Giant Swallowtail

A giant swallowtail visited us yesterday.  They've been absent all summer.  Glad to see one, but too late for their caterpillars to mature on our fennel.

 

Bonsai Banzai!

This morning I went from this...

to this...

We'll see how well the tree does.  The next two days are going to be cloudy and rainy, which will really help.  

 

Saving the Planet with Soil

Another good one from BBC News... https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/sep/25/gardening-can-help-save-the-planet-start-with-your-soil.  

Maybe it's time to get a small composter?  

Tree Thinking

A link to the "Tree Thinking" article... https://placesjournal.org/article/tree-thinking/

 

Aki Matsura

Crowds and Covid don't go together too well in my mind, but the Aki Matsura festival is moving forward today.  The bonsai club and the BioPark will have booths there.  As for me, I'm ambivalent.  Covid numbers are still quite high and Delta is still running amok.  Stay tuned for an update.   

Aphids and Lady Bugs

A handful of black swallowtail caterpillars finally grew to maturity on the backyard fennel late this September.  After they departed for their chrysalises, an outbreak of aphids turned up... only on the fennel.  Now, the lady bugs have arrived and are having a swell time dining on the aphids.  

  

Bee's Knees Week

Sept. 24 - Oct. 3 

What better way to celebrate our partnership with bees (and other pollinators) than with a refreshing Prohibition Era cocktail... https://caledoniaspirits.com/cocktail/the-bees-knees-cocktail/

Here's my first photo:  Step 1, prepare honey syrup and lemon juice with Barr Hill Gin near at hand.

#beeskneesweek https://caledoniaspirits.com/bees-knees-week/ @barrhillgin

Switchgrass

 Toozday's haybailing added a handful of plants to the herbarium plant press.  We'll see how they come out in a week or two.

NY Times, Science News, and Trees

The Grey Lady continues to post interesting pieces about trees and the environment:

• https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/06/30/opinion/environmental-inequity-trees-critical-infrastructure.html
• https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/20/opinion/city-tree-nature.html

Meanwhile, even Science News had a recent series on trees and climate change.  I'll work on tracking down a pdf version of those and link them here.  

 

The Herbarium

Rebecca Fry at the BioPark has received a request for help with a student's biology project.  The student is from SIPI and interested in helping out around the herbarium.  We meet Tuesday morning at 9:15.

Stand by for news...

 

Lemon Chiffon Pie

Cousin Kathie and Blake came over yesterday with takeout sushi for Caro's latest birthday dinner.  I was on the hook for dessert.  As is often the case, I cranked out one of Mom's Lemon Chiffon Pies.  I presume she learned this recipe from Grandma Babe, but I'm not sure.  

 

Tressie McMillan Cottom's piece in yesterday's NY Times resonates with me... https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/17/opinion/climate-change-environment.html.  The "rules" she picked up from Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson are: 

1. Pick one thing.
2. Make climate change the backdrop to every story you tell.  

Caro's Birthday

Debbie hosted Caro and I to dinner at her home last night along with her friend Celia.  Le Menu included chilled cucumber soup with tomato sorbet (my contribution), Coquilles Saint Jacques, baguettes (my contribution), and crepes Suzette (my crepes).  

 

Crop Extinctions

Industrial agriculture is not all it's cracked up to be... https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/sep/17/are-we-eating-ourselves-to-extinction 

Kavilca (pronounced Kav-all-jah)

 

Crepes!

 After driving all over town, we finally located some caviar at a Euro-style grocery store at San Pedro and Montgomery.

The Work of a Gardener

The work of a gardener is to create a safe space for their plants to exist in, and then pay close attention to the plants, responding to their legitimate needs but not coddling them. The artist Jenny Odell writes, “Somewhere between over-engineering and abandonment…the sweet spot is patiently listening and observing…[being] a quiet and patient collaborator with the ecosystem you tend to.” 

Sir Henry du Grey Escapes!

Whew! Close run thing tonight. Drove into the garage, hit the automatic door closure, went inside. Not known to us, Le Sommelier Stella followed us into the garage, tripping the safety break-beam. The door stayed open. A couple hours later, Henry Cat wanted to go into the garage (a habit of his), so I opened the door for him (but didn't check the outer door). A couple hours later, Caro noticed a thin brown tail in the bedroom. Stella had let herself in. Checking the garage revealed that it was open to the outside and Henry had gone on a vision-impaired walkabout. 45 minutes of frantic searching with our big maglites and Caro found him sitting in the middle of the sidewalk on the other side of the Valle Lane loop. He was seriously pissed off after she captured him. Of course, as soon as he calmed down, he ate a huge bowl of food and promptly fell asleep. I'm still jangled. Last time he tried this, he was gone for 4 days because he couldn't climb back up a wall he'd jumped down. All that time he was in the yard behind ours.

 

Campanula

A new species in the Education Building courtyard...

In the Japanese Garden

 

Japanese anemones

9/11

Schlepp in Bonn, Germany...

Drone Photography

 

Met Alan for some Drone photography today at the garden.  We had to start early (7:00) because he had a job interview at 8:30.  Nice morning light and quite cool.

Afterwards, some label work, then a tour for new horticulture volunteers.

The Chinois

 I've hung on to my mother's zillion-year old chinois with the idea of making tomato sorbet with it someday.  This is that day... 

Gastro

Caro gets 'scoped today, but otherwise it's a quiet day for me.  Perhaps take the new hand sander for a test drive.  

My little bit of Ingressing got me to the top of the leader board.

 

Your Daily Hibiscus

Smaller, but still blooming profusely.  Waiting now for the yellow one indoors to take over.  

 At 4:00 this afternoon, there will be a BioPark Board meeting via Zoom and then an HOA ACC Zoom at 7:00.

Labor Day, 2021

Not laboring very much.  I'll go in and look for Gravostyle software with Cecilia tomorrow afternoon.  

Cecilia went home early, but Richard let me in to the workroom.  No software diskettes or CDs to be found although there was a file with lots of information in it.  

While I was there, I photographed the herbarium cabinet...

Nikki's Party

We went over to Nikki and Bob's place last night for her 70th birthday party.  As luck would have it, the sky opened up and we got at least ⅐"of rain.  That crowded the group either into the house or out under the portico.  

Nate was there and we were able to talk to him about house wife and his wife's sister in CA.

Boxwoods

We had Baldo plant two more boxwoods to create a small threesome where the little pine was. 

In the backyard, the canna lily is popping off with its second flowering stalk.  

 

 

Sir Henry du Grey

Henry Cat continues to gain weight, a good sign.  He's up to 12 lbs 7 oz, a gain of 2 oz since last week.  

Yesterday we got over a 1/4" of rain from the remnants of Hurricane Nana, which was a reconstituted version of Grace.  That may impact bike paths for Deb and I this morning.  (Note:  Acequia paths were damp but not muddy.)  We saw this teddy bear along the way.

Meanwhile, Ida has left Louisiana a complete wreck and then went on to dump record-breaking rain in the mid-Atlantic.  Parts of NY and NJ are flooded.  

Le Sommelier

FB continues to attract fans to Le Sommelier Stella, the neighbor's Siamese cat. 

 The current storyline is that she prefers red wine.