The kittehs: due to extreme kitteh terrorism and the climbing ability of Shu-shu—if he had Seishi’s thumbs it would all be over—we have gotten very strict about 8 am feeding time…no budge in that hour. Today they are smug. They think they won one.
The garden: most mornings the pond has been iced over. Now, quite suddenly, there’s a gentle rain falling. Ari appeared yesterday: I note that the algae has started growing on last year’s lily stems, and there’s a hint of pink on the buds of the quince that screens my window. I love quince. Its blooms look tropical, but it’s hardy; and it branches at a right angle, which makes its habit open rather than thickly leaved. I can always see out quite well past it, and in spring, it blooms all along its branches with apricot-colored flowers. My little crew of house sparrows lives there—they own the pond, just ask them. And I am going to have to get out there and resurrect the wisteria stake—a thick bamboo pole that collapsed when a windstorm blew a neighboring trellis down. The other trellis was only propped against the fence…my fault.
We have to do some carpentry out there: we decided to trade the moon gate for a rectangular arch with no swinging gate, in front of the garage door, so we disassembled the moon gate and moved the rectangular gate in the L to do that job, but the same windstorm blew it down and did some damage to it. It is now propped against the fence so it can’t tip again.
We will secure it when we set it in place, do some repair on it. Then we will assemble the moon gate where it will frame the short bit of the L: we have trees back there, including an espaliered apple against the fence, and we will one day stair-step the ground back there to make a little pond for lotus and a little recyclling stream running from the high part.
No fish in that one. Just a lotus. That little bit has quite a rise in it, back by the apple, so all we need to do is terrace it with a notch for the little stream…it’s only about 15 feet from the high part to the level where we will put the lotus pond. We won’t connect it to the big pond: the big pond sits in a berm we don’t want to mess with, and the waterfall is there, but it will provide a harmony for that problematic part of the yard. Right now it also contains our tool shed and lawn chemical storage, and we are going to screen those with trellis or flowering bushes that will meet the wing of the moon gate. Which will have its pretty gates closed more often. And it will be firmly anchored. We’ve discovered landscape stones, those with the trefoil design in cement, make real good anchors if you fill the open part of the design with gravel. The swing in the front yard would go over with every wind until we thought up that solution, and we are going to fix the gates in back so they are storm-proof.
But we are NOT obsessing, this year. We are going to do these things in a sane and occasional manner.
So spring is coming then? Ours has been coming along reasonably well. A bit cold at times but definitely showing promise. Today has been gorgeous – although don’t tell the weather people. Either that or someone needs to give them a dictionary. They’ve been saying ‘white cloud’ all day but it’s been wall to wall sunshine and narry a cloud.
Unfortunately we could actually do with some clouds. Apparently it’s been the driest 18 months for a couple of decades and water companies are already talking about restrictions :-/
People like to think of the UK as a wet country but truth is that the South East (where a lot of people live these days) doesn’t get all that much. Apparently London has a lower annual rainfall than Jerusalem. Unfortunately it seems that message hasn’t got through to most people so we continue to waste water.
Blame the Romans for parking a considerable city in the Thames drainage…they were looking for a second Tiber and a safe harbor—after the disaster created when the first large mission anchored off the coast one stormy night and discovered the tides were a wee bit higher than those in the Med, as in—really high, with a wind kicking up. That was epic. So…I think the comment sent out from Rome was likely, “Do see if you can avoid that this time.”
Although I always thought Kent was supposed to be rainy and green.
I think it’s all relative. If you’re a largely farming economy then pretty much all of the UK has all the water you need and more. In fact once you’ve killed off the wolves, bears and boars it’s a very friendly and productive island. You get the occasional strong winds and north can be chilly but basically very human friendly. It even used to have vast tracts of forest. Farming based economies (primitive ones at least) are usually sympathetic to the land live in partnership with it.
Unfortunately jump forward two thousand years and you have 14 million people living a technologically advanced life in London and 22 million in the area as a whole. That’s over a third of the countries population. Worse still it’s the richest people in the country. Those who are living the high life. Conspicuous consumption becomes the name of the game. Nature is something to be ignored and forgotten – stopped at the outer borders of the city.
Technology can only do so much and get a bad winter or two and here’s the result:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-17102615
Those reservoir pictures are really scary. I read the connected bit about the proposed water tunnels from north to south as well, but it seems that’s now a dead issue. The US has talked about similar shunts from the frequently flooded north to the perpetually arid south, and there are the same problems—
We also discharge city water back into the rivers, which worldwide is pretty well what happens—there are some pilot water-recycling areas, but usually it’s straight back into the river. And the US consumes an insane amount of water on lawns. I recall being in Greece, and seeing the ONLY lawn in Athens, which happened to be the front of the US Embassy. It was downright embarrassing, and way out of place in a water-short city. Americans are attached to their lawns.
But there is a movement that started in the desert southwest of zero-water lawns, xeriscaping, I think they call it, which is not quite what we’ve done with our little pond, but then at least we’re not pouring fertilizer (which is nitrates and phosphates that contaminate the Spokane River and the groundwater) and gallons and gallons of water into grass every year. We took our whole lawn out in favor of trees and bushes, which are more water-conservative and shade the ground (when they grow), and rock, which doesn’t require watering. This saves on the water bill, the mowing (800.00 a year to have it mowed even if you get the cheapest service) and of course on all that pollution going into the groundwater and all the machinery to maintain it. I’m all for little gardens, flowerbeds, yes. Patios and lanais, yes. But 100×100 foot wide expanses of grass that people always say they dream of having so the kids have room to play—and you watch how it’s actually used, and you see that the kids are on the concrete patio and nobody ever walks on the grass except to mow it. This is particularly true in the American south, where grass tends to be infested with chiggers (a nasty little itchy parasite)…and the width of the lawns and six-foot high fences are actually used to provide insulation between neighbors—a job better handled by intelligent house design—the way you don’t plan a new apartment complex with one unit’s bedroom bang-up against the next unit’s living room wall.
Installing small well-designed garden areas, for instance. And not using the lawn area for a construction landfill before coating it over with 3 inches of imported dirt and a blanket of spendy sod that will never thrive [especially not with a disrupted ground underneath the skin of dirt, which becomes a real water-sink: most of every gallon you pour atop is headed straight into the rubble fill under it, and gone]—that’s common practice.
The US has water issues right now, and trying to do anything about it runs, as per your article, head-on into regional politics…and into the cultural issue of lawns. The southern end of the continent, into Mexico and Panama has a history of cyclic drought—prolonged, serious drought—that Europeans haven’t been on this continent long enough to meet. But they’re in the archaeological record, and drought apparently had put a serious dent in the native civilizations in that area before Cortez ever showed up.
One way to help with the water issues on your own land is to look into rain barrels and recycling gray water. We either get too much water at once or virtually none, so a rain barrel is largely irrelevant for us, but for spot watering, I have diverted the water from my washer into a couple of kitty litter buckets, which then go onto the various plantings or compost heap as needed. You have to be careful about the type of soap and other additives you put in the wash, and large permanent installations may be a zoning issue, but for small areas, it’s better than standing out with a hose.
Compared to other lawns on our street, ours looks ratty and brown in places, but my water bill is probably half that of our neighbors. When the succulents and cacti start coming in, it will look much nicer, plus I can eat the dragon fruit once it starts producing!
We need to do periodic water freshening in the pond, because topping off after evaporation can concentrate minerals until you have something like the Dead Sea—so we just water plants with it, all round. Nice ‘rich’ water.
Wait, it certainly depends on time and place, but nevertheless a nice broad green, closely cropped lawn does have its place. USFS firefighters call ’em “a defensible perimeter!” If one is living out of the city having a nice lawn can be a life-saver.
Crocuses began blooming today in a couple places in our south and east facing garden beds. And the Boston Flower Show is this week: spring is about to go sproing!
Until a few years ago, the Boston Flower Show was the New England Flower Show, the longest running flower show in North America. Then the Massachusetts Horticultural Society fully blew its finances (after a decade of increasing mis-management) and had to give it up, thus leaving thousands of people high and dry. Two years later, a for-profit group picked up the celebration but the title of “longest” had shifted to the Philadelphia Flower Show. Am I bitter? Whadya think? Grrr….
Two weeks ago, while I was visiting my brother in Lincoln,Mass, we went for a walk in the woods and found blooming snowdrops. Pretty mild weather my whole visit. This TX girl was thankful. Snowed hard, day I left. Got home to plum trees and daffs.
I am glad you are going to use the moon gate elsewhere in the yard. I have a partiality for them 🙂
It’s going to be very conspicuous: it was just taking a battering where it was: this will make it frame that whole new area, and its swinging gates won’t have to work so hard. And with our new saws, if we have to repair a bit, we can now cut and fix and have it look quite proper, like the original piece.
Maybe you could put up something like a torii gate, to continue the Oriental motif:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Construct-a-Japanese-Torii-Gate-for-Your-Garden/
I will keep my eyes open locally for lotus seeds, if you don’t already have them.
Thank you—we don’t have them. We can buy plants, but they’re kind of pricey. And of course lotuses are large once they get going. We will only have room for one.
We just had a big hailstorm, with pines swaying in the wind. Assume you had the same…
WE had thick hail, lying an inch deep in some places, though it melted fast. Thank goodness the peonies aren’t out yet.
Mild, mild, mild here, weather-wise. Moderate rain this weekend, but that is (still!) so welcome after last year’s long drought that it’s most welcome.
I bought a mini-rose a couple of weekends ago and forgot to plant it. It’s fine, though, and will go in the flower bed for which I intended it this week.
They didn’t have seeds in, last time I went to Lowe’s, so this week will be a (probably last) attempt to get seeds for what veggies I will try to grow this year. Last year was my first attempt. Was doing fine until both drought and real life crises got in the way. I’m still hopeful this year will do better, but I’m not as enthused as last year.
I’ve had allergy/sinus and a case of the blahs this past week. It doesn’t act like a cold, but it won’t leave. Slightly better today, so I’m hopeful for the week.
The two cats are their usual happy selves. Their human staffer has been home more and at the computer, so attention (obeissance!) has been in ready supply.
I will, however, have to step up efforts to convince and evict squirrels. I am not certain they’re in the attic, but it’s suspicious. Each time I’ve been up there, no sign of them (without crawling everywhere I can get to in very cramped quarters) and all manner of noises by the giant lunatic human have not damaged squirreldom’s calm. If it weren’t for possible damage and mess, I’d consider just charging them rent….
This past week, we apparently tried to catch up with our lax rainy season all at once. A series of fronts blew over the state, including large hail upcountry, winter storm warnings on the Big Island, and a TORNADO! on the windward side of Oahu O_o For 4 days running, every island had flash flood warnings in spots, if not island-wide. Access to the summit of Mauna Kea was closed because of said storm (of course this would have been but a trifle to the astronomers working at Saigiadi, but…) The piece de resistance locally was Saturday afternoon, when the 50 mph last gasp of the last front left us with a 75 foot kiawe tree sprawled across a major road and onto the second story of the house on the other side. It was a very blustery few days, P-p-p-ooh.
Wow!
I have daffodils in bloom. Wonderful, especially since there was still snow last year.
Last year I bought a bunch of feeder goldfish to try out in the pond. Seven survived and are now the length of my hand. Who knew seven little fish could provide so much pleasure?
We’re going to get another dumpster in a month or so to finish cleaning the yard. After that it’s working on small projects at leisure.
Here just north of Boston the first of my daffodils look like they may bloom tomorrow along the south-facing wall (4 days after your posting from Rhode Island). Tomorrow afternoon I go to the Flower Show — wheee!
The crocus are done, the hellebores have been blooming for weeks and the first wave of daffodils have started in the KC area. Temperatures around 80 (80??) predicted a few days this week, which has me twitchy. So I’m taking a couple days off to clean up the flower beds. I couldn’t stand it, and had to plant pansies yesterday. Will set the cabbage seedlings outside in a protected box tomorrow, and hope that the ground dries out enough to finish digging last year’s carrots. The dogs lay in the sun absorbing solar radiation.