Freya's Day

Made it through the week.  Last night's souvlaki was a success largely due to the nice weather.  I ran an errand out to Aztec Animal Clinic to refill Paddy's Rx's.  Not quite curbside, but they have a walk-up window.  With masks, gloves, and sanitizers, it's very low risk.  

Beautiful sunny day, only 55°F but very comfortable in the sun.  Of course, it's still chilly in the wind.  

Yesterday's Hibiscus blossom was set to fade overnight, so I put my new plant press to work and should get a very nice specimen out of it.  

Meanwhile, political craziness continues... 25th Amendment?  Impeachment?  More insurrections on Inauguration Day?  Can an insane Trump manage to wag-the-dog just like the movie?  

Thor's Day

Souvlaki tonight!  

A warm day with little wind and sunny skies should let me grill the first Greek shish kababs of the year (or the last of the season, if you prefer).  Marinated beef, zucchini, roasted bell peppers, and mushrooms cook up nicely on the grill and give us several meals.  Retsina, spanikopita, and pita complete the menu.  Photos to follow. 

Backyard Gardening

Not much happening in the middle of winter.  Our yard guy, Baldo, cut back the dried stems of oregano, mint, fennel, and parsley.  We trimmed the rosemary, too.  

Birds are emptying the feeders regularly.  One is filled with niger and is a goldfinch feeder--they have to hang upside down to reach the feeding slits.  That's a trick only goldfinches can do.  The other feeder is filled with the usual mix, sunflowers, millet, cracked corn, and assorted bits.  The sparrows and house finches spill as much as they eat.  The juncos and towhees get what's on the ground.  Occasional pigeons don't seem to be much of a problem and we do see doves, mostly white-winged ones, scratching around on the ground.  

I read that the BioPark is encouraging folks to sign up for the Great Backyard Bird Count coming up soon in mid-February.  More to come as that approaches.  

Next Door

The construction of the neighbor's house to the east continues apace.  Today they emplaced the garage doors.  I doubt if I'll be able to get inside for photographs anymore.  At least the noise is limited because the exterior walls are up and the dry wall installed.  I imagine it's mostly interior construction now.  Stucco coating in March will be a mess for us, since it's on the edge of our property.  Hoping for completion around April.  Then it'll be time to design and plant a raised bed up against the east wall and finish the bonsai area.  

Here's the view from the front as photo-bombed by Stella, the neighbor's Siamese cat who hangs out in our yard.  

Woden's Day

 Yesterday's education Zoom

An interesting discussion with about 18 docents and Ed. Dept. staff.  With DC craziness today, will wait and update tomorrow.

Yesterday's visit to the Garden

It was supposed to be cool and very windy.  Instead it was sunny and warm.  I swung by the Education Building and picked up my annual swag:  a lovely BioPark pullover, a BioPark mask, and a flash drive.  I connected with Cecilia about the labels in the HDRG and photographed the xeric berms to ground-truth my maps generated from drone photos.  A pleasant hour indeed.  

BioPark Board Meeting

I very nearly missed the first BioPark Board meeting of the year.  Thankfully, the director sent out a reminder with the Zoom link.  We got an excellent briefing from JT on the plans for developing the Heritage Farm and input from several in the community, including Sandy and Judith from our Nature's Notebook group.  

Elections in Georgia

Looks like it's going down to the wire, but in the end (after recounts and legal maneuvering) Georgia will have two Democratic Senators.

In Congress--electoral votes.

It should be pro forma, but all the excitement will be out on the streets.  Little did I know when I typed that sentence last night that the excitement would be in the Capitol.  EV's have still not be counted.

Toozday

 This morning there will be a Zoom meeting between a small group of docents and the BioPark education staff.  Adapting the mission of "Discover Nature, Inspire Action" to the pandemic situation continues to be a challenge.  The discussion will center on school outreach.  While I expect much of this to concern in-person teaching during the Covid outbreak, I hope to see if there's much interest in a digital library of lectures and demonstrations that stays online even after the disease is under control.  More on this later.

Still later this afternoon, I have to drop by the Education Building to pick some things up from Deborah there.  Then, weather permitting, I head out to the HDRG to ground truth my digital maps that I've adapted from overhead drone imagery.  We'll see how that goes.

Phenology

Monday mornings, rain or shine, hot or cold, are data collection days.  For several years now, a group of us have been collecting data for Nature's Notebook starting at 9:30 every Monday.  We gather at the Education Building, grab the binders for data entry, and head out to the Cottonwood Gallery.  

The CWG is the farthest north public unit in the Garden.  There we make observations on the phenology of over a dozen individual plants.  Our species include:  cottonwood, New Mexico olive, Siberian elm, four-wing saltbush, cane cholla, two milkweeds, and golden currant.   

Phenology is the study of biological timing, such as leafing out, blooming, ripening fruit, or leaf drop.  Nature's Notebook is a national phenology database of thousands and thousands of observations all collected digitally.  I enter data on my smart phone; other members of the team use tablets.  Either way, we also make a written record in pre-printed data sheets as well.  

Until the pandemic, the only interruption in data collection for our group was about a month in the summer of 2019 when a fire in the nearby bosque jumped the fence and burnt a nearby section of the garden.  The fire narrowly missed the CWG proper and it took out a few plants plus a part of the west fence in the Japanese Garden.  

Now with COVID-19 still running amok, a few are brave enough to gather (with masks and socially distant) to resume data collection.  I'm not one of them; still waiting to get vaccinated.  That said, I'm thankful that others have picked up the flag and are carrying on.  Those of us at elevated risk will have to join in later in the season.  I'm hopeful.  

Here's a link to some winter photo spheres taken at the CWG in 2014 -- https://goo.gl/photos/KoAkyqFtkJQuv7Qr7 

CWG Entrance in Summer

Deep into Winter

 Although we've had an early significant snowfall in late October and a couple cold snaps, the weather in the Botanic Garden and Albuquerque as a whole continues to be more or less seasonable.  Lows are in the mid to low 20's; highs in the 50's.  While at my desk typing this (a day ahead of publication), I can glance behind me at the wireless weather station and it reports 39.7°F at 4:00 in the afternoon.  It's been an overcast day with just enough of a breeze to cut through a polypro jacket.  Sunday looks to be about the same, perhaps even cloudier. 

The Garden is open to the public today and this evening for the trail of holiday lights.  This is the year that I'll not go to see it.  Virus numbers are still bumping along at a moderate-low level.  Even out-of-doors with masks, it's just to risky for my old bones.  

We've been getting by with Insta-cart grocery deliveries and 95% home cooking.  Curbside takeout is the best we manage to support our local restaurants.  Ditto for Rx pickup at Duran's Pharmacy.  

Every now and then I make a run to Kelly's to stock up on wine and whiskey.  A glance at the parking lot when I drive up will tell me what the risk is.  Around 2:00 in the afternoon, I'm usually the only customer in the store.  Back when the numbers were crazy high, we were getting mail-order wine.  

Meanwhile, back to the Garden, I've been working on a digital map of the xeric berms in the HDRG.  These are the rocky xeriscaped areas to the north and south of the so-called Atrium.  I have drone photographs taken a couple years ago courtesy of Alan Osterholtz.  I've digitally overlain them on the hand-drawn base map that Cecilia provided me before she took maternity leave last summer.  Here's a screen capture of the work so far. 

The plan for the week ahead is to get out to the HDRG and identify all the green blobs in the map above.  That'll be Tuesday afternoon, weather permitting.  

Day 289

Two hundred and eighty nine days since Governor Lujan-Grisham issued her lockdown order on March 19, 2020.  Since then the public health orders have tightened and relaxed as the COVID-19 numbers wax and wane.  

I've registered with the State online.  If everything works out as planned, they'll notify me when I'm eligible to schedule my vaccination.  The BioPark has sent out a questionnaire for planning purposes.  Perhaps my position as the BioPark "Plant Label Guy" will move me up in the vaccination waiting list.  

As of New Year's Day, there were 1278 new cases in the state, 25 deaths, and 313 new cases in Bernalillo County.  In my zipcode, there were 13 new cases; maybe we've passed the summit of post-Thanksgiving illness.  Unfortunately, that also means that beginning next week, we'll start to see the uptick from Christmas-Hanukah-Kwanzaa-Festivus.  And about a week after that, the New Year's surge will show up in the numbers.  

For now, I'm avoiding the Botanic Garden on days when they are open to the general public.  I can go in on Mondays or Tuesdays and work on my plant labeling.  Last month I finished tagging and mapping the hybrid tea roses and back beds in the High Desert Rose Garden (HDRG).  Cecilia, the staff gardener there, has been out on maternity leave, but she's back part time now.   

The new metal labels for the hybrid teas should be on order.  When they arrive in late January, I should have some pleasant afternoons placing them.