Sunday 25 September 2011


It’s coming ba-a-a-ack!

The high pressure ridge that made our lives a misery this summer is going to make a return, just when we thought it was safe to enjoy the weather. Not as bad as before, though, after all it IS late September. (Of course, it was 104°F on September 29 once, too.) Well, anyway, we had a two-week break of what the weatherman called “seasonal” temperatures. I called it downright cold, a few mornings ago when it was 52°. There wasn’t anything handy that was warm enough to wear!

Says Cavanaugh of the FW weather office: “Western continental US upper ridge should expand back east over Texas Friday into next weekend ... This turn of events will likely shut down any rain chances by next weekend with above normal temperatures continuing.” Bah!

It’s depressing that we continue to get no rain - one nice slow 0.6” drizzle last week, and a few drops a couple of days ago, is not enough to pull anything through, and lots of the vegetation is either outright dead or on its last legs.

It does make good weather for the solar oven, though. I used it quite a lot this summer. It’s not surprising it can hit 250° on a sunny 106° day. Today was just about 90° though, and it did that well. Nice clear atmosphere. Yummy supper. Not quite the supper illustrated, which was some weeks ago, and included eggplant.

Tonight was farmers’ market squash, pepper, potatoes, and a piece of chicken, plus some oregano from my tiny herb patch (that has been watered enough to get a big patch of Johnson grass next to it -- better do some weeding before the herbs get overwhelmed).

Thanksgiving arctic front

So there I was at 5:30 this Thanksgiving morning, putting the (huge!) turkey in the oven, wearing thin shorts and a skimpy t-shirt, barefoot; the temperature outside the same 70° it had been all night. Then WHOOSH, the expected front came by, right on time. The oven kept the house warm for a bit, but then it was cooling fast. At 8:00, chilled, I got in bed to warm up for a bit, and woke up two hours later! Went and turned the furnace on then, and it has been working all day to keep the house up to the sixties. Of course it would help if I would get the ladder in from the Ridge so I could get up on the office roof and close that north louver vent. Maybe I'll ask if I can go out Joy's window.

The sun just set, and the temp is supposed to plummet to around 25°. Still a few potted plants on the terrace here and in the front yard at the Ridge. Guess I better get out there and rescue them, and feed the horse. I chopped back the almond verbena and lemon verbena last night, covered the herbs with a big pile of leaves and a tarp. Almond verbena is supposed to need some winter protection, but I don't know how much. Maybe I can get some cuttings to root from what I cut off.

2 more April days in the garden

planted so far (4 April)
tendergreen mustard, radish, lettuce oak leaf
white onions, red norland potatoes
sugar snap peas
peppermint, chocolate mint, candy mint (?), orange mint
bouquet dill (split in two)
ruffled basil, Italian flat parsley, stevia
mammoth dill
elfin thyme, golden thyme, lemon thyme
sweet alyssum (2), bluebonnets (2)
Fairy Tale eggplant, Brandywine tomato, yellow plum (pear)
Celebrity tomato, Sweet 100, Mr. Stripey, Green Zebra, Old German, Jubilee
Lilac pepper, sweet banana pepper
Classic eggplanto, Ichiban eggplant

still waiting
cucumber
yellow squash, zucchini, cantaloupe
winter squash
pole beans
sweet almond verbena, lemon verbena, lemon balm
purple sage, purple small-lvd basil, compact oregano
oregano, rosemary
zinnia
morning glory
nasturtium

April 5 - finished herb bed w/8 herbs above plus 3 portulaca and expensive gallon Mexican mint marigold from Meador’s ($6.95). While preparing the last part of the bed, I succeeded in digging out a quite sizeable brier root. Proud of myself.

Discovered that the Blue Lake beans I got at Meador’s were bush, not pole. Oh, well. Have to squeeze out a row for them, and get limas for the poles in the squash hills. MUST get seeds in ground tomorrow.
The little Ichiban eggplant is looking much better. Something had unearthed one onion set; stuck it back in again.

Cloudy this morning, clear afternoon, still (or again) very windy. 80°F. Spring will be very short at this rate.

Birdfeeder -- cardinals, 2 towhees, dove, Harris sparrows, chickadee, titmouse. I hear a bird that sounds like the last three notes of whitethroat - just three long whistles - maybe it’s Harris.
Photographed black vulture on transformer pole, and movie. Turned off camera JUST before it took off. Drat!

11pm and still 72°F!



6 April Tuesday

mostly cloudy, still windy, 66°, 70s by midmorning
Buddy’s hair coming out in huge mats. Seems to be almost no hair on his shoulder and back of thigh, I can see dandruffy skin. Flies getting bad. Will ask at D&L.
Bacon, onions, and poke sallet on toast for breakfast.
One potato is up! and an onion.
I’m procrastinating. Must go out and till okra and squash space.


Later -- all tilled, 10 squash hills, rows for okra and beans, spots for cukes. Planted 3 hills, cantaloupe, 2 each yellow squash and zucchini.
S'posed to be way cooler tomorrow, sixties instead of eighties, and near 40 overnight. Protect eggplants?