Tortoises and Climate Change in a Changing World

I've been on the lookout for the turtles.  Sometime between now and the 5th of May they'll awaken from their winter nap.  Then it'll be time for a quick run to Petsmart for mealworms.  Their appetite is always better if I start them off on live food.  

I'll be interested in their weights.  I've been weighing Terrance ever since I got him, good lord, 8 years ago.  Tiberius has been growing by leaps and bounds.  As a youngster, I expect him to plateau near his adult weight fairly soon, maybe this year.  Here's Terrance from several years ago with Schlepp at the old house on Camino Gallo. 

As I reflect on their hibernation periods, I wonder how global warming will effect the boys.  Is a longer active period during the spring-summer-fall a good thing?  How long is a healthy brumation?  Do boxies down south get by with less?  

As CO2 levels go up, things appear to becoming more serious daily.  The four years lost to Trump can only be seen as something good through the lens of motivating us to do more with the time that's left.  One can hope that Biden's push for an large infrastructure bill will include aspects for ameliorating climate change.  

Lowe's

Baldo is coming an extra day this week and bringing an empty truck.  The plan is to go over to Lowe's and get the materials for the new raised bed.  I estimate it will take 51 bricks, but we'll get 60 so there are plenty for extra projects around the yard.  

Here's the diagram of the area where we'll be placing the beds.  After some consideration the construction of the small bed on the south side is suspended.  For now, it's being converted into a seating area.  The chairs can always be moved over to the western patio if we have guests. 

The Anthurium

Among the tropicals in the sun room, our Anthurium has been the slowest, least showy plant.  True, it has pleasant foliage, but I've been wanting to see it bloom for quite a while. 

With better fertilization (we try to apply it every 1st of the month), my wish has come true.  We have a plethora of Arum blooms.

A Quiet Sunday

Whew!  Made it through another week.  SE garden bed is coming along.  Labels for the Jardin Redondo are moving forward, as are labels for the Arcade Beds in the HDRG.  

Time to refresh the wine supply and obtain a nice single malt to get us into the new month.

Here's a photo of Friday's late evening bloom of the Hibiscus in the sun room.

It's now 6:40 p.m. and I'm enjoying the cool evening warmed by the heat of the grill as I prepare to cook steak and asparagus.  Russets are baking in the oven, using the best-ever method from the 1971 edition of The Joy of Cooking.  Merlot has been uncorked and it's only a matter of time and heat.  

Endangered Plant of the Month

It's the last Saturday of the month and that means my essay on some rare and endangered plant has to be posted to the Native Plants of NM Facebook group.  Fortunately, I'm ahead of the game and I've got Viola calcicola written up and scheduled to auomatically appear this Saturday morning.  

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Viola calcicola R.A. McCauley & H.E. Ballard

This month I'm looking to describe a rare plant that might actually be in bloom right now. Depending on how warm the spring turns out, this little (and I do mean little) jewel of a violet could be in flower right now down in the Guadalupe Mountains.

The species was described just in 2013 by Ross A. Mccauley of Fort Lewis College and Harvey E. Ballard, Jr. of Ohio University. Our species of interest today is removed by many hundreds of kilometers from any likely relatives and is the second endemic violet found in the Guadalupe Mountain region.

Description (as always, from NM Rare Plants): Acaulescent (having no obvious stem) perennial herb from a short (ca 2.5 cm, 1 inch) vertical rhizome bearing stout fibrous roots; leaves all unlobed or rarely shallowly trilobate; petioles of longest leaves 3-7 cm; leaf blades cordate, triangular-cordate to deltoid with rounded-serrate margins, glabrous; chasmogamous flowers solitary on peduncles generally borne at or slightly above the leaf blades; sepals variable, ovate to lanceolate, the lowest 3-5 mm long and 1-2 mm wide; corolla 0.8-1.5 cm long; petals on different plants varying from nearly white (faintly flushed with violet) to medium purple, lateral petals having few inconspicuous purple veins, spurred petal with prominent and extensive nectar guides, lateral and upper petals narrowly obovate, spurred petal obovate with long-tapering base, 10-13(-15) mm long including spur, 3-5 mm wide, broadly obtuse to rounded at apex; spurred and upper petals glabrous within, lower lateral petal sparsely bearded with few to several clavate or knob-shaped hairs; cleistogamous (non-opening, self-pollinating) flower buds to 3 mm long on peduncles shorter than the leaves; fruit a glabrous capsule. Flowering April to May.

There are no other Viola species with purple flowers in the Guadalupe Mountains. The adjacent Sacramento Mountains have Viola nephrophylla, which has purple petals, but is quickly distinguished by some pubescence on its petal spur.

Violets are the largest genus of cleistogamous plants, forming flower buds that don't open and self-pollinate. Self-pollination works well when you can't find a partner for sexual reproduction, but it limits variability, which can lead to evolutionary dead ends. Fortunately, our violet also produces chasmogamous (open pollinated) flowers. Because these plants live in adverse habitats, cleistogamy may be a way of guaranteeing seed set even if the population size is small and there are no conspecifics nearby.

Distribution: Eddy and Otero counties in NM and Culberson County across the border in TX. The plant favors escarpments and deep canyons on the eastern slope of the Guadalupe Mountains where it finds suitable cracks in Permian age limestone in riparian woodland and montane scrub up to pinyon-juniper woodland, usually on north-facing cliff faces or near spring seeps. 1,525 m (5,000 ft) to 2,135 m (7,000 ft).

Viola calcicola is one of a suite of chasmophilous ( thriving or dwelling in rock crevices, chinks, fissures, crannies, and chasms) plants endemic to the limestone cliffs of the Guadalupe Mountains and adjacent sky-island ranges. In New Mexico it is sympatric with the rare Aquilegia chaplinei, Hedeoma apiculata, Perityle quinqueflora, Polyglala rimulicola, Salvia summa, Nama xylopodum, Chaetopappa hersheyi, and Valeriana texana. Do you notice a pattern?

Roses

At the Botanic Garden, my work continues apace as Plant Identification Specialist.  We've switched over largely to these attractive white-on-black metal labels.  They have two 15" long legs that penetrate deep into the ground and their size makes it unlikely that anyone will steal one.  Far easier to simply photograph the plant, then the label.  

The last phase of the HDRG labeling will be a few late bloomers and the Arcade Beds in front of the Atrium.  There are only a  dozen or so roses there, so that will be easy.  

After the HDRG is completed, we're moving on to the Jardín Redondo with its circular layout and classical roses.  Almost five dozen different cultivars are planted here.  I spent the afternoon matching my on-the-ground inventory from a year ago with the master plant list that Jon Stewart gave me.  Next, I have to find the breeder information and the year when the variety was registered.  After that, the list goes to the Curator of Plants and the order goes out.  

Let It Snow, Let It Snow

Did it or didn't it?  With a crazy forecast for over an inch of snow and then a low temp of 26° over night, it could be a rough ride for the plants.   

No snow here in the Valley and not even 0.1" of rain.  Los Alamos meanwhile got 7" and other places around the state got plenty more.  Good for the snowpack.  

Wind is dying down, so I have put the tarps over the tender plants.  At least one forecast is for 24°-26° tonight.  Definitely want to protect things.

 

Winter Damage

My variegated dwarf Deodar cedar is a fairly large bonsai currently living in a deep plastic training pot.  When I bought it from Osuna Nursery 6 years ago, it was in a 25 gallon black nursery pot.  I transplanted it into one of Caro's red cone-shaped pots straight away and it's lived there ever since.  

Last February during the bonsai clubs repotting workshop, I whacked its roots down considerably and moved it into the training pot.  The result was reasonably attractive and I pretty much left the tree to grow unmolested all season.

Because of its size and weight, I leave this guy outside over winter and only cover it with a tarp on the coldest of nights.  Unfortunately, last fall we had a hard freeze on Oct. 28th before anything had adapted for the winter.  Temperatures had been in the 40's at night until then.  

Seeing the forecast, I moved a lot of the smaller material into the garage, but the big juniper and the cedar were just covered with a blue plastic tarp.  Where the branches touched the tarp at the top, where it was coldest and least protected, the tree took damage that has become apparent now that it's spring.  

Here's the tree showing the brown needles on the upper canopy.  It's not a serious problem, because the damage is on last summer's growth that was let go uncontrolled after the big repotting effort.  These branches were going to get trimmed one way or another.  

And here's a close-up of the crown from above.  

And here's a detail of the damage. 

By comparison, here's a close-up view of healthy foliage lower on the tree. 

So last Friday after getting Paddy back from the vet, with Daylight Saving Time giving me extra light, fortified with a glass of wine, I set to work dealing with the problem.  The result was a bucket of clippings.  

The result is a much tidier tree.  Here's the final product.  I'll be fine tuning it some more in the weeks ahead.  As vigorous as it is growing, I may be able to transplant into a mica pot next fall or in the spring of 2022.  

March Madness

I'm amazed at how fast the month has flown by.   A look back at my covid spreadsheet (where I track daily numbers at the state, county, and zipcode level) shows that we've been busy with life:  the house, the garden, the cats, the cars. 

The daily routine of kitty medication, litter box hygiene, dishes, laundry, and vacuuming seems to take up almost half of every day.  I should mention that we tend to sleep in and leisurely drink coffee until 10:00 each day.  

Back on March 6th we had the monthly Instacart order and have been eating well ever since.  Our food waste has gone way down and our recycling has gone way up.  I've been baking lots of goodies, both as specialty items and as ordinary sandwich bread.  I'm slowly making my way through the pound of Canadian yeast that I bought last spring.  My baguettes and crumpets are things of beauty.  Pizzellas are a big hit now that I have a pizzella iron.  

The stucco has been finished on the new house next door.  Right now the cabinets are going in.  Once the stucco was done, the masons came and built the cinderblock wall that now separates our lots where the cedar fence once was.  With that completed, Caro is free to construct the new raised bed on the east side of the back yard.  Preparatory to that we moved the small tables and chairs, got a new and larger patio rug, and upgraded some of the irrigation system.  Lots of planning and budgeting.  

The cats have been a big part of this month's activities.  Henry Cat has an intestinal problem that may be a simple irritation or an ultimately fatal lymphoma.  For now, an oral antibiotic and a probiotic power have helped.  He continues to get daily eye medications to protect his remaining eye.  

Paddy had a gran mal seizure and upon investigation, he has hypertension.  While treating that with amlodipine, his weight and appetite has dropped precipitously.  He goes to the vet tomorrow for a blood pressure check and a look-over by Dr. Bouchet.  

The cars mostly remain parked.  Caro's low tire pressure light came on, so I bought an electric pump.  It works splendidly well.  My windshield caught a stone on the freeway and that led to a massive crack.  The glass was replaced, but the heads-up display was wrong.  The company replaced the windshield again; same result.  I'm now awaiting a genuine Prius windshield that will correctly display the HUD info.  Third time's the charm. 

It's nearing 4:00 a.m. as I type this on the morning of the 19th.  Typically, Henry Cat would be in here asking to be fed and then curling up on my lap.  Maybe he senses that the second Moderna vaccination yesterday (17th) has whacked out my personal thermostat.  At least the covid relief checks have made it into our bank account.  

With that, I'll end this epistle.  

Countdown to Immunity

Nine days left until we're officially at maximum immune response from the vaccination.  Looking forward to joining the Nature's Notebook folks for phenological observations starting on April 5th.  

Already planning on a nursery crawl with Caro to scout plant material for the new bed.  We were able to do some preliminary arrangement of bonsai yesterday along with moving potted plants out of the way and setting up a new seating area under the Chinese pistache.  

As early as it is, the temps were quite warm (t-shirt weather).  Of course, that means a freeze is lurking out there somewhere.  Probably Thursday morning after the next front blows through.  The forecast includes 1.3" of snow in ABQ Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. 

Stay tuna'ed.

 

Third Third-Saturday Workshop

While prepping for this post (Toozday 3/16), our Succulent Sensei put out this e-mail / warning:  

All right, you Brainless Bonsai Buttkebabs----

     The third Saturday of March approaches, and you know the horror THAT will bring---- and yes, you are right. On Saturday AM at 10:00--- note time delay for jaded Suckorroans--- we will meet for an attempt to broadcast from outdoors at the ramshackle "bonsai garden" of the Succulent Sensei, a cyber-slum of heinous proportions. In our current series, we will repot the infamous Rickey Fox juniper into good soil from the reprehensible slop in which it has been growing happily and healthily for years, and see if the poor tree can survive this "improvement". I hope to have other entertainments as well, and I know our coven can always take their usual trip down BS Rd. Also, if our electronics cooperate, we'll revisit Bob the Impaler's elm, which apparently caused bitterness and rancor at our meeting.

     After nasty threats and extreme pressure from Mr. Ackerson, I sent for a bag of Akadama-- something I swore I would not do EVER. But, unless you can catch him after a chemo session, he is not a man to be trifled-with, so akadama it is. It probably won't get here by Sat. 

     Speaking of Mark the Shark, you should all be buying tickets for his tree. We'll bitch about that, too, on Sat.

OK!! It's all about to HAPPEN!!! Gear up that Zoom, you beasts!!!

john   

Yesterday was the third month of 2021 and the third Saturday of the month, so it's off to the bonsai Zoom workshop.  Here's John doing a demo from outside Station Socorro.

And here's our band of stalwarts in gallery view.

The Equinox

As I understand it, at 3:37 a.m. today, March 20, the sun will cross the equatorial plane.  Welcome, Spring!

Of course, the sun doesn't cross anything since it's essentially stationary from our solar system reference framework.  The Earth in its orbit has simply moved to one of the points where the sun appears exactly on the equatorial plane.  

I'm gradually coming to terms with the Daylight Saving Time shift from last weekend.  It's amazing how a one-hour shift can throw things off.  Especially without having a day job, my system lacks a Zeitgeber, a synchronizing event that can pull me into alignment with the new clock settings.  

I routinely slept until 8:00 before DST, largely to make up for lost time up in the middle of the night dealing with Henry and/or typing this blog.  Now I can easily sleep until 9:00.  

Speaking of Henry, here's a little video snippet of him getting one of his favorite ear skritches.

Here he is in his more normal pose... snoozing. 

Paddy does the same thing, but only occasionally. 

The forecast for today is set to be 75° with clouds and gusty winds in the afternoon.  We'll have to see how things turn out with the Socorro gang and the 3rd Saturday workshop.  

Countdown to the Equinox

Ostensibly, the day and night will be equal tomorrow.  I'm still reeling from the time change.  Especially my stomach takes a week or so to adjust.  

It's very similar to jet-lag.  I'd fly to Vienna and within a few days be kinda OK with my sleep cycle, but my appetite would betray me.  I'd crave breakfast at midnight and awaken to a need for dinner.  Who knows what happened to lunchtime.  

At least the VIC cafe was a full-service, multi-national one.  You could get a steak and eggs at 7:00 a.m. or a turkey sandwich at 3:00 p.m.  First and foremost, you could get a wicked strong mélange anytime.  In Vienna, a mélange was sort of an up-side-down cappucino--milk foam in first, then espresso.  

Vienna has a long history with coffee going back to the 1683 Battle of Vienna.  Culinary legend has it that  the residents of Vienna discovered many bags of coffee in the abandoned Ottoman encampment. The story goes on that, using this captured stock, Franciszek Jerzy Kulczycki opened the first coffeehouse in Vienna and one of his ideas was to serve coffee with milk, a practice that was unknown in the Islamic world.  However, this story was first mentioned in 1783; the first coffeehouse in Vienna had been established by the Armenian Johannes Theodat in 1685.  

Another more likely story is that the captured stock of bitter coffee was mixed with sugar and steamed milk to produce a drink that was named Cappuccino (or kapuziner, in German) either in honor of the Capuchin Franciscan Marco d'Aviano who had inspired the Catholic forces to unity and defense of Vienna during the seige or because the Capuchin priest had a role in inventing it.

Here Travel Schlepp enjoys a gelato in Turin, Italy after a Cappuccino...

I am reminded when I glance at my covid spreadsheet that it's been a year to the day since Caro & I had our last indoor lunch at Annie's Soup Kitchen before the Governor shut things down.  I've kept track of Covid-19 cases at the state, county, and zipcode level along with short notes on who we might have had contact with.  It makes for an interesting retrospective diary of the pandemic year.  

The After Effects

Just a placeholder where I can update on the side effects of Moderna #2 from yesterday.

3:57 p.m.

No problems at all.  Only very slight soreness at the injection site.  I'm up with Henry Cat for his middle-o-the-night feeding.  He's comfortably on my lap keeping me warm, which isn't that hard; it's only 37° outside.  Caro seems to be doing fine, too.

8:00 a.m.

Caro developed a sore throat and swollen glands over night.  She also has had a fever.  

3:15 p.m.

Meanwhile, I've been fatigued and having chills off and on all day.  Sometimes my temp is 96.7° and other times it's normal.  Mostly I've been napping all day.  

Moderna #2

I'm setting up this blog post early, on Sunday afternoon while the wind howls outside.  By  4:00 pm on Wednesday when this goes live, I should be well and goodly vaccinated.  Then it's just a matter of 14 short days until I get the full 95% protection that is promised.  

By 4:00 pm I may also be exhibiting side effects.  Putting this up now seems prudent. 

More to come...

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In my inbox, there's been a lively trade of msgs about getting vaccinated.  Jeff & Teri White are getting their first shots in about 10 days.  Debbie Haycraft has had her first.  Nikki & Bob Mann have done the full course.  Nurse Susan and Toni Wood have finished their pairs of vaccinations weeks ago.  Kent & Dana, Ric & Marlene are still waiting.  

Toozday Musings

It's been a windy, blustery weekend with temperatures dropping precipitously.  I keep thinking I'll get outside despite the pollen and trim some of last fall's freeze damage off of the big juniper and the cedar, but it hasn't happened.  

The juniper gave me a bit of a scare last November.  Recall that in late October we went from having low temps barely in the 40's.  Then in one night it crashed to 16° and the next it snowed 8".  The best I could do for my big juniper was to throw a tarp over it and anchor the edges down with bricks.  All the 2-year old growth turned brown instead of the usual wintery grey.  Several of the most exposed branches, where they touched the tarp, turned completely brown.  I was sore afraid that most of the older scales and many upper branches would die.  

As it turned out, most of the brown leaf-scales have recovered this spring.  Some look to be permanently brown and a few upper branches are gonners.  Even so, it could've been so much worse.  

For the Deodar cedar, it was likewise just covered with a big tarpaulin.  And like the juniper, the cedar had freeze damage to the upper branches where they physically touched the covering.  Fortunately, those are the very branches that will be pruned back this year as I gradually reduce this monster to a reasonable bonsai scale.  

Cedars have very tender bark, so the experts recommend that they be shaped by judicious pruning and pinching instead of wiring the branches.  My fellow is tending towards a broom style, so I let him grow vigorously in the fall and cut back in the following spring.  

Here's a photo right after last February's repotting workshop...

Irish Soda Bread

After lunch on Friday, I took my typical siesta on the couch.  Then, refreshed, I set about making Irish Soda bread from my favorite Fleischmann's recipe.  It took only a few minutes to throw together with the KitchenAid.  For some reason this recipe always rises quickly, 50 minutes for each.  

It turned out wonderfully well.  I made a double batch, so we'll have plenty for St. Patrick's Day.

Daylight Saving Time

Here we go again, the twice-annual switch over for clocks.  And it's Pi Day, 3.14.  

𝛑

In other news, the Grey Lady had a lovely article about how Monty Don's "Gardener's World" had helped us get through the pandemic.

The pandemic is still with us, lockdowns have not yet lifted — and the garden beckons.  “You plant a seed and the next spring it will grow. And next summer it will flower. And maybe next autumn it will bear fruit,” Mr. Don said. “That continuation of life is very powerful.”

 

The Wall

The masons came at 8:00 Wednesday morning and began taking down the last two panels of cedar fencing separating our yard from the Sanchez construction to the east.  Now we have a 6-foot cinderblock wall in place and can begin thinking about the garden bed adjacent to that space.

We left the one wooden post in case we find a use for it like a support for hanging plants or a bird feeder.  To the north, I'll be assembling some kind of bonsai display area centered on the existing flagstones.  

Here's one early attempt at getting the most prominent bonsai into place.  

We'll have to wait and see what develops as the season progresses.  For now my first tasks are trimming the winter damage out of the big juniper and the variegated dwarf Deodar cedar.  Here they are covered in last December's snow.  

Your Occasional Daily Hibiscus

The Hibiscus in the sunroom continues to bloom almost daily.  Tuesday's explosion of color was a two-fer.

The other plants are doing well, especially the Antirhinum with its glossy red spathes and yellow inflorescence. 

We still have the holiday lights up around the mirror at the back of the sunroom.  With the coming of Daylight Saving Time, we may finally turn them off.

The Sarcophagus

It arrived without warning yesterday... a huge box. 

How the DHL delivery guy managed, I don't know.  Maybe he or she had a dolly.  

It was the second part of Cousin Kathie's shipment from the pottery kilns in Morocco.  She took a trip there early in 2020 and barely, just barely, made it back before the pandemic travel restrictions shut down trans-Atlantic travel.  

Opening up the first (much smaller) shipment last week taught us an important lesson:  open outside.  The bits of fabric covering and Styrofoam that are released during unpacking were really a mess to clean up. 

Anyhow, with this monster package, I now know how Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter felt when they opened King Tut's tomb. 

We moved all the material into the garage where Kathie could sort and inspect everything.  Then we rewrapped the lot, loaded it into her Nissan Cube, and sent her off to her storage locker, where it would remain for a good while until she and Blake build a new house. 

Baguettes

Sunday was an early day as we scheduled a morning Instacart delivery.  

After stashing all the groceries, we finally had a good supply of fresh meat and veggies.  For the last 10 days, we've been raiding the freezer.  That said, it's been nearly a month since we had to restock the larder.  

Once we finished getting food organized in the pantry, garage, refrigerator, or freezer, it became apparent that some things should be eaten sooner rather than later.  And what better to go with a charcuterie or steak or roast veggies than a fresh baguette.  So I stirred 520 ml of water into 700 gm of bread flour that had been mixed with some yeast and salt.  

Once begun, the process only required occasional attention every 45 minutes during the 4 raisings.  

Then Debbie called with her offer of king crab legs picked up at Costco.  Off I went on a mission of culinary carcinisation.  The result was two huge crab legs, one for the freezer and one for Monday night.

Meanwhile, the bread came out of the steamy oven just fine.

Torreon Toozday

The new build next door has finally gotten its coat of stucco as of last Saturday.  The color is the lighter one, Torreon.  Looks good.  If they take the scaffolding down on Sunday, that would be nice. 

Monday 3:00 a.m. update:  No luck, the scaffolding is still there.  But that didn't stop me from grilling the first hotdogs of the season.  The grill is tucked in behind the patio table and I was able to get to it.  

8 a.m. Vet Trip

Dr. Bouchet would like a urine sample from Paddy to check his kitty kidney function.  So I'll be up and at 'em early on Monday morning to drive him up to Aztec before he gets a chance to empty his bladder.  

Like all old cats, kidneys are one of the first things to wear out with age.  We'll see what the tests bring, but we're hoping to zoom in on what caused his seizure.  Right now, we're treating him for mild hypertension.  

With that new Rx (Amlodipine), I've got 3 pills for him in the morning and 2 at night.  Meanwhile, Henry Cat is getting eye drops morning and night plus an antibiotic twice daily.  Then there's a probiotic I sneak into their food.  

If you think I feel like a kitty pill dispensary, you'd be right.  

The Home Garden

Last Wednesday was a busy day.  Baldo arrived a bit late, but he was essential to the heavy lifting.  I started early digging the yarrow (Achillia) and then the Spirea. Had to be careful not to cut the drip irrigation lines.

I also cut down the old rosemary.  The weirdly cold weather this winter had severely weakened it.  I dug out the roots with surprising ease.

As warm as it's been, it's no surprise that the Delphinium have sprouted. My Siberian pea tree has been leafed out in the garage for over a month.  

Today, a warm sunny Sunday with no wind and few clouds means an afternoon bike ride is called for.