Good morning, and, Christmas means carnage! Welcome to Saturday Morning Garden Blogging.
It's been cold here in Denver. On Monday, the high for the day was a mere 2°, while the official low was -19°. Temperatures gradually crept up during the week, and yesterday we finally broke into the 40s.
Alas, the respite is brief. Another Arctic Blast is coming in. Lows are headed back down to negative territory, with highs predicted in the teens. A few dustings of snow are predicted, so perhaps our scant snow cover will last until Christmas. However, I've stopped bitching about not having a "white Christmas" since 2006, when we were buried so deep Denver almost came to a standstill.
And... and... TOMORROW IS SOLSTICE! Just another 2 months until threats of arctic air and negative temperatures are over for the winter.
Meanwhile, Caligula has discovered bubble wrap. He thinks it is the best cat toy evah!.
After defending his roll of bubble wrap from Zasu, Caligula carried his prey under the kitchen table to continue the evisceration. It's now a mangled tangle of plastic with nary a bubble remaining.
We're pretty much ready for Christmas here — well, except for one hitch. The reason we had the roll of bubble wrap was the X-Box developed the "ring of death", meaning it had to be shipped off to Microsoft for repair. While the repair is covered by warranty, we won't have it back in time for Christmas, meaning Da Boys will not be able to play with one of the video games which will be under the tree Thursday morning. However — smart mother that I am — there will be another game for another game system, so they won't be completely out of luck.
I did a last bit of shopping last week, adding to the collection of weirdo Christmas ornaments. Well, this one is beyond weird. Santa riding a rooster?
I still need to wrap the Lee Valley shipment for the Mister. Lee Valley — what would I do without it? The Mister is impossible to shop for, so I usually end up at the Lee Valley web site, clicking through and finding him all sorts of neato gadgets in the tool section. While I was there, I also indulged in a fancy-schmancy kitchen knife — I bought the santuko, and I must say, the damned thing is incredible. The handle design is extremely comfortable, and the literature that comes with it says that in a normal kitchen environment, it will keep its edge for six months or so.
This weekend will be spent staying warm, and figuring out just what the hell I want to cook for Christmas dinner. I usually go for a roast of some sort, but I dunno — I don't want to spend half the day putting together a meal. Perhaps I'll just indulge in some really, really, really good steaks and pan broil them — at least I know Da Boys will eat that. Too bad our favorite Chinese restaurant, the Imperial, isn't open Christmas day. Alas, this is Denver, not New York; I don't think we have a large enough Jewish population to make it profitable for Chinese restaurants to stay open Christmas day.
I'll also spend some time getting more of the hyacinth bulbs in containers for the final stage of the forcing process, and browsing through the seed catalogs that have started to arrive.
That's what's happening here. What's going on in your gardens?