Bottlebrush

I thought I'd go ahead a get a short post in this evening because I discovered a new plant flowering in my back yard.  It's a red bottlebrush.  Isn't it pretty?  I didn't notice it before because it's almost the same color as the fence.


The people who owned this house before me spent a lot of time planting random plants, shrubs and flowers around the place, but so far I have no cause for complaint.  Everything that's coming up has been flowering.  It's an amazing thing.  And kind of fun because I never know what's going to flower next or what it may look like.  So far I'm proud to admit I've been able to figure out what the plants are from the flowers.   Of course there are lots of plants around the place that don't flower, and those I don't really know what they are.   

I did end up re-potting things yesterday.  I even made up my mind and re-potted the two little pine trees into a deeper pot.  We'll see if they grow taller now.  I just couldn't bring myself to purposely stunt them.  Guess I'll never make a bonsai gardener.  Anyway, they survived the re-potting and seem happy so far in their new pot.  I moved the moss with them - just essentially picked the whole thing up out of the shallow silver box and put it on top of soil in a deeper pot.  Hopefully it will all thrive there.

I also re-potted the Wandering Jew and the spider plant (airplane plant?).  All the re-potted things seem to have survived the process with no ill effects.  I also pulled my aloe vera out of the patio corner where I had them huddled against the winter freezes.  I pulled out the limbs that were dead and/or dying from freeze damage.  The plants are actually making a good comeback and look better now that they are cleaned out somewhat.


So I ended up pottering around the house yesterday as well as puttering.  It was a perfect day for it, and kind of a nice relaxing way to spend a Sunday.

That's it.  Just wanted to post my newest backyard flower.   

Sunny Sunday

I do so like this house early in the morning, and especially on a sunny morning.  There's so much natural light.  And of course, sunshine never fails to lift my spirits.

Not that I'm particularly in need of having my spirits lifted.  It just makes me happy to see the sun. And the cat kids like to lay in the sun when it's not hot early in the morning.

I'm home for a full weekend this weekend, which is a little unusual here lately.  So I'm doing all the puttering around the house chores - laundry, mopping and vacuuming, dusting, cleaning up cat areas, cleaning up kitchen, etc, etc.  It's just a nice, quiet, puttering Sunday, which is really my favorite kind.  I may do some plant potting later.  I should plant those two cuttings that I picked up from the ground at the garden place and put in dirt, the Wandering Jew and the airplane plant.  They're both doing well, and should probably be put in bigger pots.  And I'm still fighting with myself about whether to put the two little pine trees in a bigger pot.   Whether I pot things today or not will probably depend on how much energy I have left after the house chores. 

I finally got a relatively decent picture of the female red-wing blackbird.  She's very schitzy, so the picture is through the door and not excellent, but you can see her.  The picture of her facing me is even worse, but you can see how dark the markings are on her breast.  That's what finally helped me decide what she was.  I haven't seen the blackbirds or cowbirds around lately, so I'm assuming they can find plenty to eat without the feeder.  I still have plenty of sparrows and house finches and mourning doves though.

The cat kids survived my being away just fine.  They're finally warming up to my pet sitter, which is good since I'm going to be away on trips a fair amount this year.  I really appreciate my pet sitter.  It's just nice to know that someone is going to be at the house at least once a day and that the old lady cats are getting some attention.     

My baby peach trees are struggling this year.  That's another thing I need to do, plant them out in the yard.  I don't think they like the pots, and of course, the weather has been pretty up and down, temperature-wise.  In fact this week the temps are supposed to bounce up and down every day from 50s to 80s.  Even my grass is just starting to come in strongly, which is way late.  And of course we had those two days that dropped down into the upper 30s-low 40s.  Temps like that this late in Texas really seems to throw off growing things.  And add to that a decided lack of rain, it's no wonder things are struggling a little.  My roses are going gangbusters though.  I have roses ranging in color from pale pink to deep red.  No yellows though.  The people before me don't seem to have been much into yellow.  

I've turned my sprinkler system on this year.  I don't know if it's early to be turning it on or late since I moved in here last July.   It feels like it's been a dry year so far.  Lately anyway.  I think the only reason we're not farther behind compared to normal rainfall amounts is that we had decent rain in January.   Hmmmmmm.  While I'm puttering, I should also move the aloe vera out away from the house where they can catch rain when we do get it.  They're still all huddled up near the house for protection from freezing - which didn't work too well, but mostly they survived.

Anyway, I suppose I should get back to the chores.

Coast to Coast

I'm seriously ready to go home. I've been traveling for business this week.  I flew to San Diego last Saturday for a five day meeting.  That's where this lovely flower came from.  I believe it's called a Bird of Paradise flower and they were blooming in front of my hotel.  I took this picture with my phone.

Then early Thursday morning I left San Diego and flew to Savannah, Georgia, where I am now, for a three day meeting.  We have a little break this afternoon, and then will get back together.  We are going to try to do some sightseeing in Savannah today, although the weather has not been cooperating.  It's extremely windy and wet out there, so we'll see how the tourist stuff goes.

Then early tomorrow morning I fly home - which I'm seriously ready for.  It'll be nice to be home and see if I can get my cats to forgive me for being gone for so long.

The interesting thing is that I left my air conditioning on in my house when I left since it was forecasting 80 degree days.  Yesterday morning they had a record low temperature, in the high 30s!  Luckily, on Thursday I flew though Dallas on my way between San Diego and Savannah and realized that it was COLD in Texas.  I asked my pet sitter to turn on the heat for Addy and Zoe.  So they shouldn't be both cold AND pissed off at me.  

The weather has been crazy.  It was cold and rainy in San Diego, it's 70s and wet and windy here, and Dallas has had record lows.  One of the woman at this meeting says they just got 16 inches of snow where she's from in Minnesota, and I think the guy from St. Louis said they have snow too.   Texas temp have been swinging back and forth from 80s to 50s.   It's just been weird-assed frigging weather.

The meetings I've been attending have been going really well.  I'm happy to have them winding down, especially the first one, as I was responsible for a lot of that one.  It's nice that it's over after more than a year of planning.   This second one has felt like something of a free ride since I'm not so responsible for it.  I'm glad their both nearly over though and I can now look forward to vacation time at the end of May. 

Oh yeah, it is May now isn't it?  That happened when I wasn't looking.  Or rather it seems like most of this year so far has happened when I wasn't looking.  Time's moving by way too fast.

Anyway, time to finish up  this post.  I just realized I was past due for one.  Later.