strange flower

My camellia starts blooming around Christmas, and is done by the end of February. It’s bright and cheery pink flowers always lift my spirit when I see them through my kitchen and dining room windows during the dark, gloomy winter days. Each flower stays pink through its life. Then in the end they drop off whole and the ground around the bush is littered with pink and brown globes.

This year it’s continued to bloom, and it’s just finishing up now. This year, most of the flowers did their usual thing. Except for this one. I don’t know if it was because of the warm days followed by cold and wet again. But, this one turned orange. I was so surprised when I saw it that I ran out in the rain and snapped a picture.

It’s gone now. It didn’t leave in the normal way, either. The petals dropped off one by one, and the base of the flower is still on the tree.

Very strange.

I’m about 1/2 way up the legs on the clown barf stripy socks. Stay tuned for knitting news.

In techie news, I have upgraded to Wordpress 2.5. Can’t say I’m entirely pleased with the admin panels. I had to hack the life out of the new media uploader and the write panels to make them usable. But there are other things I do like about it. So the jury is out. I’m used to hacking WP. But the previous release (2.3) finally incorporated most of my changes. Now I’m back at square one. Ah well.

I’ve looked at it under IE 7, Firefox and Safari and it looks OK. Let me know if you find anything broken.

rose down

I do feel sorry for the weatherpeople in the Northwest. It’s hard to predict our weather. It comes down from Alaska and up from California and across from Hawaii and sometimes all of those at once. On the east coast they have plenty of time to watch the weather as it crosses the nation and have a good idea of what it will actually be when it gets there.

Sunday the weatherguy (station will remain nameless) said that we would have a storm on Monday, and it would be a little windy, but not really that bad. Maybe gusts of 20 MPH or so.

Yeah. Right.

I worked from home on Monday. As I typed away on my computer back in the back corner bedroom, I heard the wind pick up. Pretty soon it was howling around the house. Then I heard…

swish swish swwwwiiiisssshhhh creek creek CREEEK WHACK WHACK WHACK BANG

OMG, WTF! I said, and other expletives that will remain deleted on this usually family-friendly little space. I ran to the window.

For the last 10 years, a willow arch has framed the entrance to the back yard at the corner of the house. A Climbing Iceberg rose grew on it.

Note, gentle reader, that I am using past tense.

I tried to lift the arch back up, but it is old and came apart in my hands. I stood in the rain and wind and mourned my rose, that had snapped off at the base. It was lovely — but did sort of grab people going through the arch. It was… friendly.

I came back inside and called my yard guy.

Brett, you know that clean-up you are coming to do tomorrow? Yeah… I have a little extra clean-up that’s needed this year.

I have finished the shell edging on The Great Green Glob. You know how I was looking forward to the I-cord? Now that I’m there… not so much. This is going to be a slog. But I will persevere!

Confidential to Bobbie: If I knit your top-down raglan pattern from my coned yarn, I’d probably just end up giving it to someone like Chrispy.

Here’s a little proof that spring really is here: my dogwood is blooming.

That might not seem like a big deal to those of you whose dogwoods put on an abundant display every year. My dogwood blooms only sparsely and sporadically. That it has chosen to bloom this year, I will take as a sign of good things to come!

It’s supposed to be in the high 70s today, with lots of sunshine. That’s what I think of as perfect weather.

I hope all of you can find a way to get out in it and enjoy! And if the weather in your part of the world isn’t quite as nice, then here’s looking at better days ahead.

A couple of months ago I wrote about the two large Douglas firs belonging to MNTHD (my neighbor two houses down), and the possibility that I would end up in bed with one of them some dark and blustery night.

I hate it when I’m proven semi-prophetic.

Last night when I got home, I thought that one of the trees looked like it was leaning at a slightly different angle. Now it’s at a really different angle! (click the pic for a bigger version in a pop-up)

I didn’t hear the crash, which I understand came about 4:30 AM. When I woke up at 7:30, given the high-wind-warning situation, the first thing I did was look out my bedroom window. I only saw one tree. Now, this isn’t entirely unexpected, given my eyesight. So I put on my glasses. I still only saw one tree standing. So I threw some clothes on and ran out the front door.

Only one came down. And it didn’t come near my house (thank goodness). It hit the house of MNTHD. It smooshed his roof a bit and tore off his gutters. The top 30′ or so broke off and hit the corner of the garage of the next house beyond MNTHD and also did some slight damage to their van. You can see from the pic that my direct neighbor’s fence was pretty well destroyed when the root ball pulled up.

I spoke with the neighbor three houses down, whose garage and van were hit. She had run to MNTHD to make sure that they were OK (they are) and asked about the remaining tree. He said he was

going to have a guy look at it

If you read my earlier entry, you will know that “having a guy look at it” was what he has been promising to do for the last 6 or 8 years while these two trees slowly died. I hope the “guy who looks at it” explains to him that the remaining tree will probably not be standing for long and needs to be removed.

I hope the wind isn’t as bad as predicted!

See these trees? Look really healthy? NOT

That’s my roof line in the lower right of the pic. These trees are more than tall enough to hit it.

I’m afraid that I’m going to wake up in the middle of the night and find myself in bed with an uninvited guy named Doug Fir.

These trees belong to My Neighbor Two Houses Down. They’ve been slowly dying for the last 10 years, ever since the neighborhood was constructed. The poor things have no roots — they were all cut when the yards were graded.

Originally there were 5 trees. Two belonged to the house behind my neighbor. They were removed the first year.

The third year, one of the three belonging to My Neighbor Two Houses Down outright died — turned brown, lost branches, dead as a doornail. It stood for several months. The neighbors worried. The monsoon season neared. One day I saw My Neighbor Two Houses Down outside and walked down to talk to him:

Mom: Hi there. How are you today?

MNTHD: OK. How are you?

Mom: Great! Did you know your tree was dead?

MNTHD: It is? [look up at tree] Huh! Guess I should get that out of here.

Mom: Maybe the other two also, eh?

MNTHD: Yeah. I’ll have a guy look at them.

The dead tree was removed. The other two were left. They died by slow degrees. The neighbors worried. Over the years I had a couple of other conversations with My Neighbor Two Houses Down. They all went like this:

Mom: Hi there. How are you today?

MNTHD: OK. How are you?

Mom: Great! Did you know your trees are almost dead?

MNTHD: They are? [look up at tree] Huh!

Mom: I’m afraid they will come down and hit one of the houses.

MNTHD: Yeah. I’ll have a guy look at them.

The monsoon season has arrived again. During storms, he wind blows something fierce down the hill. The neighborhood waits with bated breath to see which house(s) will be hit. Any of about 8 are in range. I guess if we’re lucky the trees will fall along the back yards and the damage will be only from branches going through windows, etc. If we’re lucky.

If I’m not lucky, Doug will come calling one of these nights, and I don’t think it’s going to be the most fun I’ve ever had in bed.