It’s Monday. It’s the Monday after the switch to Daylight Savings Time.

I hate the Monday after “springing ahead.” I just get used to waking up in the light, and I have to get up in the dark again. My body doesn’t want to.

This morning when told #1 Son “time to get up now,” he said, still mostly asleep:

What are you talking about!

That’s about the way that I feel, too.

But, on a good note, the strawberries and roses I planted yesterday are still there. I’m a competent gardner, but for some reason I’m always pleasantly surprised when the things I stick in the ground don’t immediately curl up and die.

The upgrade to WP1.5 is officially “done.” (I hope!) I’ve added a few new tricks, like live preview for comments.

A few of the newer skins have been converted to themes, so please feel free to pick a different look and feel if you don’t like this one. I’ve even left Kubrick (the WordPress default) as a theme choice, so PI look like 3/4 of the other blogs out there.

I’m hoping to add a spell checker. I’m waiting to hear back from my host regarding and executable I need for that.

In other news, I received three roses yesterday from Canada: An Apothecary’s Rose (R. gallica ‘Officinalis’ ), Jude The Obscure and Eyepaint. The Apothecary’s Rose is one of the oldest roses, having been in cultivation since before 1500. Jude is the only rose that I know of that has my name in it. And Eyepaint is my favorite rose ever.

I was not able to find either Jude or Eyepaint anywhere locally — or even in the lower 48 — thus the order from our northern neighbors. There is a place in North Carolina who promised to grow an Eyepaint for me. I expect to hear back from them in a year or two. But that’s not nearly instant enough gratification.

I also had lunch with M yesterday, and she brought me 8 strawberry plants from her yard. Her strawberries originally came from my yard, and she was returning the favor.

So today, I planted.

Pics of the roses when they bloom. The berries I’m keeping for myself.

This year, for the first time in recorded history, my Camelia actually started blooming at Christmas. This is a picture of a bloom today, rimed in ice. I thought I’d better get a snap while I could. I doubt the flowers will look this good after the ice melts. Click on the picture for the larger version.

When I moved into this house, I planted this camelia outside the kitchen window. The plan was that I would have flowers to gaze out at in the cold and gray depths of winter. Apparently I forgot to inform the camelia of the plan. It has bloomed in July, March, September, November… every time of year except Christmas. It was obviously confused.

Finally, after 8 years, the first bud popped open on Christmas eve. It would have kept going for another couple of weeks, if not for the ice.

I was at a garden center the other day looking for something else when I happened on a spray that promised to rid my garden of all sorts of unwanted 4-footed critters. Including my friend Rocky Raccoon.

I was getting a bit tired of chasing him out of the grapes every night with a broom, but I don’t like using poisons of any kind in my yard. For one thing, I don’t want to flush them into our sewers and thence to the streams and rivers. And I like all (most) of the wildlife in my yard. I’m visited by 4 or 5 different species of native bees — the bumble bees in my yard actually outnumber the interloper honey bees. I have mantids and lady bugs and other aphid-eaters; toads and frogs to eat the slugs; butterflies and hummingbirds to delight me. It’s a nice, albeit currently weedy little ecosystem. I would even welcome the coons if they didn’t eat the grapes. So, no pesticides or herbicides, thank you very much.

I looked at the label on this spray and the ingredients were capsaicin and water. Ah ha! I said to myself. I wonder how Rocky will like a snoot-full of habanero? Certainly unpleasant, but not necessarily deadly.

#1 Son wanted to do the actual spraying, so with mom directing, he sprayed the bases of the grape vines, the pergola supports, the branch of the silk tree that overhangs the pergola, the base of the silk tree, the top of the pergola on the silk-tree side, and the top of the fence.

That night I heard some rustling out vine-ward. But not for very long. In the week since, there have been no signs of nocturnal visitations.

Everything seems to be about 2 weeks early this year, which means we may have ripe grapes while we’re out of town. I’m going to spray again just before we go.

I still have my fingers crossed, but this year we may actually have enough grapes to can juice. If all goes as planned, we’re going to have way too many grapes.