The Dinosaur Plant Rises Again

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Here on the Texas coast we have a lot of tropical foliage. In spite of our semi-arid climate (and a devastating ongoing drought), our humid atmosphere and generally mild winters allow many tropical plants to thrive. We have one such tropical in our front yard. We affectionately call it the Dinosaur Plant. We imagine it in some prehistoric landscape with its giant leaves being nibbled for dinosaur elevenses. Here it is a few years ago, with some tiny Sonars:

Then, the dinosaur plant was larger than our van, with its giant hand-like leaves forming an umbrella that wee people could tunnel under for a good hide-and-seek spot. The weight of its soft, leaning trunks eventually caused it to tip over in great loops. So we gave it a dramatic haircut a couple of years ago. 

The leaves filled-in very quickly, faster perhaps, because we’d made more room for them to grow. Last Halloween, a fuller-bodied version of the Dinosaur Plant supervised our graveyard.

I suppose it’s some kind of philodendron or something. I’m no plant expert. As I mentioned, our winters are mild. For the past several years, our coldest winter weather involved two hours at the freezing point, in the middle of one or two nights during the entire winter. The barest threat of freezing temperatures incites a fury of linen spread in front yards by tropical plant lovers. Bushes wrapped in quilts and bedsheets, some with extension cords strung for electric blankets.

The Dinosaur Plant has a fair amount of mass, and so we have never worried about a dalliance with freezing temperatures. No blanket has ever swathed those giant leaves, electric or otherwise. Oh sure, the tips of her fingers were sometimes a little frost-bitten, but nothing very serious.

This winter was a bit different. We had a week of subzero temperatures, with blisteringly cold windchills, topped off with an ice storm that shut down the entire Coastal Bend of Texas for a couple of days. Exciting stuff. Many people in the area had never experienced an ice storm. Corpus Christi’s landmark Harbor Bridge was coated in a fine sheet of ice, impassable for more than a day, not because of ice on the road, but because of the giant chunks of ice falling from the superstructure. Tropical plants withered up and died left and right. The Dinosaur Plant sustained heavy damage. When the trunks thawed, they turned a bit mushy. We were forced to cut her back to ground level and wonder if she’d grow back.

She did. 

Hope springs eternal.

More Than What It Seems: Grapefruit Edition

They are never just grapefruit, these pinky-golden dreams I find in my tree.

A grapefruit, recently of the tree in my back yard. The dirt washes away.

They are freshness.

They are zest.

They are balm.

They are fortification.

They are sunshine.

They are delicious.

Mmm, brains. Oh wait. No, that’s grapefruit too. Recently eviscerated from its peel.

A Quarter-Peck of Peppers, Not Pickled

Two quarts of fresh-picked Poblano Peppers from the back yard. Yes, that is a frisbee.Chili relleno casserole, spicy good and partially consumed.

The Spirit of Sport

Ok, so Partner Sweater is finished as of about ten o’clock this morning.  [grand cheering fills the stadium]

Stealth Project Green is 70% finished (I told you, it’s small).  

As part of a greater project to move the garden beds in the back yard, Partner gathered the remaining onions and carrots from the back yard.  So I’ve been doing things like this:

And this:

These carrots look a little slimy, I know, but really they’re just wet.  And then I decided I needed one of these (because I am always ruining shirts by leaning against oily things on the edge of the counter.  This one is big enough for Partner as well, who is wearing it in this picture):

And I needed one of these (because the plastic bag I was using just wasn’t cutting it anymore):

These last two were made out of some fabric I inherited from a neighbor (and which was almost given away in the famous not-cleaning-out of my craft closet earlier this summer.  You might recall that I filled a trash bag with fabric I was sure I’d never use, and I was worried I’d not be able to get it out of the house.  And lo, here I am digging through the not-given-away fabric bag for something very handy.  Sort of implies that my efforts to get rid of the excess fabric are doomed to fail, huh?).  It reminds me of old-fashioned mattress ticking, and truth be told, I have enough of it to make a small mattress.  

In between all of this, we watched bits and bobs of the Olympic Opening Ceremonies which we recorded last night.  We haven’t made it all the way through yet, so there may be other moments worth comment.  The ceremony has been incredibly beautiful so far.  We really loved the boxes popping up and down, and just as the plum blossoms popped out and we were thinking, ‘what a cool computer/mechanical coordination,’ I got totally choked up when the People popped out from under the boxes.  People, who must have popped up and down about eight-hundred times in the beautifully choreographed presentation.  Amazing.  

The Sonars really loved the bit where people were walking around on the globe/lantern thing.  Oh, and the giant LED screen on the floor.  Very cool.   

But was anyone else totally creeped out, when the kids in ethnic costumes were carrying the Chinese flag across the stadium (which was very sweet), and then the Chinese soldiers goose-stepped in and took up the flag to put it up the pole?  The bobble-heads on the tv suggested that it symbolized the Chinese state’s ability to ensure the future of their children.  Sure.  

Drip, Drip, Drip, Goes the Water

That’s a Chumbawamba song, from the Tubthumper album.

Anyway, during my first hour of measuring, my fancy pluviometer measured about 20 mm of rain.  That included at least two waves of rain bands.

The second hour saw both a lull in the rain and an increase in winds, and I measured only about 3 mm of rain.  The blusterier it gets, the less accurate my delicate fluviograph.  

Hours three and four, trace.  Maybe one mm.  Maybe.

Hey look! Watermelon!

This beauty was 36.5 pounds and grew at the family compound in Central Texas.  Lovely.