[gardeners] Warm weather and no need for heat.
Ron Hay (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Fri, 15 Dec 2000 13:50:54 -0800
Hello, friends,
Nothing much shaking in the wonderful world of real estate today,
literally (in So Cal) and figuratively, so have been out doing Christmas
shopping.
It's a beautiful warm day today, in the high 60s, maybe going up to the
70s. Tomorrow through Tuesday we will be in the high 70s and low 80s
here in the San Fernando Valley.
Our bearded irises continue to astound us. Ever since I persuaded our
lawn maintenance people (I refuse to call them "gardeners") to stop
chopping off their green leaves after blooming, which resulted in hardly
any blossoms, next time around, they have been blooming steadily since
mid-October. What a lovely deep, rich purple they are!
The cool Santa Anas that blew through here early in the week resulted in
what we are pleased to call "lime bombs." Our Bearss lime tree was
loaded with ripe fruit, the biggest, sweetest and juciest we have ever
seen. 4 or 5 were turning that wonderful yellow (limes posing as lemons)
when ripe, every day, falling, uninjured to the ground. But when the
Santa Anas blow, the branches whip those puppies around like slingshots
and lob them all over the yard. They haven't made it as far as the
house, yet, but will some day, if the wind is strong enough.
The last of our mandarins have ripened. They, too, are the largest,
juciest and sweetest ever, and are the size of softballs (!) One of them
peeled and divided into segments for Vivian and me makes a wonderful
breakfast, when put on top of a bowl of vanilla yogurt. Yummmmmmmmmmmm.
The roses have been cut back in front to "their genetic height" (thank
you for that term, Sunset Magazine.) They look so pathetic only about 16
inches high, when they were 6' earlier in the week. Next week, before
Christmas, I hope to cut the bushes back outside our bedroom window.
Then we can tackle the task of taking the passion fruit vine to hand,
which has simply gotten out of control this year. I don't know how many
fruit we have harvested, but I think we canned about 14 quarts of
passion fruit syrup, plus cooked up several batches of passion fruit
pudding.
The other task at hand, other than cleaning out the guest bedroom for
Vivian's brother and his family who arrive from Juneau tonight, is to
make up a batch of Fuyu persimmon muffins and a cake to feed the tribe.
The Fuyus are wonderful when crisp, not astringent at all; but when they
are dead ripe, it is like dying and going to heaven to eat one of those
luscious fruit. This year our tree provided us with over 70 of
them....and it's only a young tree. To think we had been concerned about
fruit drop during the hot weather!
Anyway, it's back into the warm sunshine on the trail of a lamp for my
dear, sweet, mother in law, whom I sincerely love very dearly. After
all, I have her largely to thank for the sweet woman my wife is:)
Well, if I hustle, I can get this stuff done before the sun goes down
and can fill the house with the lovely warm air outside today.
Ron
Van Nuys, CA