Good morning, and We're All In This Together. Welcome to Saturday Morning Garden Blogging.
That was some storm system, huh? Especially as it hit almost every part of the country — a shared experience. Here in Colorado we missed most of the snow (we got a few inches), but we were hit with a week of extreme cold.
On Wednesday I was either a very good, or very bad, mother. Our official low was /-17°. I didn't have to go work. Da Boys did have school — riding public transportation, each with one transfer. The buses tend to run slow during bad weather and, during extreme cold, are usually over-crowded and may skip stops if the bus is full.
I thought about driving Elder Son to school, and having the Mister take Younger Son. But there was no way in hell I was voluntarily going out in cold like that. Especially as they had only a half-day of school.
So I kept them at home, calling them in "too damned cold to go to school".
We finally got above freezing yesterday, and have come up from the single-digit overnight lows. Phew.
Meanwhile, I'm running waaaaay behind on Christmas preparations — but the Christmas moose have emerged. And I finally added a Moose Nativity I've wanted for several years. While the set as a whole is just a hoot (yes, I am very irreligious), I especially love the Moose Shepherd. He has a particularly goofy look as he holds his little lamb. Moose hunting has become more difficult — I've resorted to eBay this year to add to the collection, including the nativity. At least I've been able to find a few — including a Bullwinkle Christmas moose.
Today we'll have to go on the Great Christmas Tree Hunt — it really has to go up this weekend. I have finished most of the shopping, but have barely started wrapping shit. At least I've managed to hide a nice collection of small boxes from the Mister; he has an unfortunate habit of immediately slicing up every packing box and stuffing it into the recycling bin as soon as he sees it. It is most annoying when I have to go to the goddamned office supply store to buy boxes when I know that the day before he attacked three perfectly useful ones with a box cutter.
A difficulty with shopping this year has been the number of DVDs which aren't being released until mid-to-late month. I've pre-ordered them, and they should be delivered before Christmas, but it is very annoying. One DVD isn't being released until December 22 — I'm having it delivered to my house rather than at work, as I do with most Christmas purchases. I learned my lesson back in 2006 when we had the Solstice Dump and I couldn't get into the office to collect the last of the Christmas presents until well the week after Christmas.
But I did clear out a space for the Christmas tree. I ended up stashing an excess table in a storage closet to make room. And while I was cleaning up (and distributing moose), I discovered that the spider mites were back on the brugmansia; which means they also are on the patchouli, geranium, and jasmine. I vacuumed up the dropped leaves, sprayed everything down with insecticidal soap, and dosed them all well with systemic insecticide. And for good measure, I vacuumed the plants, too. For the remainder of the indoor gardening season those plants will be kept rigorously away from all other plants in the house, and sprayed and vacuumed every week or two.
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And for Missy's Brother, here's the McCoy hyacinth vase which, if it's genuine (and I'm fairly certain it is), was a great deal on eBay. Real McCoy hyacinth vases can sell for well over $100, and I got this one for $27. However, there are a lot of fake McCoys being offered. On this one — unlike most of them — I could clearly see the "USA" under the McCoy mark on the bottom, plus the details are sharper and the glazing is better.
That's what's happening here. What's going in your gardens?