a bobcat here.  Hopefully it will stick around for a while and work on the excess mouse, gopher and ground squirrel population.

Owl in the Morning

I opened the shades in the “bonus” room early in the morning.  And for a change instead of being so foggy everything was hidden, it was reasonably clear.  And there was a fence post topper.  This time, an owl (Great Horned Owl, I believe) out a bit late.  Maybe looking for a sunrise snack?

More Garden and Critters

The first two plantings of corn appear to be doing well.  But as it turned out, only the first batch was really productive.

Borage is an interesting herb.  The bees love the flowers and the plant easily turns into a three foot dome.  And it reseeds itself so it will be coming up elsewhere in the garden for the next few years.

Meanwhile, the nectarine had a wonderful looking crop developing.  Apparently the ground squirrel thought so as well and did not share any with us,  The ground under the tree was littered with the remains of its feasting on the fruit.