Toozday

The red Hibiscus is blooming again after a short pause of a few weeks to reset buds. 

 

Non-Phenology Monday

The day has started off with txt msgs regarding some consulting work.  It's also a turtle feeding day, but only reconstituted dried food.  Nothing live until I get to the pet store for mealworms.  I think Terrance does pretty well foraging for himself in his 12 sq. ft. domicile.  I'm not so sure about Tiberius; he's always ravenous, but then he is a growing boy.  

Hurricanes

While Ida has all the attention in the Gulf of Mexico, Nora (a revitalized remnant of Fred?) will move ashore and transition to a tropical storm as it moves north through Sonora.  I'm expecting it'll bring quite a bit of rain that's not showing up in the forecast maps yet.  

Farmers Market Saturday

Finally made it up to the Los Ranchos Growers Market today.  

Katrina 16 years on

Hurricane Ida is bearing down on Louisiana and it's giving Louie PTSD.  16 years ago this Sunday, Hurricane Katrina rolled over New Orleans and forced his family to abandon their home in the Lower Ninth Ward.  By an amazing twist of fate, he was found in Albuquerque during a driving rain storm.  Now he has a comfortable life with the Bears and all the rest of the stuffed critters. 

Thor's Day Bike Ride

Deb and I parked at the Botanic Garden and biked up through the bosque to the Bike-In Cafe.  Shared a watermelon salad and a couple beverages before cycling back.  5.4 miles, 384 calories.  

 

 We continue to eat well from Debbie's garden largess.  Here are the remains of the baby butternut squash that paired incredibly well with marinated and grilled pork chops. 

Data Rescue

I expect to be busy much of the morning, if not the day.  The Itools people never downloaded their user's information.  Now that the old server is gone, they suddenly are crying about it.  So Dan got cyber to give us 24 hours of access, which means I'll have to scurry on Tuesday to get everything they need pulled off.  

Story at 6; film at 10.

Epilog:  Foul-up in scheduling has left this postponed.  Maybe Friday, maybe Monday.  

Phenology, Group B

Another Monday, another morning of Nature's Notebook.  Sheila and Sandy will be helping out.  Afterwards, I hope to get into the herbarium to label some specimens.  That should get us up to date.  

If there's time, I'll also install the G7 software on the new irrigation computer so that we can start engraving labels again.  

But it was not to be.  Sheila had her last PT session for her post-surgery work on her hand.  

We did get some photos for Erin at NPN...

Henry Whiskers

 An overhead view of Henry Cat's whiskers...

He continues to gain weight and we expect good blood counts on Monday.  

Ambassadors Orientation Tour

This Saturday I'll skip the usual bonsai club workshop.  Instead I'll be giving a tour at the Botanic Garden to a group of new volunteers.   

We had 2 docents as tour guides and 10 newbies in the Ambassador program, the greeters at the gates of the BioPark facilities.  I took my 5 aside and gave them a combination of "here's what people will ask about" and "these are things to suggest to new visitors."  It was in the low 80's by the time we finished, but in 90 minutes we got to every part of the garden, including the Cottonwood Gallery.  I may have even recruited another Nature's Notebook observer.  

Japanese Panel, Fences, Gates

The gardeners at the Japanese Garden have been upgrading some weathered bits of infrastructure.  Old panels have a ancient mene, but fences with lashings have been succumbing to the ravages of sun, wind, and rain.  Several new bits of bamboo have been installed.  

 

Biking the Bosque

Debbie and I are trying to make a routine out of Thursday bike rides.  The plan today is to go to the Candelaria Nature Center and head north to where the paved bosque bike path crosses Montano.  That's as far south as she's ridden from her home.  

After that we headed east, crossed Rio Grande just south of the Montano overpass, then followed the ditch to the Alameda Drain.  That took us to Valley Haven Park and the Griegos Ditch, and from there to Veranda Drive.  A short peddle on pavement got us back to the Nature Center in no time.  

Didn't take a single photograph, so you'll have to settle with a shot of my baguettes from this afternoon's baking.  

Volunteer Appreciation Night

Tuesday evening had perfect weather for the BioPark's volunteer appreciation dinner.  We shared a table with the Sheila and David Conneen and had a splendid time.  A tropical chicken dish with pineapple and lime, plus beans and rice, did not seem to scare the peacocks.  They had a fondness for bits of tortilla.  I had a fondness for the crullers, one with chocolate, one with caramel.  Should've gone back for more.   

The Hummingbirds

 Lots of hummingbird action at our feeder and around the Agastache.  No sign of Rufous, though.  

Sadly, Stella, the neighbor's cat, caught one yesterday.  

Phenology, again

So it was up before 8:00 (too early for me, these days) and off to the Botanic Garden for Nature's Notebook today.  No really striking photographs, but one of the archway at the HDRG and another of the atrium behind the xeric beds...

In some good news, Maria found Jon's flash drive, which contained backup copies of the plant label templates.   Yay!

Druids or Dryads

 Debbie and I took a bike ride into the bosque on Thursday.  We wandered southward from the Nature Center to find the legendary Bosque Circle Maze.  With only a little backtracking, we found it, and followed its circuitous path.  In the end, I submitted it as an Ingress portal. 

St. Bread

A dear friend in Seattle sent me an unexpected gift:  a t-shirt!  She had been at a shop call St. Bread and, knowing how I bake bread, she couldn't resist invoking their patron saint.  

 

Walt Whitman Notes

Some links from brainpickings.org with samples of Whitman's writing.  These are particularly relevant today as Paul Gibson recovers from his recent stroke.  

https://www.brainpickings.org/2017/11/06/walt-whitman-specimen-days-trees/

https://www.brainpickings.org/2017/11/17/walt-whitman-specimen-days-music/

https://www.brainpickings.org/2017/12/20/walt-whitman-specimen-days-meaning-of-life/

 

Henry Cat Today

The housekeepers were here on Saturday, so Henry didn't have the run of his usual haunts, the sunroom and the garage.  I kept him company in my office.  As you can see, he does manage to get comfortable, especially after I fed him some chopped up KFC dark meat.  

 

Sir Henry du Grey

Henry continues to respond well to his treatment.  Thankfully, I don't have to pill him and the oral meds go down pretty easily.  Here's a shot of a playful young Henry Cat taken in 2005.  That makes him 16 years old now, possibly 17. 

 

Procurement

Besides the Botanic Garden and the on-going drama of trying to resurrect the old label computer, I've been helping a friend out with their software procurement blues.  A manager in the procurement department refuses to either fast-track the statement of work through the approved "expedited IT" process or issue a sole-source agreement.  The result has been continued rewriting of useless SOW's for a bid process that will only get one response from the only company capable of performing the work.  Fortunately, I get paid by the hour.   

The East Bed

And now the view of the east beds and some of the container-grown material.

 

The August Garden

Here's a shot of the south beds as of August 4th.  

 Very lush and full.  The poppy mallows aren't as colorful as last year, probably because of more shade from the sand cherries and the Japanese black pine.  The Hibiscus is just starting to set tiny new buds in preparation for a second round of blooms.  I'll be interested in how long it takes them to get to first bloom.  The very last blossom of the first batch finished off on Thursday July 29th.  

Bonsai Club Meeting

The August club meeting is scheduled to be in person today.  I'll definitely be masked up, what with the Delta variant causing so much trouble, even among the vaccinated.  

As it turns out, everyone was masked up, all 18 of us.  And the tables had been changed for wider seating.  I sat against the back wall, easily 10' from the nearest person.  

Besides August monthly care, I gave my spiel on succulent bonsai.  Then the discussion turned to Aki Matsura.  That's also the weekend of Callahan's wedding in Santa Fe, so my participation will be limited or non-existent.  

Here are some of the candidate trees.  All are originally from Connie Gardener's collection, but are now in other members' hands.  

August Bonsai Care

I'm on the hook for the monthly care presentation at the Albuquerque Bonsai Club.  This is on top of my usual Structure & Function talk.  Here's the forecast for the month based on Weather Underground.  

 

Black-eyed Susans

 The Rudbeckia hirta in our backyard is doing very well in containers near the turtle-arium.  Well-drained soil and a pot with sizeable holes in the bottom deal with extra water from the drip line.  The bonsai pines seem to be doing the same -- getting thoroughly watered to the point of over-watering, but doing fine because of the coarse soil (mostly pumice). 

Monday Rain Shower

 Onions, gaura, and roses blooming in the Monday morning rain shower.  We got an unexpected 0.1".  

Testing. Testing. 1, 2, 3...

Out of an abundance of caution, Caro and I ordered two Covid test kits yesterday.  They'll arrive today and we hope to have her results by Wednesday.  

I used one a couple months ago, mostly out of curiosity and to help get our Test Positivity numbers down for Bernalillo County.  This time, we want to assure ourselves that Saturday's allergic reaction was just an allergic reaction.  

What's Blooming

Had an enjoyable time at the Botanic Garden on Friday morning with Johnny Heal and his wife Ela.  Even managed to work in a picnic before heading over to the Albuquerque Museum.  

Butterfly on Zinnia

Rudbeckia

Monarda

Crocosmia

 

14,000 Climate Scientists

https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/advance-article/doi/10.1093/biosci/biab079/6325731

Not a great start to the month...