3 more and gray days

Three more additions to the survivor list. The confederate roses are finally putting on new growth from the roots as is the morning glory bush, at least one solitary new branch from the roots. I haven't checked the bigger stand over at the shop but I'm encouraged that that one has also survived. And, if I'm not totally mistaken, the rangoon creeper, the small one in a pot intended for a friend, is sending up a new branch though it's only about a half inch. 

So if this one in a pot unprotected survived then surely the big one in the ground on the fence has, even though I'm not seeing any new growth there yet. I think the hibiscus is dead and the bougainvillea too as they had both just been transplanted but I won't pull them out til the end of May. Same with the mexican bird of paradise. And I think my penta that bloomed constantly just about all year that has survived for years, I think it's dead. The baby banana trees are growing, not seeing any upward movement from the elders. I do miss my clump of banana trees. The yellow bells, hummingbird bush, don't know about them yet either. I think maybe the yellow trumpet flower in the ground didn't make it, still nothing from the star of india or the gardenia but I'm seeing new growth from one clump of nile lilies.

And then there's this...

this is the pink angel trumpet cutting I took off the big one after it bloomed it's one flower  that I had had in the house all winter which it didn't like especially. I watered it and fertilized it and I was surprised to see 7 buds developing. It's parent in the ground has given me maybe a total of 3 flowers. So I looked closely at the yellow angel trumpet in a pot that has bloomed over the winter and it has 9 developing blooms.

And the gingko trees have come out.

This was our sky/sunset Sunday night.

It's been overcast and rainy/drizzly for the last several days, everything is wet, walk out in the yard and your shoes are soaked. Anyway, because of the wet there is no working outside. Usually I'll sit and read on days like this but Sunday and Monday I did the floors. I'll be the first one to tell you I'm a terrible housekeeper as I can always find something better to do and I have a high tolerance for dirt but they were finally so bad even I couldn't turn a blind eye. So bad that I had to sweep every floor first before I could vacuum and then I even washed the kitchen floor and both bathroom floors. Now, today, there are leaves already scattered around. Most of them come in on the cat who likes to sleep outside and they stick to her fur.

Coming home from yoga Monday night we saw a faint rainbow over the field at the end of our street.

Then yesterday I roasted butternut squash to prepare it for a recipe and before I started peeling and cubing it I decided it wouldn't be enough so ran out and got another one but after cutting up the first I realized it was enough which I used last night so now I have enough cubed butternut squash in the freezer for two more future meals. Anyway, that took all afternoon. Today, gray and rumbly and now raining, maybe I will sit and read.

Two more pics, my little redbud tree in a pot

and the spirea which was bare sticks a month ago.

slowly but surely and, sigh, politics

More survivors, the yesterday/today/tomorrow has put up new growth, the little fig tree that got run over last year has some small green buds, and the spider lilies are showing growth. The amaryllis are all growing and one has even put up a bloom stalk. All but one of the small azaleas that were all completely brown and are now mostly just sticks are showing tiny nubs of green. Still nothing from the hibiscus, rangoon creeper, morning glory bush, porterweed, gardenia, mexican bird of paradise, bougainvillea, or the pink crinum lilies or the nile lilies. 

I got the night blooming cereus repotted and the white orchid tree but I've run out of bigger pots for the yellow trumpet flower and the bird of paradise and so far have not found the size pots I need. Still have two clumps of aspidistra to trim back but I also got some weeding and watering done. And I need to get the plumerias moved around to their spots in the yard, either pots sunk or plants planted so the wind won't be blowing them over all the time.

I mentioned that all the evergreen trees were completely brown and didn't think much past that but last week I noticed that the live oak trees, of which there are many in this small town, started dropping all their leaves and while they usually do drop their old leaves this time of year, not like this and I've never seen them so bare. They're blooming now I noticed while taking the dog out for her walk and will soon be putting on new leaves.  I didn't even notice the damage to the two huge yew trees on each front corner of the house so focused on the ground as I have been and the last two days they have been dropping so many leaves there's a nice thick carpet of them on the ground. And in the last two days many of the deciduous trees have popped out their spring green and the ornamental pear trees are blooming along with the pink magnolias 

and red buds 

and my native peach on the back corner.

It hasn't all been working out in the yard. I bought a couple of eggplants earlier this week to make eggplant parmesan which I did Friday, starting about 3:30 and finally putting the assembled dish in the oven at 7:30. This is the craziest recipe. It calls for two eggplants, about 2 1/2 lbs worth (mine totaled a little over 2 lbs). Slice in 1/4 thick sections, should yield 16 to 18 slices (I got that from each eggplant), place on wire rack and salt both sides and let sit an hour, then rinse and pat dry, coat with flour, dip in egg, dredge in a mix of bread crumbs and grated parmesan cheese, fry in olive oil til both sides are golden brown, and then assemble in an 8” x 8” baking dish. 3 layers...sauce, eggplant slices, cheese. No way all 34 slices of eggplant are fitting in that pan and the 3 cups of sauce it calls for isn't nearly enough. It's a good thing I had a large jar of tomato basil spaghetti sauce in the pantry. Anyway, it took my 10” x 10” dish and a smaller one. We ate all the smaller one and this one will get divided up for future meals. I guess it's a good thing it makes so much since it is so labor intensive and time consuming but it was really good.

it looked better straight out of the oven instead of straight out of the refrigerator overnight

As of last Thursday, Marc and I are fully immunized, or as fully as it gets, as it's now been two weeks since our second jab. I'm still wearing a mask when I go out, giving Biden his 100 days, and I'm glad to see that most people around here at least are still wearing masks even though our stupid governor lifted the mask mandate last Wednesday even with Texas being #2 in total infections and #3 in deaths through his lackluster and anemic response to the pandemic and he is now saying that any rise in infections and deaths will be due to migrants coming across the border because of Biden's more humane immigration policy even though Biden approved federal money to test migrants before allowing them in which our governor has refused to implement. Whew! How's that for a run-on sentence.

Democrats passed and Biden signed the American Rescue Act, an immensely popular bill, without a single Republican vote and of course Republicans are out there trashing it calling the relief checks and expanded unemployment 'free money' and calling for people and states to return the funds because...national debt, the very national debt they had no trouble creating by giving permanent tax cuts to corporations and the very wealthy and only care about when the Democrats are in charge. And so while they are calling for the working class to return their stimulus checks they are also calling for another tax cut, an end to the estate tax which only kicks in if the estate is worth $12M or more so once again this tax cut would only benefit the very wealthy. But these stimulus funds aren't free money. American workers pay taxes, often at a higher rate than the most wealthy Americans pay and so the average working American is just getting some of that tax money back to see them through the pandemic.

So once again, in order not to end on sour grapes from the Republicans, I looked up the other morning to see this walking across the yard headed to its burrow under the house,

a picture of Minnie,

are we doing something?

and last night's sunset. 

random pics

I've got one more leatherleaf fern, the morning glory bush, and two clumps of aspidistra to cut back and then that will be everything except maybe cutting down the small flowering senna tree though I haven't given up on it yet. Then I move on to repotting my three big plants...the night blooming cereus, the yellow angel trumpet, and the bird of paradise.

So while I'm busy doing that, here's some random pics.

what do you mean 'it's time to get up'?

the bevel on the etched bird ornament hanging in the window casts prisms from the morning sun

zinnias!

I've just come in from a walk around the yard and the pink angel trumpet in the ground is showing some nubs of new growth at ground level and the flowering senna has the barest wisp of a little green sprout coming out at the base!

life will

Saturday and Sunday I continued cutting away dead foliage. I finished giving the ponytail palm it's haircut. It has over 24 necks though the smaller ones were soft all the way to the bulb and the larger ones are getting soft and weeping. So back to square one with a bare bulb when they all finally rot away. It will sprout new ones.

I worked in the little backyard some more trimming all the dead and damaged leaves from the aspidistra and the dead and damaged fronds from the two leatherleaf ferns which are already sending up new fronds. Also cut the dead ends and branches off the climbing rose back there and pulled all the dead bromeliads out of the pots. I brought one pot in and then completely forgot about all the others so I lost all those. Then I worked on the east side of the house cutting back the mexican petunias and all the shell ginger which is a shame as it would have bloomed beautifully this year since it didn't freeze back last year. Still have at least 9 or 10 leatherleaf ferns to trim back most of which are in a bed by the garage.

I did see the first of the baby-blue-eyes is open.

The indigofera has sent out new growth all up and down it's branches and I noticed a little green nub at ground level on the night blooming jasmine  and on both a white and a purple phillipine lily shrub so I'm confident the other white and purple will too. The small chinese fringe flower trees are putting out new growth and my redbud tree in a pot is putting out some buds and tiny leaves so my survivor list has several more entries.

(I had to trick the camera with a dead magnolia leaf to get this picture as it would not focus where I wanted it to)

I did finish my drawing on Saturday. the sketchbook is 5 ½" X 8 ½" to give you some sense of the scale. 

Unfortunately there was a small mishap Sunday night. While I was eating dinner the temporary crown that covers my three front teeth came off. I noticed it immediately so I managed to spit it out without damaging it, not that it was is great shape anyway. It's one piece though it looks like three teeth from the front and it had been loose for two days. This was the third time they used it; the first when he prepped for the crowns, the second when the crowns came in and he decided to send them back for darkening, and the third when I had to go in for new impressions and it was very tattered. Once I finished eating I cleaned it and my teeth and pushed it back on and it stayed but I removed it when I went to bed. It would be just my luck it would come off during the night and I'd choke on it. Anyway, back to the dentist this morning and the assistant spent about an hour repairing it and refitting it though it probably would have been quicker just to make a new one. But it's back on now and all is good.

things that are growing and things that are not and a drawing in progress

I made lists:

Things that are completely brown or mushy that I cut to the ground (or will): 18 items

Things that are completely brown that I'm waiting to see if and where they come out before I prune them back: 7 items

Things that are completely brown not in either of the lists above: 7 items

Things I'm already seeing new growth on: toad lilies, roses, pansies and violas (these took a big hit but are already blooming again), mock dogwood, spirea, society garlic, woodland pinks, easter lilies (young bulbs just now emerging), ground orchids, red crinum lilies, plumbago (little nubs of green), native alstroemeria, firespike (little nubs of green) , leatherleaf fern.

I won't know for a month at least about the angel trumpets, flowering senna, rangoon creeper, yellow bells, bougainvillea, night blooming jasmine, star of india gardenia, banana trees, mexican bird of paradise, fig tree, hummingbird bush. I'm pretty sure the rosemary, penta, batface cuphea, and phillipine lilies are completely dead. I suspect the morning glory bush, yesterday/today/tomorrow, and bulbine is too.

I don't think the ponytail palm came through as unaffected as I first thought. I've given it a haircut, got about 1/4, so it doesn't look quite so much like Cousin It which it did before the freeze, the long trailing leaves completely covering the necks and the bulb which is at least about 4' in diameter if not bigger. 

The necks still felt firm but the growing ends all froze and when I looked at it yesterday and squeezed a couple they are feeling softer and liquid oozed out. Bummer, not a good sign. I guess it froze down to the bulb and I'll lose all the necks...again. This is at least the third time this has happened, maybe the fourth, which is why it looked like Cousin It. This ponytail palm was a wedding gift when Marc and I got married so we've had it going on 45 years. It went from small pot to ever larger ones and eventually into a preformed round water lily pond and then finally into the ground on the south side of the concrete bunker over at the shop property. It was at least 10' tall with three or four necks and ponytails of foliage when it froze down the first time when it was still in the water lily pond in front of our old shop in Houston and now I guess it's done it again. Just no way to protect it when I gets as cold as it did but I'm sure it will come back again.

Other than cutting away dead foliage and spending Thursday morning at SHARE, the only other thing I've done is unload the debris from the truck and onto the burn pile and then fill it up again with heavy trash and drive it down to Rocky's house and load it onto his big trailer since he's making a trip to the transfer station tomorrow. Some people around here throw all that stuff on their burn pile and get rid of it that way but I only burn organic material...no plastic, rubber, metal, etc.

Well, one more thing. I've been working on my drawing, didn't get time to work on it today  so here's a pic in progress.

I had other good things to report on but the grumbling took up too much space

I got all the plants out of the house and garage Saturday and gave everything a good watering which I'm sure they were glad of. There is so much to do out in the yard, so much dead foliage to trim off. It's depressing looking at it. I'd rather see nothing. On Sunday I cut back boston ferns, katie ruellia, easter lilies, some of the leatherleaf ferns, cut the damaged leaves off the aspidistra working on the west side of the house and across the front and 3 1/2 hours later I ran out of steam. It was 80˚ and really humid out there. The yard is littered with all the debris, big and little, that I've cut off during the week. I should really get all that picked up before I cut anything else.

Then this happened. I had the door to the little backyard open as I do when the weather is neither cold or hot and no screen and as usually happens, a wren will come in, check things out and then leave. So I could hear them outside and then a little female flew in (and I know it was a female because of what happened) and flew to the far side of the room and then perched on the chain of the temple bell. I told her she didn't want to make a nest in here and then another wren flew in and also perched on the chain. Next thing I know, the second wren is mounting her (it was really quick and I can't believe I got the picture) and then he flew out and then she followed.

So of course Monday turned overcast, cold, and wet. Grumble grumble. Then at lunch I got a call from the dentist's office that I needed to come in for a new impression for my permanent crowns. What? Why? Grumble grumble. But you know what I did the rest of the day? I worked on my drawing (not a tracing which I do when I'm feeling lazy) of the angel trumpet flower and I've transferred it to my sketchbook for a colored drawing. 

Then it was time to go to yoga and Pam pulled up in the driveway just as the predicted rain started sprinkling, I got in, grumble grumble, and we made it to the highway crossover and we looked down towards the oncoming traffic and it was wet and rainy and dim and cold and I said it's not too late to change our minds. I could do that she says. Good. Let's not go so we turned around and came home. Then I texted Abby to let her know so she wouldn't worry about us not showing up since we come from Wharton and the class is in El Campo. Because we always show up. 

Yesterday morning, cold and overcast, and I arrived for my dental appointment for the new impression only it wasn't just an impression. When they sent the crowns back to darken the color the lab guys decided that the crowns were too thin on the backside because of my bad overbite and therefore too fragile and more material needed to be removed from the stubs that remained of three of my front teeth. So more grinding I asked? Yes, he says, more grinding. The first new impression was setting up too fast. He took another one but he didn't position the tray right at first so I'm not sure how that one came out so then he just took some of the 'stuff' and mashed it on and around my stubs so who the fuck knows how these new crowns are going to fit plus my gums were sore from all the trauma.

After lunch I went to check on my bird heads to see if the ants had done their job and I could only find the titmouse skull of which I could now see the back was crushed so I guess when it froze and fell, it landed on the back of it's head and crushed it's little skull. And the robin head/skull was nowhere to be found so I guess some creature...squirrel, possum, or raccoon perhaps got it. So that was a wash. Grumble grumble.

And now yesterday our dumbass republican governor in a bid to distract from the near total failure of our 'private' unregulated power grid and all the damage and the astronomical bills people are getting for a few days of power and the criticism raining down on his head has announced the end of the statewide mask mandate leaving it to the 'common sense' of Texans, individuals and businesses, to decide for themselves if masks are appropriate as well as allowing businesses to open up to 100% capacity. In other words, Abbott has decided that the pandemic is over even though all the major covid strains have been identified in Houston and only a small portion of the population has been vaccinated and Texas is still #2 in infections and #3 in deaths and yesterday there were more new infections and new deaths than there were the day he imposed the mask mandate and limited crowd size last July which he had to do because both those things surged after an  earlier attempt to open up. Oh, counties can still require masks but no penalty for non-compliance. Couldn't even give Biden his 100 days and just plain doesn't give a shit about the health of people in this state. He's beholden only to his big business donors. Yesterday wasn't turning out any better than Monday. The only good thing is that by afternoon the sky had completely cleared and it was warming up.

I was going to post about some of the promising stuff in the yard but this is already long, so next time.

winter reading list

Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anappara – another book I considered a couple of times before I checked it out. The story takes place in India where 9 year old Jai lives with his 13 year old sister Dunu and their parents in a slum settlement that has sprung up outside the Bhoot Bazaar and the hi-rise apartments and condos where the wealthy live and where many of the residents of the 'basti' work. Jai spends his days at school or the bazaar or watching TV, especially detective and police shows so when one of their classmates goes missing and the police, who can't be bothered with the problems of the basti residents, do nothing Jai decides he and his friends Pari and Faiz will investigate and solve the case. Only as more and more children go missing tensions increase, children are not allowed to leave their homes, and the Muslim residents are blamed, it's not until Jai's sister Dunu goes missing that the community finally bands together and enlists the aid of the son of the leader of the neighborhood and his underlings and the pack of children and their guardian that 'pick' the rubbish ground that the truth and extent of the kidnappings finally comes out. It's not a happy story and there is no happy ending.

Twisted Twenty-Six by Janet Evanovich – the further adventures of Stephanie Plum, bounty hunter, and her sidekick Lula and the two hot ass men who claim her. This one was mostly about Grandma Mazer who married a mobster on a whim and 45 minutes later he keels over from a heart attack. His mobster buddies are sure Jimmy handed off 'the keys' to Grandma (he didn't) and Stephanie, Morelli, and Ranger are hard pressed to protect her.

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig – Nora, who backed away from everything she was good at, competitive swimming, member of a band, marriage, education, etc, on the verge of becoming successful at it, finds herself in a life in which nothing good has happened, she has no friends, her only living family, her brother, isn't speaking to her, she is constantly unhappy, her cat dies, and she loses her dead end job and decides she has no life worth living and no one to care if it ends and she takes an overdose of pills and passes out and wakes up in the midnight library. The library is full of books, each book being a life she would have lived if she had made a different choice at any point in her root life and she now has the opportunity to undo the regrets of her life and see where those different choices would have taken her. When she finds the life she wants to live, she can live it, otherwise as soon as it becomes disappointing she finds herself back in the midnight library hovering between her root life and real death. After endless forays she discovers some truths about herself, foremost that she does not want to die. She learns that things are not what we see but rather our perceptions of it and perceptions can change.

Fortune And Glory (Tantalizing Twenty-Seven) by Janet Evanovich – the latest in the Stephanie Plum series and the sequel to Twisted Twenty-Six. Stephanie and Grandma Mazer set out to find the location of the Laz-y Boys' treasure that the keys are supposed to unlock in between hunting down and re-bonding small time and big time criminals while trying not to to get kidnapped and tortured along the way. Sidekick Lula and a guy named Potts who has decided he needs to be Stephanie's bodyguard assist. A record number of cars are destroyed and Ranger steps in when Stephanie and Morelli take a break in their relationship.

The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton – This is essentially a murder mystery, it could also be considered an historical novel as it takes place in the mid 1600s on an United East India Company cargo ship except the author plays loose with the actual history of the time and also the details regarding an Indiaman galleon. The ship is laden with spices as well as secret cargo, commoners as passengers and nobles; the regional governor, his wife, daughter, mistress and her two sons and a few attendants. Also on board is prisoner Sammy Pipps, a popular and well known detective, and his bodyguard Arent. As the ship is being boarded, a man dressed as a leper leaps up onto some crates and issues doom to the ship and all on it and then bursts into flames. When the mainsail is unfurled it bears the sign of a demon, Old Tom. With Pipps in a cell, it is up to Arent and the Governor's wife Sara to discover who is the threat and prevent the destruction of the ship and everyone on it before the three predicted unholy miracles come to pass. As superstition starts to take over the ship, dead bodies start to pile up, the unholy miracles are performed, a mutiny ensues and the ship grounds itself on jagged rocks during the fighting and is torn in half with the survivors barely making it to an island. It's a good story that I enjoyed so I'm not going to tell you more except that the ending is surprising, or was to me.

The Suicide House by Charlie Donlea – another murder mystery. A year ago two students were murdered at an abandoned faculty boarding house on the grounds of Westmont Prep, an exclusive private high school, during what was to be an initiation of 6 juniors into the secret Man In The Mirror club. The evidence pointed to a teacher who attempted suicide in order to avoid arrest but only succeeded in becoming brain dead. In the year since 3 of the surviving 5 teens committed suicide at the abandoned house. There are several storylines that alternate...the unknown person reading from his journal about how he killed his brother and father, the students who were invited to join the secret club leading up to the night in question, a year later the crime writer and blogger competing with another blogger investigating the old murders and the newer suicides, and the psychologist and his dead case investigator girlfriend who were approached by the original detective to review the case. I thought I had figured out who the murderer was twice, wrong both times.

The Haunting At Bonaventure Circus by Jaime Jo Wright – this had the potential to be a good story but I just don't care for the author's writing style or the two main characters...Pippa and Chandler and halfway through I was ready to be done. In the early 1900s Bluff River, the winter home of the Bonaventura Circus, Pippa, a newborn infant with a damaged leg, a child of the circus, is left on the owner's doorstep. This has never been hidden from her but also never talked about. Now 19 and promised in marriage to the son of her father's dead partner she is chafing against the silent and obedient girl she was raised to be and longs to be a part of the circus and know who her parents are and why they gave her away. For the past two years she has been getting secret missives from someone who calls himself the Watchman who promises to protect her. She thinks perhaps he is her actual father. Her adoptive father, a mean spirited and cold man who only took in Pippa because his wife was desperate for a child, had ordered her to stay away from the circus grounds. One night she sneaks out to finally meet the Watchman but their meeting is interrupted by the birth of a baby elephant that is injured by it's mother who rejected it and Pippa is drawn even further into circus life and rebellion. But it's not all it seems as there is an undercurrent of evil and rumors of a serial killer. A hundred years later, single mother Chandler and her 7 year old son move to Bluff River to work on a development project for her uncle restoring the old train depot and costume house of the now defunct circus where she encounters stories of murder and hauntings in these buildings, the most recent the disappearance of her landlord's sister Linda several decades past. Chandler is fighting her own demons as well as Lyme disease as she tries to prove to the world that she doesn't need any help and pushes away anyone who tries. There she meets Hank who is determined to solve the mystery of Linda's disappearance which he thinks is connected to the old buildings and the defunct circus and the serial killer. Drawing Chandler into his investigation they stumble on the killer's secret hideaway where he kept mementos of his kills and the skeleton of Linda. The story is told from the perspective of Pippa and Chandler, switching back and forth as the story of Pippa's parentage, the Watchman, and the killer unfolds. For all my complaints about the characters and the author's style, in it's bones it's a good story and we as readers learn the truth that the modern day characters can only guess at.