The First Schlumbergera Cactus of the Year. 11.2.2021

I repotted this one during Spring. It was a grocery store purchace a few years ago, just now starting to get some nice size.

Nikita's Gift Persimmons. 11.2.2021

These are my favorites. They are not quite ripe. They can be ripened indoors so that birdies don't eat them.

Persimmon Trees. 10.26.2021

Here are some of the persimmon trees. First, Nikita's Gift, a Ukranian hybrid of American and Asian species, on D. lotus rootstock. Nikita's gift, so far, is my most productive and tasty persimmon. Nikita's gift persimmons ripen in Nov or Dec.

Saijo, an ancient Japanese variety. This is also on D. lotus rootstock. This tree isn't nearly as vigorous or productive as Nikita's Gift. It's still a nice persimmon. The tree always looks a little sick, but always makes a few fruits anyway. Ripening is similar to Nikita's Gift.

Yates, American persimmon. This tree usually produces OK, smaller and earlier fruits. this year either it didnt make any or they already fell off. I suspect the incredible heat spell during bloom time, as responsible.

Then there is Prairie Star. Very small persimmons, flavor quite nice. I also have two very small trees, Coffee Cake (Nishimura wase) Persimmon and Chocolate Persimmon. They are in an out of the way location, and don't get any care. Despite dryness and weeds, they grew about a foot this year. I didn't water or weed at all. That encourages me to do more for the next year.

Gingko Trees. 10.26.21

These are the two ginkgo trees that I gre from deeds my dad collected in the mid 1990s. At the time, I was living in Chicago in an apartment. I grew them in flower pots on the porch. Here, I planted them in the Vancouver yard. I moved the smaller two to Battleground in 2012. One died after a year. The other grew, then the top died but it grew back from low on the trunk. This is the one in Vancouver. It's male (so none of those stinky bombs that people hate). It's a tall, elegant, handsome tree.

This is the one that I moved to Battleground, that "came back from the dead". It has a similar shape as the Vancouver gingko, but far from as large. I feel optimistic it will continue to grow over the years.

The Windmill palms were also planted in about 2012 to 2014. I doubt this one will grow to the magestic size of the Vancouver tree within my lifetime, but who knows? There is also a smsll grove of ginkgo trees that we try to keep trimmed as big bonzai trees, plus one planted near thecwoodlot and another that has roots from a Vancouver seedling but the too is from the tall one grown from my Dad's seeds. That one always leans over. It doesn't want to grow straight. I don't know why.

A Reversable, Chino / Flannel Cadet Cap. 20.24.2021

 There were a few left over pieces of chino, after I made a grocery tote out of Ning's old trousers.  As posted before, I like wearing cadet caps.  Without that protection, I bump my head regularly, leaving divets and scabs on my scalp, which I don't like.  I use an old, disassembled cadet cap for the pattern. However, I add 1/4 inch to each dinension for better fit.  Chino fabric is perfect weight and comfort.  This time, I used scraps of flannel for a lining, quilted the top part for scalp padding, and made it reversable.

Laying out the remaining trouser parts and patterns.  Will it work?  Note, I didn't wind up making the unnecessary hat band.

 

This time, I added more stiffness to the brim, using medium weight fusable woven interfacing in addition to the thick foamy interfacing I usually use. For the lining, I used exactly the same pattern as the shell. It will shrink just a little, I think. The sides are stiffened a little too with a medium weight, nonwoven fusable interfacing.

Then the hat is sewn together inside out, with a big gap at the back. I had to hand baste the brim, which points inward at this point. It's too difficult to pin or clamp the stiff, awkward, thick three-part sections, but hand basting actually works. Then turn right side out and sew the rest together. I hand basted that together too.

The cap came out pretty decent. I think it's the best made of my attempts, so far. The chino fabric, with interfacing, is the perfect stiffness / warmth / comfort. The added interfacing makes the brim stiff enough to hold its shape, without being a herd piece of plastic. I like it better without the hat band. This brim came out better too. I used an edge hem to hold its shape, and drew the lines on the fabric before sewing, using a washable fabric pen. That helped a lot.