BARE ROOTS!

With some help from our yard whiz, Mickey, we got a truckful of dirt offloaded and into the backyard to make new homes for our two old fashioned east coast lilacs plus a nandina (heavenly bamboo) given as a gift some time ago. We also repotted the black bamboo in the courtyard into a half wine barrel directly under a skylight, the beginnings of a "green wall" outside my studio sliding doors. Finally, I added a couple of dahlia bulbs to the front yard berm where pansies and other annuals are currently placeholders for the daffodils of spring.

We finally have had a little rain. "Little" being the operant word; it was not enough to make a bit of difference in our reservoirs and rivers, but at least it helped our plants a bit.

The roses we want should be in next week and then blueberries sometime after that.

A FEW OF OUR FAVORITE THINGS AT HOME

Just looking around here:

The undead flamingos guarding our back yard.

The coyote bush that in the middle of winter is creating a "snowstorm" in the driveway with drifts of pale floating seeds.

The places Leo and Lily turn up. (MORE TEXT AFTER THIS TOO DARN CUTE PICTURE...)The bare root lilac bushes and the dahlia tubers we will put in the ground tomorrow.

The homemade cookies our friends brought us.

--------Today we picked up three more half wine barrels. We still haven't gotten the carpet remnants or paint chips. My goal for February is to finalize the house paint colors, get the curtain rods and curtains up in the guest room (we've had the stuff since September), and obtain and install shelves, pegboards and bulletin boards in the studio. How this is going to get any easier when my 5 unit Spanish class starts this Wednesday is anybody's guess. But it all HAS to get done before spring planting season or...or...the mind reels. CLICK ON IMAGE TO SEE FULL SIZE VERSION:

YOU JUST NEVER KNOW

When will I learn to never set foot out of the house without a camera?

Yesterday, I was visiting a client at a senior apartment building. I exited the building and was walking through the parking lot, chatting on the cellphone with Stu, when I heard the unmistakable crowing of a rooster. I followed the sound, holding the phone out so Stu could share the joy, and there he was, strutting down the sidewalk between the building and the parking lot: bright orange red body, black tail, lots of varied iridescent colors at the wings and flanks; a drop dead gorgeous, and didn't he just know it, rooster, strutting head high as if he owned the place, and crowing his heart out.

Today I drove a few miles out of town to visit a client who lives in a barn (don't ask). En route, in an enclosure with four of the biggest hogs I've seen outside of county fairs, was an emu.

I love living here. Tomorrow we look at bare root plants, at carpet remnants, and (because spring isn't that far away...) paint chips.

HONEY

Our local Lover's Lane Honey continues to surprise and delight us. Other than a couple of specialty honeys available early in the season (notably the vetch honey, which I adore), it's all labelled "wildflower honey" and its raw honey - no pieces of honeycomb, but pretty rustic stuff. When we brought home the quart we picked up just before Christmas and placed it next to the quart we were in the middle of, which was a couple of months old, we were amazed at the color difference. "Amber" doesn't quite do it justice. This late season honey is nearly as dark as molasses, but with the characteristic sunny honey color shining through it. And Stu and I have never tasted honey like this: it is not so much sweet as rich, with the deep complexity of a good brandy. Frighteningly good.

Well, there was only one thing to do with it: make up another batch of walnuts in honey! The first batch I'd made up in September was now ready for sampling. It is darn good; I've been mostly using it on hot oatmeal for breakfast but can't wait to put it on pancakes. So the other day I did up a jar of walnuts in this latest honey. Then I got the thought that if walnuts work, why not pecans? For this second batch I think we'll be more patient and try to go five or six months before opening...well...maybe not.

Speaking of color, the fresh eggs we get from Lover's Lane are also something. Whip 'em up and you have a bowl of pure sunshine on your kitchen counter.

RAIN/NO RAIN

LAKE MENDOCINO IN DROUGHT SEASON

We had rain, so things greened up all over and the temperatures rose so that some of the snow on the higher hills is disappearing. But (and one hates to complain, but...) it is currently 58 and sunny; we are expecting sun and 60s over the weekend, which means that current projections for another low rainfall season here may indeed pan out.

The good news is that a lot of yardwork can get done this weekend - pruning and feeding a half dozen roses, for a start - plus Stu and I can get out for some walking.

The bad news is, we are in deep shit without higher than usual rainfall. The snowpack is low. Many reservoirs are lower than they were in the drought of 1977 (the one that got us teaching visitors the mantra "If it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown flush it down").

And I sure wish we had the space/money for a good rain capture system for the stuff that falls on our roof.

A NEW YEAR

As the first anniversary of our move approaches, its clear the nature of this blog is evolving. Living in a four season area, doing more birdwatching and gardening, I'm most likely going to focus on observations and notes relevant to these aspects of daily life.

For more daily, impromptu kinds of things, I am now on Facebook, both as a person you can befriend and as an artist you can be a fan of. I'll continue periodically upload photos to my Flickr page, and to discuss visual/martial arts issues on the Zanshin Art blog.

In a region with an incredibly long growing season, mid December through mid January is probably the quietest garden time. There were walla walla onion sets at the Farmer's Market a few weeks ago, so they are growing in a couple of barrels out back, and by my reckoning should be ready to harvest around April Fool's (just in time to start getting radishes, peas, and greens going).

But - surprise! - there is work coming up during January. If more winter rains don't come soon, I'll have to reattach the hoses and give our new front yard plants some supplemental water. The rosebushes on the south side of the house are ready to be pruned back and receive their annual feeding of alfalfa pellets. In a couple of weeks, bare root plants will start arriving at the nursery, and final decisions need to be made about where to put them, then the work of digging, amending and planting begins anew. And sometime within the next couple of months additional half wine barrels have to be brought in and prepared.