Last August I went to Coyote Point just south of the main approach to SFO. Coyote Point is famous for people looking above at airliners. It’s probable very few saw this cool hawk perched in the eucalyptus.
Photos
The California native plant garden is very green right now and soon there will be plenty of flowers. The blue oak will wake up near end of February.
Wildlife scaring and killing outdoor cats like to hide under our native ceanothus. I regularly scare them out in hopes they’ll eventually stay away from that unpleasantness.
Love it when I can spot Mt. Lassen and Brokeoff Mountain from the valley.
Sweet mandarins reflecting a whole lot of red showing just how ripe they are. Picked last Saturday to share at work. They were gone shortly after lunch.
No sight distance through the evergreen toyon. It’s very happy. So is our manzanita — getting ready to flower. 🐝🌳
Planted more asparagus today. They came with white asparagus sprouts. Looks like freaky white worms in this photo.
My attempt at an open vase pruned apricot tree 🌳 📷
Backyard Relaxation
Friday, January 31, 2020
Relaxing can mean accomplishing things. The backyard always offers things to accomplish! Accomplishing things makes me feel good. Today I: braved a ladder and pruned the apricot cut up pieces of bug ridden wood for disposal (remnant of last occupant of the property that used untreated non-cedar wood for planters) weeded to avoid herbicide found a Chorus frog! turned the entire compost pile Here’s the Chorus frog (Pseudacris) I discovered:I would very much love it if MacOS Catalina stopped logging me out of some anonymous Apple ID service. Every week, if not more. And the process to log back in is mayhem. Maybe 10.15.3 will fix it?
Tree Chilling Hours and a Bad Bug
Sunday, January 26, 2020
We’re around 770 chilling hours this season — almost 100 more than last year at this time. We hope this means we get a good crop off our ~800 chilll hour apricot (it was our first fruit tree and we had no concept of chill hours; with the usual climate and especially with climate change we’re now focusing on <500 chill hour trees). I put compost around the new nectarine, the new asparagus bed, and on the edible garden in advance of last night's rain; the clay loam soil needs some organic matter.Asparagus is weird. Finally moved the crowns to a place we can regularly irrigate.
Previous home owners did not ground the ceiling fan! Such an easy fix for a bit more safety. Did they not read the installation manual? At least the electrical box is not plastic (but metal) and seems very secure. Can’t tell if fan rated though.
Upgraded from (down/up) 175/6 Mbps to 300/11 Mbps soon as I hit the “order” button. $1 less, too. No contract. Worth checking Xfinity internet-only plans periodically! Unreasonably excited at double up speeds.
When a ceiling fan announces that it absolutely wants to be replaced, this happens.
Yesterday’s planted nectarine began life here in a rather peculiar way:
Going to punt this fan replacement job to another weekend. This nest of wires needs a day I can be relaxed and patient.
Our 2-year old plum died so now we’re trying a “Fantasia” nectarine. 400-500 chill hours is doable here.
Left to right: Moon and Orion (partial; got the belt!)
Frosty morning in the yarden 🐝
Our Elderberries coming back after they scorched in the summer heat last year. Resilient native plants! The birds loved the berries late summer.
Yesterday we spent some time taking a mental break at Burris Creek near Black Butte Lake, CA.
We’re trying to propagate lemon grass after dividing canes from our outdoor plant (hope it overwinters). The centers of the canes have popped up — thinking this means positive water pressure and that may mean the canes are taking in water so this may work.
I disturbed this overwintering ladybug while cleaning up this past year’s Holy Basil growth.
Our Mandarin tree 🌳 is ready for as-needed harvest!
Caseta & Dimming LEDs
Thursday, January 2, 2020
I replaced a Caseta dimmer switch with the non-dimming version as I’m installing a ceiling fan w/light soon. I’m getting used to tucking and bending wires just so and shoving the switch in with screws ratcheting it snugly in place. I’ve found dimmer switches are difficult since they can’t have anything but lights as a load and those lights (especially LED) better be perfect in their dimming logic and signal response.Cut down this years’ California fuchsias yesterday to encourage & release a new year of growth.
Side mirror view: tumbleweed on a front bumper.
Dancy Mandarins are so very close to perfect ripeness. Need to blush a bit more toward red.
