Lake Almanor, during the Memorial Day holiday, is hit or miss. Two out of the 3 years I have gone with the family, has been rainy. This year it was rainy, but we still got enough breaks in the weather to catch some nice Bass. After about 60% total water all winter, we welcome any moisture to our area. Back at Casa Verde now, and ready to burn some piles while we have this rain coming down. Below are some shots I got on the cell phone, since I forgot my camera. They turned out alright for 2mp.

Tags: almanor, day, lake, memorial, overcast, rain

With the past few days in the mid to upper 80’s, everything around the yard that gets a good watering is boosting. Our first lilac flowers are beginning to show. They smell so wonderful! We have a lot of large lilac bushes around our place that are probably over 40 years old. It’s nice to walk around the yard in the early morning when the sun really begins to warm the flowers up. The fragrance is amazing. Too bad our house doesn’t always smell that nice.

Tags: fragrant, lilacs, purple

Our courtyard apple tree has treated us with a plethora of blossoms this year. It is amazing. We have fancied the idea that there are probably more than 100,000 blossoms on it. I’d say that number is maybe half of what there really is. Did you know that October is National Apple Month? When October comes I’ll have to write a tribute post to the apples. Enjoy the photos.

Tags: apple, blossom, california, norther, Spring, tree

The blossoms are starting to really show here, even in the mid-spring cold, rain and snow. From the Apple trees to the mini Grape Hyacinths, the colors are really coming alive. It is hard to imagine that all the little buds that turn into flowers will become fruit. It’s like the flower turns inside out and the fruit gets pulled up from the roots and out the end of the branch. The natural process of things is surely divine. At the center of it all, it looks like nothing, but in essence it is that we cannot see that is. “He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; Who makes lightnings for the rain, Who brings forth the wind from His treasuries.” Psalm 135:7

Tags: blossoms, divine, flowers, grape hyacinths, Spring, tulips

That title is garden math. Well we had a small snow fall and freeze last night. Everything we have in the garden is hardy to this, but we were expecting the continuation of a warming spring. Good thing we aren’t weatherologists. I was just out in the garden a little while ago and saw lettuce and radishes beginning to surface. Ah, fresh greens and the spice of the radish. This one’s for Drew. Grow that Basil buddy.

“…Round and round, the cut of the plow in the furrowed field, seasons round, the bushels of corn and the barley meal, broken ground, open and beckoning to the spring, black dirt live again! The plowman is broad as the back of the land he is sowing, As he dances the circular track of the plow ever knowing that the work of his day measures more than the planting and growing… let it grow, let it grow, greatly yield.” - Eric Clapton

Listen to Let it Grow - Winterland Arena 02/24/74 II

We’re not getting to anxious for Spring just yet. This morning we woke up to temperatures just below freezing and snow falling from the cloudy sky. The ground is patchy white and the flurries are still in the air as of 10am. We’re lazying around this morning till around noon, then will be getting out to continue on the garden expansion! I think I am more excited about it than my wife is. Maybe that’s because it’s still cold out.

It’s the latter end of March and I have been looking at the small Iris’ and bulbs starting to show all over the yard. The deer have been staying out mostly, we’re thankful for that. Last year the deer really ate up all the small tulip starts, which is to be expected. This year, my wife strung up a higher fence around the front yard to keep them at bay, and it’s worked!

We are also doing an experiment this year in the garden. The chickens were in half of it all winter long. They managed to get every bit of grass and weed that showed up, as well as fertilized in their wake. The other half of the garden, we have been pulling all the grass out by hand. Our experiment is to see if the chickens do a better job at weeding than we do. We’ll see in about 2 months when things begin to really grow.

A good friend of ours likes how chicken’s scratch around, so I took a small clip of Snowball, the chicken, scratching in the garden.

In the early morning of March 20, 2008 the sun will cross directly over the Earth’s equator. This moment is known as the vernal equinox in the Northern Hemisphere. For the Southern Hemisphere, this is the moment of the autumnal equinox. Equinox means “equal night.” Because the sun is positioned above the equator, day and night are about equal in length all over the world during the equinoxes. A second equinox occurs each year on September 22 or 23; in 2008. This will be the Autumnal Equinox. Thus switching the autumnal equinox to the Northern Hemisphere and the vernal equinox in the Southern Hemisphere. The date is significant in Christianity because Easter always falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox.