Belated Holiday Blooms

Last year, the amaryllis didn't do caca. Maybe two really dinky flower stalks, and no additional summer blooms.

Now this plant has been sharing space here for at least ten years, and probably closer to fifteen (yup, these days, time is delineated in five-year intervals. Anything briefer, unless it is something from last week, is just too hard to measure) and should be paying its way.

So I gave it a talking to, a warning, and a deadline: shape up by next year or it's the compost pile for you. 

And for a teenager, it gave me a very respectable response. Nine flower stalks, all with great shape and size. Now we just need to work on the timing.

Updates #7

Willard Middle School

The Willard Middle School Community Mosaic is now completed and looks great. Even the letters "H" and one of the "O's"in "School" that I worked on look OK. I think everyone who participated is quite proud.

Solar Panels Installation
on a Foggy Day

And we're proud to have an array of solar panels on the roof. We're renting them for the next 20 years (if we are around that long) but it should make a difference. And, with any luck, by the time the 20 years is up, we will have figured out how to read the monthly bill from PG&E. They don't make it easy.

We cannot recommend the company that we unwisely chose to do the work (more about that later, once the deal is completely finalized). But if you want to save money and help save the planet all at once, you might give Solar City a call. Our neighbor had a great experience with them.

Summer Amaryllis

Pumpkins and a blooming amaryllis. Must be summertime. The pumpkin grew across the driveway with little water and even less sun. It is now soup. The amaryllis? Who knows, but it seems to re-bloom just because.

Looking forward to the 2017? Well, I first need to make sure that there isn't a cactus growing out of my head. Yeah, right now the world just seems very prickly and confused, so I might as well stop scratching and join the resistance.

Handcrafted at the Senior Citizens' Ceramics Class
St. John's Church, Berkeley, CA

Updates: #6

The weather has been beautiful, so the work on removing the old Bay Bridge span has continued. And as self-appointed volunteer monitors, we've gotten out the bikes to oversee the demolition.

The cormorants are still kicking around, although now there is a lot less bridge to perch on. But it seems a bit disingenuous to blame the birds for cost overruns, when Caltrans is clearly responsible for the greatest share of that mess. Even when you include all that guano.

We also wasted a chunk of time trying to catch a glimpse the troll, but we simply couldn't find him. I sent a message to "Contact Us" at Caltrans, asking for at least a small hint, but no word back yet.

The now senior amaryllis finally put out seven flower stalks. Just in time for the St. Patrick's Day holiday?

Teaspoon provided for scale

But the blooms kept me company while I was knitting teenie, tiny hats for preemie babies at a local hospital. The project was sponsored by project: peace, a local organization which coordinates quarterly(ish) "help-out" days at local schools and non-profits.

We are still eating zucchini fresh off the vine, last year's vine that is ("climate chaos" as my sister named it), and even a few peppers, also from last season. The plants are pretty ratty looking, but we are eating well.

Especially peas - both snow and snap peas. Lots of them. So, the question is, "Can you actually have too many peas?" Yes, sometimes, so thank goodness for my pea-munching friends.

Updates: #5

Once again, holiday cheer arrived here in early September. Yup, the amaryllis decided to bloom. I'm happy, but I'm pretty sure that it's tired and cranky and ready for a good snooze in a dark corner somewhere. Next week I'll put it down for a quiet nap.

And if you're thinking of getting some holiday shopping in early, Kathy Kenny will be showing her collection of jewelry at Artistry in Fashion, Cañada College's annual fashion event. 

At home, my favorite watercolorist has been busy lately with painting and stuff. What stuff? Not shopping, but writing a book on how to watercolor, to be published by North Light Books in early 2016. (The only surprise would have been if it were a book on shopping, or at least how to remember to bring home all the items on the grocery list...)

The sunflowers out front were fabulous this year. They kept the bees - the new hive is next door and everyone is delighted - really busy.

And to protect those valuable seeds from the squirrelly predators? Nothing beats an old paper bag.

They're Baaack!

November 2012

Your tired and cranky amaryllis is supposed to take a two-month snooze in the deep darkness of the closet during the fall. Then, come the holiday season, it should wake up fresh and ready to party.

Like an overtired toddler, however, one of mine refused to go down for a nap. It already had four flowering stalks and was not to be persuaded. So we had a gorgeous display from Halloween (the other holiday season) until mid-December. Just in time for my second plant - the obediently napping one - to send up new shoots. I count six... Nope, make that seven.

So if you are lucky enough to have an amaryllis this season, hang onto it and most likely you will have an amaryllis every season.

November 2012...

And six weeks later

Amaryllis Summer and Winter

Winter Amaryllis

We all know and love those happy holiday blooms of the amaryllis (hippeastrum cultivars) which brighten up winter's short, dark dampyness. Often they even come packaged with their own pot of dirt. They grow, they bloom, look lovely, fade, and then get thrown away. And the following year you buy new ones to shine during those dark days.

That's cool. But what do you get if you keep them throughout the year and allow them to re-bloom?

Summer Amaryllis

Well, what you get is is a monster-blooming, hunk'o flowering thing that won't let up.  Last winter, (after five or so years here), my amaryllis had four stalks of flowers in January. And then in March, it popped out another two stalks ready to bloom. Pretty nice.

After its winter blooming cycle, amaryllis need to go outside for a summer holiday.  And what happens then?  You get another one or two blooming stalks appearing in August. Bad timing, because that is pretty much when they should be stashed in the garage for a long, quiet nap.  Nonetheless, sure lovely to see in the summer.

I would like to say that this show-off performance is utterly miraculous, except that I have two plants that act in this same silly way. And I would love to take credit, but really, it's all their own personal glory.

For (very) complete details on keeping amaryllis bulbs going for years and years, click here.