Winter is Coming!

Once again, it's time to quote John Snow in "Game of Thrones."   Last week we were 15° above average, now this week the temperature has crashed.  This morning was chilly, but by afternoon the winds kicked up and that really put an edge on the cold.

Fluffy the feral cat has been keeping to her heated bed under the table in the backyard.  The wind doesn't blow straight in, so she's pretty well off.  I've given her triple rations this evening to keep her internal furnace burning.  

Because the winds are coming through Tijeras Canyon out of the east, we're not seeing the usual cold air pooling in the North Valley.  Instead, it's 23° up in the Heights and only 32°.  

I'm sure the local avian fauna will be glad that I filled the feeders the other day, both for gold finches and for the generalists.  The pond heater in the Bodhisattva fountain keeps that flowing, even in the coldest weather.    Fluffy doesn't mind that there's unfrozen water available.  

Weather Underground tells us that a smattering of snow is headed our way for the morning.  We desperately need moisture; we've had only a trace of precipitation here since our early November storm.  

Glad I took down most of the holiday decorations this morning.  Baldo will have the lucky job of taking down the strings of lights and boxing them away.  Thank goodness for a climate-controlled storage area; we'll be able to stash things away in relative comfort.  

There's dead-heading and cutting back to be down this afternoon if the wind abides and subsides.  It'll be chilly but not life-threatening.  With that the backyard garden will be in its stable winter mode.  The turtles are deep underground.  The bonsai are safely under cover or in the garage.  The big ones are able to handle the temperatures we've had without being moved or even covered.  I've left 2 Ginkgoes under the Chinese pistache and I expect they'll do fine, even if their pots are only moderate.  

Speaking of Ginkgo, for the day's photo, I'm including a scan of a page from John Naka's book on bonsai.  Here are his soil formulae.  

And speaking of soil mixtures, at least yesterday while it was sunny, I threw together a gritty soil mix for the bulbs.  Then we managed to get outside and get them planted.  It's a mixture of tulips, daffodils, and Hyacinth.  We'll see what comes up in a couple months.  

Baccharis species

Yesterday was the first foray of the new year out into the Cottonwood Gallery.  With construction at the Garden focused on the Heritage Farm railroad and the new Lebanese Garden, we've been able to return more or less to our path through the farm to get to our Nature's Notebook plots.  

We were greeted by the new critters on the farm and some of the old.  Bugsy the horse and the Churro sheep were in their paddocks.  Then, out past the new demonstration garden beds, the Highland cows (coos) and miniature donkeys were grazing.  

We made our observations in good time and, while we were at it, collected material for determining which Baccharis species we have.  I spent a fair piece of time with 3x, 10x and 40x optics once back at my desk.  

• Leaves:  Distally serrate with 3 nerves 
• Involucres:  Obconic to campanulate (upside-down cone or bell-shaped), not hemispheric (half of a sphere, very rounded); staminate ~4 mm, pistillate ~7 mm
• Pistillate florets:  <30
• Staminate florets:  ~20
• Phyllaries:  4-6 mm
• Heads:  Leafy paniculiform (branching on an elongated axis), not corymbiform (somewhat flattened)

All those characteristics align with B. salicina, not B. salicifolia.  

Leaf with 3 nerves and distal teeth

Obconic involucre