Not much lawn here. Time off from blog.

 

"State of the yard" and house, as of today. There is more lawn than can be seen in the photo, although it is gradually heading into the "delawnification" category.

I'll be off from the blog for a week. Hopefully there will be a bunch of ripe figs next week. 

Man's Best Friends

Baigo
Charlie

Northpole Apple - ready to pick

This "NorthPole" is a columnar apple with what is called a "MacIntosh" flavor. It was developed originally from a MacIntosh parent with a lot of selective breeding. Mostly, it grows straight-up with a few short branches that I've been pruning back even shorter to maintain the cordon structure.

Last year the apples did not seem very tasty - bland and grainy. For some reason, this year they are crisp and really do have an "apple' flavor, and worth the effort.

Raintree Nursery lists this as an early october ripening apple - so it's right on time.

This tree has a small "garden footprint' and is happy in the rose bed (which also contains the miniature peaches, a current, and quite a few other 'non-rose' plants).

Blog therapy. 880 visits in 2 months. Bike stats / vitals

This blog was started late July 2006. So far, 880 visits (Im not sure how this works - the same site also states 990 in a different area). Click on image for more detailed view. It's like having friends and family visiting, which is fun.

In a stressful world, thinking about the things that I write about calms me down, makes me feel like I'm sharing something important, and focuses my mind.

Bike this week: 60 miles of commute to/from work; plus 15 miles on Sunday = 75 miles. BP today 131/84 HR 74. Weight no change in a month, still about 207#.

Testing the limits - Palms in Pacific Northwest

This beautiful palm is about a mile from our house. Only a couple of varieties of palm will survive here; this is a Windmill Palm (Trachycarpus fortunei). We have a smaller specimen of the same species - so far it's survived 4 winters, including 2 ice storms and a couple of snow storms.

If the world really is getting warmer, maybe we should be experimenting more with plants that need warmer and probably drier conditions. At any rate, it's fun finding out what will grow and testing the limit.