February Doldrums

 I was on a joy "high" with the sunny warm weather at the start of the month.  That has come to a screeching halt with colder rainy weather.  I know I don't have a leg to stand on here, mostly we have great weather and we don't get snow or ice on the valley floor.  We will be getting a dusting of snow in the hills around our town. 

Photo from my upstairs bedroom, wet wet.  The ground will be saturated with at least 2" of rain by Thursday and we're getting down to 31°. I'm bound to lose a plant or two.  You can't really tell in the photo, but my sofa bed needs recovering and new cushions.  Hence, why I didn't cover it like I usually do for winter. The new cushions are safely tucked in the dry garage for now. Material is here for the new topper.    Zoomed and a little to the right.  Far right -almost the corner- you can see one of the little houses I built to protect Agave chazaroi from the current conditions.  I'll wrap with frost cover for Thursday am.

I zoomed in on the cheery Banksia cones.

And the poor drowned Acacia podalyriifolia. It's bent almost halfway over. 

Continuing further right, you can see outside our fence and part of the fire lane that runs along the side of our house.  On the ground,  another transparent little house I built to cover Pachypodium lamareis. They've kept their leaves, giving them a good jump on spring - we'll see if they can keep them through the next few days!

And the view from the kitchen sink...

The little bed here is nicely protected, I don't worry about it too much.  One year we hit 26°, and I did drape frost cover across. Further away, you can see my makeshift cover for tiny agaves, aloes & newer little plants.  Except for this week, they would've all been fine planted.  I'm glad I waited.  

The cover really impedes my view from the garage treadmill set-up.  Which is fine, I usually run outside anyway. 

Enough with the dreary.  A highlight this weekend, I drove to Berkeley to deliver some plants to Ivan.  And to enjoy some lunch with him and Sophia!  She showed me their cool terrarium set-up. 

I told them they should do a guest post sometime on all the unique things they've grown.

I've never seen an orchid bloom like that before!

Incredible. 

They really know what they're doing.  

Outside, they've had squirrel problems and have built cages to cover some things. 

And we were off to lunch.

With a quick stop at Flowerland 😉.  I looked up at just the right moment to see this mama hummingbird dart back in to her nest.  She zipped around adding extra fuzzy bits to the nest, so cute.  

And a fun stop at David's! He had a nice Merwilla plumbea (a showy blue squill bulb) to gift to me. Unfortunately, my phone settings were a mess so I don't get to show off his garden.  I'll definitely go back when it's warmer and do a revisit of his garden, it's killer! 

As most plant people are, he is always SO warm and generous.  A complete delight of a human being.  He passed on lots of little presents - including 2 of these clay pipes.  This one has a little metal crown on it.  I can't decide if I should keep the crown or ditch it? 

That's all from rainy town, I hope the weather is being good to you - wherever you may be!  

Like Dr. Feelgood, I'm dreaming of sunnier days.