Growing?!

I swear. I totally do NOT understand green growing things. Don't get me wrong, I really like plants. I like to watch them grow and flower and especially to see them leaf out again in the Spring and put on new growth. I even like to try and grow things, but why they grow or don't grow seems to have absolutely nothing to do with anything I may try in my attempts to grow them. How did my sisters end up with such green thumbs while mine is positively black? It's a mystery.

What am I ranting about? Well, I'm just puzzled and amazed by things growing and not growing around here. Two cases in point:

Peach seedlings: On March 20th I rescued two tiny peech seedlings from my lawn rather than mow over them. I planted them in side by side pots using the same potting soil, etc. They were approximately the same size, as you can kind of see from the picture to the left, about 3 inches tall maybe. Now, check them out in the picture to the right. Three months later, one is still about 3 inches tall and the other one is over a foot tall! I've treated them both exactly the same. They get watered at the same time. I spray them both with insecticide for flowering and fruiting plants, at the same time. They get the same light and temperature. The only difference is one is in a ceramic pot and one is in a plastic pot. Really? Is that what makes the difference? I just don't know. I have another ceramic pot, so I suppose I could shift the little one over and see if it helps. I'm actually considering transplanting the bigger little tree out into the yard, but I'm a little afraid just my transplanting it will kill it. Maybe I'll wait until it's a little larger. Or until I see if the other one will survive, in case I need to try again.

Holly tree/bush: On April 2nd my friend and I planted baby dogwoods and a little holly stem in the back yard. I call it a holly stem because I don't know if it's supposed to be a tree or a bush. Anyway, as you can see in the picture to the left, the holly started out looking and doing fantastically well. But over the last two and a half months, despite everything I've tried, and all my tender-loving care, the holly has looked progressively worse and worse. The leaves finally started to blacken and curl up and crumble away. It didn't look as though anything was munching down on them, they mostly looked like they were burned. Black spots that got larger and larger until the leaf curled up and dropped off. So a couple of days ago I had just the stem and a couple twigs left. I figured I'd leave it and next Spring I'd mow it down if it was still being a stem there. Today when I was mowing the lawn, I discovered that there are new small leaves sprouting from the end of the three little branches!!!! I'm not kidding. You can see in this picture to the right. I have no idea! It just began putting out new leaves.

See what I mean? Growing things are a complete mystery to me. Basically I think it's safe to say that anything that grows around here does so despite my efforts, rather than because of them. I think I'll stay away from the little holly, other than to make sure it gets water when that area gets dry. Maybe it will stand a chance that way.

And yes, despite everything, there are still signs of life from the little dogwoods. *shakes head* Quite amazing.

Mailbox and virus

I figured I'd better post a picture of the fruits of all my labors yesterday. I attached the mailbox itself to the post this morning and here's the finished product. Who knew it would be such a struggle to accomplish this? I hope my mail carrier is properly grateful. The old mailbox did indeed come out with one not-very-strong yank. The post on the old one was wood and the 4 x 4 was rotten at the point where it was cemented into the ground. It's amazing it hung on as long as it did. That old mailbox was hit by a vehicle at one time and probably cracked at the cement level, which I imagine is what allowed it to rot slowly since then. It definitely wouldn't have lasted much longer since it took so little effort for me to pull it out. The new post is metal so I shouldn't have rotting issues. I'm a little proud that I managed to put this mailbox in. I hope it decides to stay there. It feels solid, but you never know.

The other thing I was going to discuss this morning is: I have a cold. *unhappy frown* My immune system is really good; I'm one of those people who is almost never sick. And like most people who don't get sick, I'm in serious denial that a tiny little virus can lay me low. However, my immune system has been struggling with this damn thing for 5 days now. Last Wednesday morning I got up with a scratchy throat. It was one of those scratchy throats that could be due to allergies, or I slept with my mouth open, or a cold is trying to take hold, so I didn't worry about it too much. By Friday, my ear canals and ears were also burning/hurting, but the throat was still just scratchy so I basically just tried to ignore it all. However Friday night I slept badly, waking up coughing multiple times. So I got up Saturday morning thinking, "Okay, so now I have to admit, I have a cold, but so what? It's just a cold. I'm draggy and don't have much energy, but I'm going to put a new mailbox in and mow my lawn , etc. etc." That lasted through the mailbox post, but then I had no energy left. Last night I had more coughing bouts, and this morning I got up with a raging sore throat and aching ears and ear canals. Plus I'm losing my voice. *sigh* Five days out, and the virus seems to be winning. Today I need to mow my lawn, which I will do as soon as the dew dries up a little. And I'm doing all my usual Sunday chores, along with finishing the mailbox. I'll admit though, once I get through those I'll probably try to rest and let my body concentrate on this "tiny little virus". I hesitate to say, "at least it hasn't set up house-keeping in my sinuses and become a head cold also" for fear of jinxing myself. I'm also to the stage of considering taking something, instead of just letting the body deal with it. My immune system and sleep usually cure whatever ails me without resorting to meds. But the coughing and sore throat may need some sort of treatment. We'll see.

This weekend was supposed to be slightly cooler than last week, but it hasn't been so far. Temperatures are hanging just below 100 in the afternoon, and this morning when I stepped out before sunrise it was still 80 degrees. Not a cloud in the sky. HOT. Seems that it will probably be a hot and dry summer. My poor water bill. Still, I need to do my best to keep my lawn alive this year since it's making a comeback from late last year.

On the other hand . . . tsukareta!!!!! Damn I'm tired. This heat is not really conducive to outside stuff. I just finished mowing the back yard, and it's probably a good thing I decided the front yard didn't need mowing. Now why do I want to keep this lawn alive? Oh, yeah. It's pretty out there.

I'm going to go cool off . . . somehow. Later.

Bees and Birds

*laughing* No. This post is not about what you think. It's just about some observations and some things I've been doing around the place.

The bees first. There must be a hive of honeybees around here someplace. The little birdbath I have on the back patio has become a watering hole for the little things. This bee girl in the picture was enjoying it yesterday evening. There's always at least one out there, and usually more that that. Yesterday evening there were five or six of them taking their evening drink. The picture below shows them although you can't really see them clearly when I don't blow the picture up. It's interesting that Zoe ignores them completely, and vice versa. They buzz around when she first approaches, then everyone settles in for a sip. There's also a big black and yellow striped hornet that likes the birdbath. He's really much bigger that the yellow jackets I'm used to, but maybe they grow bigger here than in Colorado or Utah. I leave them all alone. Honeybees are important pollinators. If they want to take a sip at the birdbath now and then, they're welcome . . . and they don't drink much. *laughing*

It's really the birds that make such a mess of the birdbath. Besides drinking out of it, they like to bathe in it and wash their food in it. The birds I've seen use it this year include the big grackles, plus multiple blue jays, a couple of mockingbirds, a male and female cardinal and multiple morning doves. Occasionally I see a robin or two. This time of year when it's so hot I try to keep clean water in it, so all the little creatures have something to drink.

This morning I hung a bird feeder to the remains of the peach tree. Yes, I know I said I wasn't going to because I have cats, but I've realized that my cats are so old and fat and slow that they are seriously no risk to the birds. Now I'll have to see how long it takes the birds to discover it.

This morning I began my attempt to put in a new mailbox. The post on my old one is broken almost all the way through at the ground and it's only a matter of time before it falls over, either when the carrier pulls it open or when she shoves things into it. Plus the carrier once told me that I could really use a bigger box since I get so much mail. So I finally broke down and went by Lowe's last weekend and bought a new post and box. This morning, I began digging a hole at about 6:00 am (beat the heat as much as possible, I always say). That damn hole almost defeated me. Actually it did defeat me. It always sounds so easy in the instructions: dig a hole 20 inches deep by 9 inches in diameter. Okay, sounds easy enough. Unfortunately, the ground where I want the mailbox is run through with tree roots. I gave up attempting to dig at 9:00 am. Covered in clay-ey mud, sweating like a pig, I had managed 17 inches deep and about 6-7 inches across. I tried everything I knew of to make that hole deeper, and was seriously wishing for dynamite before I was through. And I have the blisters to prove it. So I finally gave up and modified the damn mailbox post so it didn't need to go down so far. It was also my very first ever encounter with cement, so I just hope that tomorrow when I attach the mailbox to the post, the post stays firmly in the ground in the cement where I tried to fix it this morning. Now I remember why I usually pay people to do these projects for me.

Speaking of paying people, I payed the plumbers to come and replace my garbage disposal this week. Last Sunday morning about 6:00 am I was semi-awake, rinsing out my coffee pot, getting ready to make coffee. I looked into the sink and thought: 'huh! this sink isn't draining', at the same time water began flooding over my feet. The garbage disposal had sprung leaks everywhere and was fountaining water onto and into everything under the sink and out across the floor. I suppose it just finally gave up the ghost. The house is 20 years old and I imagine it was the original disposal that was put in here.

The people at work tell me I practically have a new house since I've replaced about everything on this one. That's mostly true, but I do like this little house.

I'll have to mow the back yard tomorrow. The front isn't growing so fast, but the back is still growing like crazy. I was going to do it this morning. *laughing* The original plan was to put in the mailbox post and then mow the lawn before it got too hot. After the mailbox post, I had zero energy left for mowing, so tomorrow it is.

Anyway, that's all I have to say today, so until next time!