Sunflower progress

My Sunflowers Bloomed Today

Planting bulbs

So yesterday I planted Stargazer Lily, Irises and Grape Hyacinth. If all went well, the house should look something like this by March or April, I'm guessing.

Wind without warning

Unlike a few weeks ago, when the local media warned of "a significant wind event" (the Seattle Times' memorable phrase) that didn't fully materialize, today's big storm blew in without a lot of advance press. I woke up to the sound of wind and rain and then opened my computer to find a nice note from Kaye wondering how we were managing in the weather. Not bad, so far. As I told Kaye, the Internet and the coffee pot are both working. Good enough.

It is stormy, though. Or, as a local meteorologist puts it in a P-I quote this morning, "It is darn windy for us."

The other thing I notice about the insta-coverage online is that the P-I leads with winds gusting "to more than 60 mph," while the Times goes with a "92 mph windstorm." Hmm, a 50 percent difference in guestimates. That's also about the difference in Times and P-I circulation. Coincidence?

Also, this would be a good time to mention: Thanks, Michelle, for spending the afternoon raking leaves yesterday.

I love Kaye's smelt

I made some smelty art in honor of Kaye's smelt. Click on the pic to see it in it's shiny full sized glory.

Speaking of fish and RVs, two obsessions I used to write about but haven't in a while, here's where I am on those subjects now.

1. Airstreams are cool, but I can't travel in an RV because I love long hot showers too much. I'm pretty sure that the shower I took tonight used up more water than Kaye's whole monthly water allotment.

2. Fish Land, as Mark calls it, has entered a new phase. All the adult guppies I bought are dead. They all died one after the other of bloat, fin rot, white sores and what have you. A very unhealthy lot. They left behind three generations of babies. There are now seven teenagers, a handful of preteens and a handful of babies. None of them have any of these strange diseases, though one of them is a hunchback. All of the teens and preteens are yellowish, and the babies are all bluish, because their mom was a blueish fish who popped them all out the night before she died.

3. I didn't warn you ahead of time, but I'm ready to announce my decision on the fig tree. I decided Val is right. Fig trees don't develop hope just because you buy them and give them a home for a week. I'm taking that non-sweet Southern Californian sucker back, and I'm getting me a Brown Turkey, or whatever it is.

Fig-o-rama

Man, who knew. There's like 26 varieties of fig trees -- probably more. I got the Kadota variety, which is a green skinned fig. Apparently, according to the online guides I found, the Kadota doesn't do so good in the Northwest. The Kadota is "Best in hot, dry regions, such as California's Central Valley," according to this here fig site and this here fig site. It's "A leading commercial fig in California." Hmm. On second thought, looks like maybe I should have gotten the English Brown Turkey fig or the King. I'm not sure if I should take it back or what. On top of that, apparently the Kadota is one of the not-that-sweet varieties. I love a sweet fig. Poopy. Anyways, here it is. What should I do? Stay the course with the Kadota, or try to score me a Brown Turkey?