Figs

How lucky can I get? A neighbor has a mature fig tree in his yard and doesn't like figs. This is the harvest delivered to my door today.



I couldn't help myself. This is how the plate of figs looked an hour later.

Movie Review -- The Illusionist

What, you ask, does a movie have to do with my private forest, trees, flowers, living things? Absolutely nothing.

Thing is, I watched The Illusionist last night and found it to be a wonderful movie--too wonderful not to "crow" about it (there, I got in something about birds). Edward Norton was superb in the lead, and Jennifer Beil lovely as the female lead. Paul Giamatti plays a great period-piece policeman. It's based on a short story, and although I usually go for the plain vanilla mystery, the detective film, the crime thriller, this movie (story) had me enthralled. The fact that it has a real gotcha! at the end doesn't hurt either.

If you like great acting, wonderful scenery, period pieces, action, a love story, and big surprises, you're sure to enjoy this one.

It's out on DVD now, and that's how I saw it. Be sure to watch it in wide screen.

Night Sky, Delight Sky

Sometimes I look at photos like this to remind myself how beautiful the sky can be over this valley when the setting sun turns the clouds into a vermilion inferno. Those are the times when I feel more in tune with the universe.

Pray for my Hazelnuts?

I'm still watering and praying. I also talk to the seedlings as I water them.

I wish I'd been as smart as another Project member, who I see from a blog planted their seedlings in pots to get them through the first summer. According to the photos, some of the seedlings have leaves. So far, none of mine have leaves. Some have leafbuds, but the buds aren't opening yet. I can only hope.

Last month I watered them every other day. This month, now that hot weather is upon us, I water them every morning. I'm unwilling to photograph them yet. After my big disappointment last year, when all three seedlings died, I decided that photgraphing them too soon might jinx them.....not that I'm superstitious, but you never know...they might be embarrassed to have their pictures shown all around the world before they're fully dressed.....

Maybe I could ask for those who view this blog to pray for them?

The Baby Quail Are Here

My black-and-white Tom cat is going crazy. He sits at an open window almost all day, and likely through the night whilst I'm sleeping. I've jammed the window open just enough so he can get his face up to the screen and sniff the outside air for critters. I also put a couple of grates against the screen so he can't (I hope) slam against the screen and knock it out, or just as bad, claw at the screen and tear it to shreds. (This is part of the cat-proofing I've had to do around the house....more about cat-proofing in another entry.)

Anyway, about the quail. I've now seen two families in the yard, and the babies are about as big as a thimble.....well, that's a bit of an exaggeration....they're actually about 5 inches tall, and all look asexual at this point. No bright coloration or topknots to show they're male. But they're so precious. I can understand why Puddy Tat gets so excited when they come into the yard. 'Course he wants to eat them....all I want to do is watch them feed and drink the water.

Check them out by Googling "California Quail" and Search Images.

Here's a link for one photo of babies: http://www.crystalcovestatepark.com/Images/Calquail.jpg

Flowering Plum

The Flowering Plum gets such a pretty glow when the setting sun comes through the leaves from west.

Ash Update

The first Raywood Ash I planted is doing superbly. I'm so awfully proud of this big boy. He started out four years ago as a seven-foot-tall bareroot tree. Now he's at least twice that tall. His trunk is sturdy and growing bigger around each year. I imagine his taproot is down into a good water source, and I water and feed him well each year. A few weeks ago, I left the water running in his basin, then forgot I'd left it on. He got a good soaking that day, as did the surrounding yard.




The second Raywood Ash I planted lost its main leader in a windstorm. Since then, I've been attempting to create a new leader out of the remaining limb. I can't imagine what it's going to look like when it's a big fella. One other thing about this poor guy, he's planted between two structures, and doesn't get full sunlight until mid-day, so he's grown more slowly than my other Ash, which is in full sun. This little broken guy doesn't leaf out in the spring as soon as the big boy. I expect when this little guy is taller and stands above the structures into full sun, he might leaf out earlier. We'll see. But with him, I'm learning about how and where it's best (and not so best) to plant a tree.

Trees, trees, and more trees

I've always had this idea that I ought to plant as many trees on my property as I can afford to water.....for the environment, for satisfaction while watching something grow, for the local wildlife, for shade in the hot summer, for so many reasons.

Five years ago, I began my journey to create my own personal forest, with the help of The National Arbor Day Foundation, who provided seedlings of American Redbuds and Hazelnut (bushes). Five years later, I have a small forest of ten Redbuds on the west side of the yard and another forest of eight Redbuds on the east side. When planted, these little seedlings were ten to twelve inches tall. Those on the east side now stand at six to eight feet tall. On the west side, they're between two and three feet tall. Water and soil is the difference. Initially, both plantings were given large amounts of water, but over the past couple of years, I've watered them less and less, hoping and praying that they would have a good enough root system to find a water source. Though this is an arid area, rose bushes that were planted here more than fifteen years ago are flourishing, watered only by the rain in the spring and fall. It occurred to me, that the Redbuds should do equally well, especially since they have a tap root that goes deeper than any other tree.



This is a photo taken in March 2006 of one of the taller Redbuds.

Besides the Redbuds and Hazelnuts, I've planted two Raywood Ash trees, a Hybrid Poplar, and a Flowering Plum. The Raywood Ash weren't the best choice for shade because the limbs tend to grow straight up rather than horizontally to the trunk providing a rounded crown rather than a spreading crown, but eventually they'll provide some shade.



This is a photo of the largest Raywood Ash taken in August of 2006.

Another Raywood Ash, planted a year and a half after this one was doing well until a windstorm snapped off its main trunk. Because the limbs grow nearly vertical to the main trunk, I'm attempting to save the tree and am training the strongest limb to become the main trunk. It's a strange looking tree now, and I'll have to see if my theory works.



This is a pic of the Flowering Plum taken in August of 2006. Since planting, it's almost doubled in height, and it's already become a haven for local wildlife.

The Hybrid Poplar shot up about four feet the first year, but it's not grown as fast after the first couple of years. Probably because it hasn't received as much water as it did the first year. It should do better now since it's going to receive a fair share of the swamp cooler drain-off during the summer months.

Hazelnut Project

Last year I participated in the Hazelnut Project of the National Arbor Day Foundation. Participation requires you to plant three hazelnut seedlings, then report in the fall (and subsequently) on their growth. Well, my three seedlings died a horrible death last year. Overwatered, I believe, and planted in clay-like soil. Then, I learned at hazelnuts hate having wet feet, so this year, when I received my new seedlings, I planted them in a more favorable environment (I hope). I also created a more shallow basin around each seedling, so not as much water pools around each one when I water.....every other day since it began to get hot.

I don't know yet how they're doing, except that the tiny little trunks have not rotted and broken off at the soil line as they did last year. No leaves yet, but I think I see some buds along most of the trunks. Pretty hard to see buds on trunks that are tinier than an average No. 2 pencil, but I have high hopes that the little bumps I see are in fact leaf buds.

No photos yet. Not that they're camera-shy, but last year I proudly posted photos of each hazelnut only to have my hopes dashed when the seedlings died. I felt like a murderer.

I highly encourage anybody to contact the National Arbor Day Foundation and join the Hazelnut Project. Why, you ask?

Here's what The National Arbor Day Foundation says about the project:

"Planting these three hazelnut bushes may well be the beginning of a new age of agriculture in the United States....a system of woody agriculture that will supply food staples from domesticated woody perennial plants.

"When this system is adopted on a large scale, these more photosynthetically efficient plants will produce abundant food, significantly lower the use of chemicals, and substantially reduce the loss of soil so commonly associated with the production of annual cereal grains.....Woody agriculture will help feed a hungry world, provide employment, keep topsoil intact and waterways clean, give a home to wildlife, and even help reverse global warming......"

Why wouldn't anyone not want to participate in such a program?

Summer Woes and Gratifications

Woe-wise: We've already had three small wildfires in my local area and one big one in the Sequoia National Forest that firefighters haven't been able to bring under control yet. Every couple of days I see one or two plumes of smoke rising like twisted threads over the mountains north of the lake. This morning, the sky over the mountains looked like what can be seen on a normal smoggy day in Los Angeles...an ochre-colored striation along the horizon. One of the local wildfires was less than a mile north of me, and now that hillside looks like burnt toast.

Gratification-wise: This is my first summer using a window-mounted swamp cooler and I'd give it a rating of 9 on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being best. The hottest day so far cooked at just under 100 degrees, and the temperature inside rose to 75 at midday. At night, when the temperature only goes down to 60, the temp inside the house cooled to 57 by running the cooler all night. I think I'm doing a good thing for my pocketbook and the environment by using waaaaaaay less electricity than if I were running the a/c. I'll know about the pocketbook thingee when I get my electric bill in about ten days.

Using a window-mounted swamp cooler requires opening a window (just a bit) in the room farthest from the cooler, just enough of an opening to create a vacuum so the cool air is pulled through the house and out the open window. To check if the window is open the right amount, I place a single sheet of toilet tissue against the screen. If it stays in place, the opening's perfect. If the tissue slides to the bottom of the window screen, or falls off, the window needs to be open wider. Hey, it ain't rocket science.

The kitties are gratified also, because summer used to mean all windows and doors remained closed to compensate for the a/c, so no great smells or sounds from the outside. But this summer, they sit for hours at the open window on their window box, noses pressed to the screen and twitching with delight, as they smell the rabbits and chipmunks and squirrels and hear the quail and mockingbirds and sparrows and bluejays and acorn woodpeckers.

One other benefit of the swamp cooler, I've attached a long hose to the drain hole, and I move the hose around the yard, letting the automatic drain-off (the water changes every 12 hours) water one tree then another. No waste here.