Nearly November

Finally a new update for the Hoes blog, hurray! It's still warm here, highs around 90, but the lows are in the low 60s and high 50s. It hasn't rained a drop since the first week in the month, and there isn't anything on the horizon.

Here is a look at the planter I built a while ago and moved off the back porch to this spot in the yard. The bush river willow tree that I've transplanted numerous times, and bounced back from my last attempt to kill it, and is flourishing in partial shade. Also in this planter you'll find some rain lilies, widelia (yellow dot/groundcover), and I already have some narcissus bulbs that are coming up. Odd time of the year for them, but it happens every year when it cools off slightly. I also have some cardinal vines that I just started from seed, and a few chocolate plants. The white pot in the foreground has yarrow seeds, but none of those have come up yet.

The columbine that I started from seed via my mom last October has survived a year. These have gone from filing the pot with new growth through last spring, to losing all but a few of them during the summer, and now they're making another come back. A few inches tall are as tall as they've gotten before the elements have beaten them back, but hopefully they'll take off through the winter, and I'll get a few blooms in the spring.

Our chinese pistache tree has lost a good number of its leaves for some reason, but is replacing them with new growth, pictured here. Very pretty leaf color, and it's a beautiful burnt orange in the fall, but I've never seen the tree do this before. Again, because of the elements, this is a very difficult tree (for me, anyway) to keep happy, especially in the summer.

One of my favorites in the yard is blooming, the Indian Mallow. Like the Turk's Cap, it's blooms never fully open. It's a pretty color, in contrast with the soft fuzzy leaves.

Here is Brenna helping me survey the land.

And here she is pushing me in the hammock.

And finally, enjoying the rain lily that recently bloomed.

Rain Lily

Thanks to our meager thunderstorm from two weeks ago, my rain lilies have started to surface from their summer dormancy. I noticed that something was digging the bulbs up out of the ground, so I moved them into my elevated planter, and divided them out into five or six smaller clumps. I'm hoping to one day have pretty good coverage.

Here is the first bloom of the season for them, I don't recall if they hang around through the winter or if they go dormant again, but this is by far one of my favorite plants when it's in bloom.

Here is a good link for more information on this guy:

http://www.southernbulbs.com/white-rain-lily/

Two Minutes Each

I've converted another seven or so videos that run about two minutes each, of Brenna doing various things in this past week or so.

This first one is her "reading" some of her Bible stories. She has the David and Goliath one down pat, and can just about recite the entire thing. Our favorite part is her Charlton Heston impersonation when she says "God", with much authority, it's very funny. I don't recall if she does that much in this video here or not. Depending on her mood, you may get a rousing rendition of this story, or get kicked in the stomach and growled at.

It's birthday time for Brenna! Here she is opening one of her presents on commenting on it.

Another video of present opening. More videos to come soon!

Harvest Time

Here are the jujubees, fresh from the tree. I should have left them on a smidge longer, but the ones I've eaten so far have been pretty good, tasting like a cross between an apple and a macadamia nut. I also collected some more calomondons, there are dozens more ripening.

Jackpot!

We've been getting sprinkled on most of the day, but nothing terribly impressive. Tonight while we were laying with Brenna while she fell asleep (and Emily fell asleep, for that matter), I kept hearing rumbles of thunder, gradually getting louder. By the time I made it out of her bedroom and across to the other side of the house, it was pouring down rain, and did so for about twenty minutes. In the end we got over a third of an inch, enough to fill up one of my 30 gallon rain barrels, and part of another one.

We were apparently the lucky ones, this storm popped up just to the southwest of us, and only hit the Apache Junction area. I'll take it.

Yard Quickie

Not much going on in the yard right now, although with the cooler temps that are coming this weekend (80s and a chance of rain), things will start blooming again.

The turk's cap is blooming again, now that I'm watering it more heavily, and I've posted here yet another picture of my jujubes, which are still probably a month away from maturity.