resting up for springtime

[songbird]

the roof is done, the yard projects are also about as done as they are going to get this season other than some branches i'll be cutting back this week. the ground will be frozen soon if we don't get some snow cover and the night- time temperatures keep hitting the low 20sF.

which means it's time to get out the reading list and start getting caught up on advances in biology, botany, etc. and also a bit of fluffy reading here or there.

for light reading i'm going through Joel Salatins books, the first one was _the Joy of Being a Lunatic Farmer_, which was at least entertaining and informative in parts. the repetitive phrases wore thin after a bit. next up are: _Salad Bar Beef_ and _Everything I Want to Do is Illegal_.

for heavier reading i'm into a college plant biology text that needed someone who knew how to write. i won't even list the title as there are much better books out there. ugh. it's like reading sludge.

songbird

[David E. Ross]

For the next few weeks, it will be rake, rake, and rake some more. Right now, it's the oak and zelkova. Then it will be the liquidambar. They probably won't drop as many leaves combined as the ash tree; typically, I make mounds of ash leaves 2-3 feet high on my patio and paths. After I fill my own compost pile and mulch all the beds, it sometimes takes me until March to draw down the piles every week to fill the green bin for the county's composting program.

A month from now will be pruning: 14 roses, a peach tree, and 3 grape vines. All this has to be done between rain storms, my weekly duplicate bridge game, and twice weekly shift as a docent at Gardens of the World.

Somehow, my doctor does not think I get enough exercise.

[Higgs Boson]

Rain storms? RAIN storms??? You get those over in the Valley? Send some of that H2O over the mountain to us at the beach!!

So far we have had only one chicken-**** rainlet.

Well, next week I'm off to Israel for another Volunteer stint in the IDF. I should hit the rainy season right on the button. Unless global warming has ****ed up their weather as badly as it has ours here in So. Calif coastal.

HB