Spring?!

Its been 60+ degrees for MLK Day and that means one thing--pollen. Yes, spring has sprung even if the snows of February are still out there... lurking at the edges of the Colorado border, but somehow avoiding us. The local weather station hasn't started reporting pollen counts, especially my nemesis, juniper, but my daily sneeze count is up significantly. I'd be only too happy to have a quick cold snap down to 10 degrees--something that would freeze those juniper pollen grains rock solid.

Ric bought a pair of beautiful state-of-the-art snowshoes after our initial outing, but it hasn't snowed since. Must be very frustrating. I'm still without skis so that's no small loss for me. After all, we need an El Nino year before we have really nice winter weather.

Meanwhile, back in town the Albuquerque Bonsai Club got the year off to a good start with a meeting to set up the agenda for 2009 and a look at tropical bonsai. I got some good tips on how to defeat the dreaded scales that have infected a few plants. Neem oil plus a little detergent applied weekly for at least a week.

The little Schefflera will be easy to handle, but the 8' palm in the living room will need to be hauled outside every weekend for a good spray.