Our weather has been reminding me of that song about Camelot, where the rain may never fall 'til after sundown... The last two days have been just like that. It was cloudy on Thursday, but it didn't start to rain here until about 2200, well after dark. Friday had scattered clouds, mostly white and rainless until late afternoon. Again it didn't rain until well after dark. We got almost an inch of rain on Thursday night and a whole lot less on Friday. Then it was very cold Saturday night.
Gordo the Collie hates the rain. He doesn't like getting his feet wet at all and he's not at all fond of having drops of water fall out of the sky onto him. As a result, all of his expeditions outdoors on both nights were hard on both of us. He'd go out, take a few steps, and stand there for a while, then turn around and come back in, without doing what he'd gone out to do. So he'd come in, lie down, and then get up, go back out, on and on and on, thereby keeping me awake for hours. Fortunately, I think we won't have rain again for a while, so we can both get back to normal.
Showing posts with label Weather. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Weather. Show all posts
20 February 2011
18 February 2010
Weather Guilt
My husband and I were watching the local weather last night and I mentioned that I hadn't really said much about our nice weather (we've had a week of beautiful clear days with highs in the low 80s). I really feel kind of guilty having such nice weather when so much of the country is getting so much snow. I don't think anyone who is snowed in needs to hear about how nice it is here. Our low temperatures have been higher than a lot of the country's high temperatures.
Our string of nice days is coming to an end, though. There's a big storm coming in off the Pacific and the leading edge showed up about noon here. The high was 79°, at about 1300, and the temperature started dropping as the first high, thin layer of cloud moved in. The sky is still blue, but it's kind of milky, not the intense blue we've had. It might actually rain tonight, although probably not much, and will be cloudy and, again, possibly rainy tomorrow. The storm is centered on Northern California and we're just getting the southern edge. It's very likely that the rain won't make it over the mountains; this is a desert because that's what usually happens.
There's a fair amount of snow on the mountains. I look out my kitchen window and see palm trees in front of the snow-capped San Jacinto mountains. I have to go out into the front yard to see San Gorgonio. I was admiring it when I went for the mail.
My spell-checker is not familiar with California place names. The names, taken from the Spanish ecclesiastical calendar and mostly saints' names, all have red underlines. The red underlines really catch the eye. I have to check the names to be sure I've spelled them right and then add them in.
Our string of nice days is coming to an end, though. There's a big storm coming in off the Pacific and the leading edge showed up about noon here. The high was 79°, at about 1300, and the temperature started dropping as the first high, thin layer of cloud moved in. The sky is still blue, but it's kind of milky, not the intense blue we've had. It might actually rain tonight, although probably not much, and will be cloudy and, again, possibly rainy tomorrow. The storm is centered on Northern California and we're just getting the southern edge. It's very likely that the rain won't make it over the mountains; this is a desert because that's what usually happens.
There's a fair amount of snow on the mountains. I look out my kitchen window and see palm trees in front of the snow-capped San Jacinto mountains. I have to go out into the front yard to see San Gorgonio. I was admiring it when I went for the mail.
My spell-checker is not familiar with California place names. The names, taken from the Spanish ecclesiastical calendar and mostly saints' names, all have red underlines. The red underlines really catch the eye. I have to check the names to be sure I've spelled them right and then add them in.
22 October 2008
Update On The Busy Week
I went to the dentist this morning for the crown prep and first it turned into a crown prep and filling and then, after some drilling, it turned into two crown preps. The second tooth was right by the first and was crooked (it's a family characteristic), which is probably why it had the cavity. Fortunately, the first prep had gone very quickly and so did the second. I didn't even need more anesthetic, it was so quick.
It's a really pretty day here. Not terribly hot, mid 80's, and quite calm. The Santa Anas are blowing and we always get clear, calm weather from them.
It's a really pretty day here. Not terribly hot, mid 80's, and quite calm. The Santa Anas are blowing and we always get clear, calm weather from them.
14 April 2008
Late Spring Is Here
It's late spring, maybe early summer, here in the Coachella Valley. The jasmine (which is think is Carolina jessamine; it's not star jasmine) is covered with fragrant blooms and the white gardenias are blooming robustly. We have a jasmine vine out by the outer door (that opens into the courtyard) and another by the front door, so visitors are greeted with sweetness.
It's been fairly cool here, in the 80's, until yesterday. Today the high is predicted to be 102° and we've had the a/c on since lunch. I just hope it'll cool down enough to open the windows at bedtime. I'd rather sleep with open windows than with the a/c.
The struggle with the halogen reading lamp is finally over. The first bulbs I bought were the right shape and voltage, but the base pins were too wide. I don't like bayonet mount bulbs anyway and this didn't make me like them any better. I put my husband to work combing the Web to find the right bulb. First, though, we measured the pins carefully. He not only came up with them but found them for $2 each. Great deal, except the site had a minimum $10 S&H fee. So he ordered two of them. That brought the price down to about what the supermarket charges.
I stole the replacement halogen reading lamp he'd bought as a stop gap. It wasn't a great substitute, because the arm is shorter than the original one and it only has an on-off switch, not a dimmer. These made it not very good as a bed-side lamp. However, they're not a problem for a chair-side lamp, so it's now perched right beside the chair in my office. I expect it to be a great knitting lamp.
It's been fairly cool here, in the 80's, until yesterday. Today the high is predicted to be 102° and we've had the a/c on since lunch. I just hope it'll cool down enough to open the windows at bedtime. I'd rather sleep with open windows than with the a/c.
The struggle with the halogen reading lamp is finally over. The first bulbs I bought were the right shape and voltage, but the base pins were too wide. I don't like bayonet mount bulbs anyway and this didn't make me like them any better. I put my husband to work combing the Web to find the right bulb. First, though, we measured the pins carefully. He not only came up with them but found them for $2 each. Great deal, except the site had a minimum $10 S&H fee. So he ordered two of them. That brought the price down to about what the supermarket charges.
I stole the replacement halogen reading lamp he'd bought as a stop gap. It wasn't a great substitute, because the arm is shorter than the original one and it only has an on-off switch, not a dimmer. These made it not very good as a bed-side lamp. However, they're not a problem for a chair-side lamp, so it's now perched right beside the chair in my office. I expect it to be a great knitting lamp.
23 January 2008
Rain, Rain, Hang Around
It's been raining all evening, a slow, steady rain. I hope this is what they're getting in the burned off areas, as it's not heavy enough to get the hillsides moving. I think Los Angeles has had about an inch of rain and we've had a quarter or a third of an inch.
It's been snowing heavily at the Grapevine since 1100, according to the TV reporters, and I-5 is quite firmly closed in both directions. The CHP was running escorts for a while, but as the snowfall got heavier and the day wore on they gave that up and shut the whole thing down. Those big heavy tractor-trailers that fill half the road were slipping and sliding and who knows what the people in SUVs were doing.
The Grapevine is at about 4200' and the snow level is somewhat below that. We're at 2356' and it's 40°F here and dropping. This is the kind of night when you go to sleep to the pitter-patter of rain on the roof and wake up to a very quiet neighborhood, with every sound hushed by the snow on the ground. I used to like snow days when I worked, but not any more. I ran all my errands early this week, partly in the hope that doing so would stave off the snow. It's sort of like washing the car to get it to rain, I guess, only backward.
I've finished all the setup and increase rows on Clapotis and actually dropped the first stitch, which is a little short ladder. As soon as I get enough stitches dropped to make it interesting, I'll put up a photo. Right now it just looks like a variegated triangle in stockinette stitch. I have great hopes for it, but I have to admit it's a little unimpressive so far.
It's been snowing heavily at the Grapevine since 1100, according to the TV reporters, and I-5 is quite firmly closed in both directions. The CHP was running escorts for a while, but as the snowfall got heavier and the day wore on they gave that up and shut the whole thing down. Those big heavy tractor-trailers that fill half the road were slipping and sliding and who knows what the people in SUVs were doing.
The Grapevine is at about 4200' and the snow level is somewhat below that. We're at 2356' and it's 40°F here and dropping. This is the kind of night when you go to sleep to the pitter-patter of rain on the roof and wake up to a very quiet neighborhood, with every sound hushed by the snow on the ground. I used to like snow days when I worked, but not any more. I ran all my errands early this week, partly in the hope that doing so would stave off the snow. It's sort of like washing the car to get it to rain, I guess, only backward.
I've finished all the setup and increase rows on Clapotis and actually dropped the first stitch, which is a little short ladder. As soon as I get enough stitches dropped to make it interesting, I'll put up a photo. Right now it just looks like a variegated triangle in stockinette stitch. I have great hopes for it, but I have to admit it's a little unimpressive so far.
21 January 2008
Rain and Snow and Knitting
The weather predictors are really confused about what's going to happen here the next week or so. First they were predicting rain today and tomorrow, with snow maybe down as low as 2000 ft on Thursday (Lancaster is at 2360 or so), then they made that prediction kind of blurry because it looked like a cut-off low (occluded front being the other name for the phenomenon). Now they're saying something about part of it spinning off and coming here, with the rest to follow more slowly. I hardly know what to expect.
However, I can say that it's chilly and cloudy and windy here today. I went out and brought three loads of firewood around from the far side of the house onto the patio, so that I won't have to go out into the rain for it. I also checked the rain gauge to be sure it was clean and empty.
I'm ready. Let water fall out of the sky, I'll be sitting in front of a nice fire, knitting, reading Usenet, and surfing blogs. This is the SoCal version of real winter weather, like the rest of the country has been having.
Edited to add : If you've got markers on your knitting, you'll spend a lot less time getting up to retrieve the bouncy little rascals if you slip them purlwise instead of knitwise. I'm fond of the markers shaped like little rubber o-rings and it's amazing how far they can bounce after an energetic launch. I'm re-knitting my Clapotis, from scarf size to wrap size, meaning I have seventeen markers, one every six stitches.
However, I can say that it's chilly and cloudy and windy here today. I went out and brought three loads of firewood around from the far side of the house onto the patio, so that I won't have to go out into the rain for it. I also checked the rain gauge to be sure it was clean and empty.
I'm ready. Let water fall out of the sky, I'll be sitting in front of a nice fire, knitting, reading Usenet, and surfing blogs. This is the SoCal version of real winter weather, like the rest of the country has been having.
Edited to add : If you've got markers on your knitting, you'll spend a lot less time getting up to retrieve the bouncy little rascals if you slip them purlwise instead of knitwise. I'm fond of the markers shaped like little rubber o-rings and it's amazing how far they can bounce after an energetic launch. I'm re-knitting my Clapotis, from scarf size to wrap size, meaning I have seventeen markers, one every six stitches.
06 December 2007
Busy Day Yesterday
I spent most of yesterday running around the Antelope Valley. My friend and I went down to Trader Joe's and bought a few things and then we went to my current favorite real supermarket and shopped until we couldn't get anything more in the cart. It wasn't terribly expensive, although we both hit the service deli. I love the service deli and would probably buy half a pound of everything they sell, if not more, if I didn't control myself. I'd bought a bunch of different breads at TJ's, so I didn't even rampage through the service bakery. I was so proud of my self control.
The one extravagance I bought was two quarts of heavy whipping cream and two big tubs of sour cream. I have an experiment in mind for these. I want to see if I can make butter from the sour cream, with or without the sweet cream. European butter is made from cultured (sour) cream and it has a richer, deeper taste than American butter made from sweet cream. So I'll be making a mess out in the kitchen experimenting. I'll probably end up baking bread, too, so I have something to put the butter on.
Then in the afternoon, I went to the doctor. My appointment was for 1415 and I was inside in only a few minutes. That was a relief because this practice specializes in pediatric and allergy medicine and children are seething pits of contagious disease. OK, that's an exaggeration, but ask any parent with a child in day care, pre-school, or grade school. Children may not all be good at sharing toys, but they're all wonderfully unselfish about sharing germs. That's not all bad, because childhood diseases can be a lot less harmful in childhood than in adulthood. Anyway, I was glad to get out of the waiting room.
It took a while to get through the visit, because they were really busy, but it turns out I have a sinus infection that I've probably had for over a month. Since I'd had it so long, I got antibiotics. I've forgotten the name and I'm too lazy to go look, but I have to say they are huge bright blue pills that are awesomely bitter. I hope there's a children's version that's better tasting.
There was good news, too. I've lost thirteen pounds on the Knitting Diet. This was measured on a set of scales I've been weighed on before, in approximately the same amount and type of clothing, so I think it's fairly accurate. I know it's not a huge amount, but I put the weight on slowly, so I'm not averse to taking it off equally slowly.
Then I went to my pharmacy and got the antibiotics and nose spray. I got home at about 1630, which was a little longer than I expected it to take but everyone was really busy. I got a lot of knitting done (a flower motif lace shawl from Evelyn A. Clark's new book, knitted in very bright Claudia hand-painted fingering weight merino), though. I started on the antibiotics right away and went to bed early. I slept late, too, but I feel a lot better. The achy brow and cheeks aren't nearly so achy.
Yesterday was really a nice day for running all these little errands. It got up to 70° F, which isn't bad for early December. It didn't last, though. The wind is blowing pretty hard now. Last night at bedtime it was only gusting occasionally. They say we're going to get some rain at 0300 or so, which I believe. The front of the storm, the wind and some clouds, have made that pretty evident. It's supposed to rain Friday and Saturday and we might even get a little snow on Saturday evening. They'll get snow in the ski resorts for sure. It's already snowing in the Sierra Nevada, which is where much of SoCal gets its drinking water.
The one extravagance I bought was two quarts of heavy whipping cream and two big tubs of sour cream. I have an experiment in mind for these. I want to see if I can make butter from the sour cream, with or without the sweet cream. European butter is made from cultured (sour) cream and it has a richer, deeper taste than American butter made from sweet cream. So I'll be making a mess out in the kitchen experimenting. I'll probably end up baking bread, too, so I have something to put the butter on.
Then in the afternoon, I went to the doctor. My appointment was for 1415 and I was inside in only a few minutes. That was a relief because this practice specializes in pediatric and allergy medicine and children are seething pits of contagious disease. OK, that's an exaggeration, but ask any parent with a child in day care, pre-school, or grade school. Children may not all be good at sharing toys, but they're all wonderfully unselfish about sharing germs. That's not all bad, because childhood diseases can be a lot less harmful in childhood than in adulthood. Anyway, I was glad to get out of the waiting room.
It took a while to get through the visit, because they were really busy, but it turns out I have a sinus infection that I've probably had for over a month. Since I'd had it so long, I got antibiotics. I've forgotten the name and I'm too lazy to go look, but I have to say they are huge bright blue pills that are awesomely bitter. I hope there's a children's version that's better tasting.
There was good news, too. I've lost thirteen pounds on the Knitting Diet. This was measured on a set of scales I've been weighed on before, in approximately the same amount and type of clothing, so I think it's fairly accurate. I know it's not a huge amount, but I put the weight on slowly, so I'm not averse to taking it off equally slowly.
Then I went to my pharmacy and got the antibiotics and nose spray. I got home at about 1630, which was a little longer than I expected it to take but everyone was really busy. I got a lot of knitting done (a flower motif lace shawl from Evelyn A. Clark's new book, knitted in very bright Claudia hand-painted fingering weight merino), though. I started on the antibiotics right away and went to bed early. I slept late, too, but I feel a lot better. The achy brow and cheeks aren't nearly so achy.
Yesterday was really a nice day for running all these little errands. It got up to 70° F, which isn't bad for early December. It didn't last, though. The wind is blowing pretty hard now. Last night at bedtime it was only gusting occasionally. They say we're going to get some rain at 0300 or so, which I believe. The front of the storm, the wind and some clouds, have made that pretty evident. It's supposed to rain Friday and Saturday and we might even get a little snow on Saturday evening. They'll get snow in the ski resorts for sure. It's already snowing in the Sierra Nevada, which is where much of SoCal gets its drinking water.
30 November 2007
It's Raining All Over SoCal
What a dismal gloomy day we're having. It started raining at about 0845 and it's still raining almost five hours later. It's not a hard rain, so there's a good chance a lot of it will soak in instead of running off. Fortunately the storm is coming up from the south and west, so there's no chance of snow for us down here, although it's snowing and sticking at the mountain resorts. The storm is dumping snow on the Four Corners area, in particular my birthplace, Durango, CO.
This is all supposed to go away by tomorrow and we'll have a pretty, if cool, day for the UCLA-USC game. If USC (boo, hiss) wins, they'll go to the Rose Bowl. If UCLA (go, Bruins) wins and if Arizona State later loses, then UCLA will go to the Rose Bowl. Since I bleed Bruin blue and gold, you can tell where my heart is. USC is my second favorite, though. (I'm somewhat less partisan about football than basketball.)
The weather may affect the game, though, because it's being played in an outdoor stadium with natural grass. They've gotten about a half-inch of rain down there, which shouldn't affect the field too much, but if it keeps raining the field may get soft. Neither team is very accustomed to soggy fields.
Speaking of soggy fields, did anyone else see this week's Monday Night Football game, where the field was all but under water? On one kick, the ball came down and stuck in the ground. It didn't bounce at all. It was just standing there, right where it hit, pointy end embedded in the glop. All the yard lines and hash marked were washed away, too. I love watching football games played in real weather, particularly pro games. There was a fairly recent game in a driving snow storm (at Lambeau Field, maybe?), so heavy you couldn't see the far side of the field, and another in such thick fog you couldn't even see that far. Now that's football.
Last night I washed and dried a rollerball pen with a load of medium-colored clothes, mostly cotton knits. What a mess! The dryer drum had a lot of black streaks and my clothes were almost all spotted and streaked and smudged with black ink. The dryer cleaned up pretty well, so that I could dry the load in the washer. I gave up about then and didn't even try to re-wash the stained load. I'm going to do that as soon as I post this. Fortunately, a lot of the load was nightgowns and briefs, so the world won't end if they end up with a few gray splotches. However, one of the victims was one of my favorite U-2 (airplane, not band) tees and I'm a little worried about it.
I've once again put aside my Bigfoot Shawl for another project. I got two balls of Suri Dream handpainted in Rose Quartz in my recent order from Knit Picks. The box showed up on Tuesday and I managed to resist until last night (Thursday), but I caved in and started a scarf. This yarn is just beautiful. It's really soft and so light, but still warm. The colors are very good, too. The scarf is just garter stitch with slipped-stitch selvages, 24 stitches on US 11 needles. It's about 8 in. wide and I've got about 24 in. knitted already. I've weighed the ball of yarn a couple of times and I think I'm getting about an inch of scarf per gram. I'm thinking that I should order another ball of yarn and make two six-foot scarves. I'll try to get a reasonable photo tomorrow if it's sunny enough.
This is all supposed to go away by tomorrow and we'll have a pretty, if cool, day for the UCLA-USC game. If USC (boo, hiss) wins, they'll go to the Rose Bowl. If UCLA (go, Bruins) wins and if Arizona State later loses, then UCLA will go to the Rose Bowl. Since I bleed Bruin blue and gold, you can tell where my heart is. USC is my second favorite, though. (I'm somewhat less partisan about football than basketball.)
The weather may affect the game, though, because it's being played in an outdoor stadium with natural grass. They've gotten about a half-inch of rain down there, which shouldn't affect the field too much, but if it keeps raining the field may get soft. Neither team is very accustomed to soggy fields.
Speaking of soggy fields, did anyone else see this week's Monday Night Football game, where the field was all but under water? On one kick, the ball came down and stuck in the ground. It didn't bounce at all. It was just standing there, right where it hit, pointy end embedded in the glop. All the yard lines and hash marked were washed away, too. I love watching football games played in real weather, particularly pro games. There was a fairly recent game in a driving snow storm (at Lambeau Field, maybe?), so heavy you couldn't see the far side of the field, and another in such thick fog you couldn't even see that far. Now that's football.
Last night I washed and dried a rollerball pen with a load of medium-colored clothes, mostly cotton knits. What a mess! The dryer drum had a lot of black streaks and my clothes were almost all spotted and streaked and smudged with black ink. The dryer cleaned up pretty well, so that I could dry the load in the washer. I gave up about then and didn't even try to re-wash the stained load. I'm going to do that as soon as I post this. Fortunately, a lot of the load was nightgowns and briefs, so the world won't end if they end up with a few gray splotches. However, one of the victims was one of my favorite U-2 (airplane, not band) tees and I'm a little worried about it.
I've once again put aside my Bigfoot Shawl for another project. I got two balls of Suri Dream handpainted in Rose Quartz in my recent order from Knit Picks. The box showed up on Tuesday and I managed to resist until last night (Thursday), but I caved in and started a scarf. This yarn is just beautiful. It's really soft and so light, but still warm. The colors are very good, too. The scarf is just garter stitch with slipped-stitch selvages, 24 stitches on US 11 needles. It's about 8 in. wide and I've got about 24 in. knitted already. I've weighed the ball of yarn a couple of times and I think I'm getting about an inch of scarf per gram. I'm thinking that I should order another ball of yarn and make two six-foot scarves. I'll try to get a reasonable photo tomorrow if it's sunny enough.
19 October 2007
Mini-Van News
The mini-van is back from the Toyota shop, all fixed, and Mobility Works is cleaning it up for delivery. It should be here by mid-afternoon. I've got to clear off the data card in my camera so I'll have room for lots and lots of photos. Today is a beautiful day, calm, cool, and sunny so the photos should come out well. We're supposed to have high winds again tomorrow but by then the new van will be safely tucked into the garage.
We're members of a rare breed here in SoCal; we have a two-car garage with two cars in it. The rareness of this breed in caused by geology. A lot of California is on or near an earthquake fault so our houses tend to be built on slabs. Slab floors pretty much rule out basements. However, we still have the stuff that people with basements fill them with. It has to go somewhere and that's out in the garage. Pretty soon the garage is full of stuff and the cars are parked on the driveway. Fortunately, even up here in the High Desert, the weather is moderate enough that this isn't a problem. We usually don't have enough humidity to have frost or even dew, for example.
We're members of a rare breed here in SoCal; we have a two-car garage with two cars in it. The rareness of this breed in caused by geology. A lot of California is on or near an earthquake fault so our houses tend to be built on slabs. Slab floors pretty much rule out basements. However, we still have the stuff that people with basements fill them with. It has to go somewhere and that's out in the garage. Pretty soon the garage is full of stuff and the cars are parked on the driveway. Fortunately, even up here in the High Desert, the weather is moderate enough that this isn't a problem. We usually don't have enough humidity to have frost or even dew, for example.
25 July 2007
Diamond Fantasy Shawl
Diamond Fantasy Shawl
Originally uploaded by Mary The Digital Knitter
Here's the Diamond Fantasy Shawl, finished, blocked, and ready to go. It was finished (and photographed) on Sunday and went to its new home on Monday.
Pretty, isn't it? Hey, I didn't design it, I just knitted it. The designer gets all the credit.
As you may recall, it was knitted for my friend to wear to the wedding of her godson on Friday. The wedding is in Camarillo, which can be quite cool, even in July, She went down to Simi Valley help the mother of the groom (her best friend) with the last preparations on Tuesday and I don't expect to hear from her again until at least Saturday, maybe Sunday.
My friend's daughter and her family came out from South Dakota in part to go to the wedding and in part just to visit. They came by Sunday and we had a really nice visit. We hadn't met her husband or his daughter, so it was a real pleasure to do so. He's a very nice fellow and a very devoted father. His daughter is a real sweetie.
You may wonder why I'm talking about this family at such length. Well, they live in South Dakota. It gets cold and windy there and they're in dire need of scarves, hats, mittens, and other knitted items. I pulled some yarn from my stash for them to see and they picked out quite a few choices for me to use. In fact, I've started the Mystery Stole 3 (MS3) in an apple green wool fingering weight yarn because she has a dress it will go with perfectly.
More photos will appear shortly. Right now I have to zip to the grocery store before the thunderstorms start popping up. Yes, the Summer Monsoon has sneaked over here to the SoCal High Desert, further west than it usually goes.
03 July 2007
Hot Cross Knitter
It's really hot here, I'm tired and grumpy, and my latest knitting project is giving me fits. Other than that, everything is going just fine.
My friend and I have been spending weekday mornings over at my mom's house, packing things up, throwing things away, and and sorting everything else. We've cleared out the bathrooms, the linen closet, the video tapes, and about half of the kitchen. I've also made some real inroads into the mass of financial material, most of which belongs to the volunteer organizations for which she was the treasurer.
On the way home yesterday my friend and I went by Costco to buy just one thing, an inflatable queen-sized bed (her daughter and son-in-law are coming from South Dakota in about two weeks). I'd seen the beds there Saturday, when my husband and I went by for more fans, and told her about them. She's not a member, so I had to go with her. We didn't have a written list, because who needs one for just one thing? However, we ended up buying twice as many things as we'd intended. She remembered that she needed compact fluorescent lightbulbs, so she picked up an eight-pack of the sixty-watt equivalents. I had fun teasing her about getting twice as much as she'd intended.
My lace shawl has me perplexed. There's a line in the chart that I can't reconcile at all. I've sent an e-mail message to the designer in the hope that she can straighten me out. Until I hear from her I'm working on my baby blanket. I enjoy knitting this so it's not a hardship.
Last weekend I got some of those big thick boneless pork chops at Costco. I brined them, using the usual salt and sugar, and adding black peppercorns, allspice, and chopped garlic, for about 48 hours. However, I think the standard brine is just a little too strong for chops, so next time I'll use about 75% of the salt and sugar. I think I'll use a little more garlic, too. All the same, they were really good. Very moist and tender. The brining really makes a difference.
My friend and I have been spending weekday mornings over at my mom's house, packing things up, throwing things away, and and sorting everything else. We've cleared out the bathrooms, the linen closet, the video tapes, and about half of the kitchen. I've also made some real inroads into the mass of financial material, most of which belongs to the volunteer organizations for which she was the treasurer.
On the way home yesterday my friend and I went by Costco to buy just one thing, an inflatable queen-sized bed (her daughter and son-in-law are coming from South Dakota in about two weeks). I'd seen the beds there Saturday, when my husband and I went by for more fans, and told her about them. She's not a member, so I had to go with her. We didn't have a written list, because who needs one for just one thing? However, we ended up buying twice as many things as we'd intended. She remembered that she needed compact fluorescent lightbulbs, so she picked up an eight-pack of the sixty-watt equivalents. I had fun teasing her about getting twice as much as she'd intended.
My lace shawl has me perplexed. There's a line in the chart that I can't reconcile at all. I've sent an e-mail message to the designer in the hope that she can straighten me out. Until I hear from her I'm working on my baby blanket. I enjoy knitting this so it's not a hardship.
Last weekend I got some of those big thick boneless pork chops at Costco. I brined them, using the usual salt and sugar, and adding black peppercorns, allspice, and chopped garlic, for about 48 hours. However, I think the standard brine is just a little too strong for chops, so next time I'll use about 75% of the salt and sugar. I think I'll use a little more garlic, too. All the same, they were really good. Very moist and tender. The brining really makes a difference.
07 June 2007
Still Here, Not There
OK, it's a long story, but we haven't gone to Lancaster yet. The big delay was that I finally got the receptacles on the circuit for my freezer changed from GFCIs to regular receptacles yesterday afternoon. The GFCI is a great invention, particularly for circuits that are around water, but it's crummy for freezers and refrigerators. If a GFCI trips and there's no one around to reset it, everything inside the freezer or fridge will spoil. In the summer heat we have here, it'll spoil quickly, so the once-a-week check our house sitter does won't be enough. I think I'd have to call in one of those companies that cleans up after undiscovered dead bodies to get the stink and mess out if it happened with the fridge.
Right now everything is in the van except the few things that can't stand the heat (it's cool today, only 87° with the dew point at 27° (relative humidity 12%). It's been about 10° warmer the last few days and will be again. Unfortunately, there's only a knot or two of wind, which doesn't help much in the garage.
The only knitting that isn't out there is my Argosy baby blanket. I've finished three pattern repeats on the decrease side, binding off six pattern squares (72 stitches). It's funny, but now it looks like a blanket, not a shawl. I don't notice any real change in row length, but I figure it'll show up after another few pattern repeats, when the rows get down below 240 stitches or so.
I've figured out three things about myself in the last few weeks. A lot of other knitters probably have the same traits, so I'm sure I'm not alone.
The first is that I hate knitting to a close deadline. I enjoyed knitting the feather and fan stole until I only had a week or two before I had to have it finished and blocked. I still enjoyed knitting it once I picked it up, but it was really hard to pick it up those last few days. I don't anticipate the same problem with the baby blanket because the deadline is in November and it's fun to knit.
The second is that I greatly prefer a project where I can see progress at a glance, particularly for a longer project. Argosy, in any of its forms, is like that. The pattern repeats are short enough and definite enough that there's instant gratification, even with sport-weight yarn. My fan and feather stole isn't. I think that's because the repeats aren't very distinctive.
And the third is that I hate to have my yarn trapped inside my circular needles. It just bugs me no end and I have to pass the ball through the needles to free the yarn.
I really don't have much to say today. I do some work around the house, knit a couple of rows, do some more, etc. Pretty much everything is packed and I'm just doing the stuff I do so that it's nicer returning. I do all the laundry and get everything folded, run a last load in the dishwasher, put out clean towels, change the bed, that sort of thing. It drives my husband crazy, watching me race around the house doing all this stuff just before we leave, so I'm getting it all done today.
Right now everything is in the van except the few things that can't stand the heat (it's cool today, only 87° with the dew point at 27° (relative humidity 12%). It's been about 10° warmer the last few days and will be again. Unfortunately, there's only a knot or two of wind, which doesn't help much in the garage.
The only knitting that isn't out there is my Argosy baby blanket. I've finished three pattern repeats on the decrease side, binding off six pattern squares (72 stitches). It's funny, but now it looks like a blanket, not a shawl. I don't notice any real change in row length, but I figure it'll show up after another few pattern repeats, when the rows get down below 240 stitches or so.
I've figured out three things about myself in the last few weeks. A lot of other knitters probably have the same traits, so I'm sure I'm not alone.
The first is that I hate knitting to a close deadline. I enjoyed knitting the feather and fan stole until I only had a week or two before I had to have it finished and blocked. I still enjoyed knitting it once I picked it up, but it was really hard to pick it up those last few days. I don't anticipate the same problem with the baby blanket because the deadline is in November and it's fun to knit.
The second is that I greatly prefer a project where I can see progress at a glance, particularly for a longer project. Argosy, in any of its forms, is like that. The pattern repeats are short enough and definite enough that there's instant gratification, even with sport-weight yarn. My fan and feather stole isn't. I think that's because the repeats aren't very distinctive.
And the third is that I hate to have my yarn trapped inside my circular needles. It just bugs me no end and I have to pass the ball through the needles to free the yarn.
I really don't have much to say today. I do some work around the house, knit a couple of rows, do some more, etc. Pretty much everything is packed and I'm just doing the stuff I do so that it's nicer returning. I do all the laundry and get everything folded, run a last load in the dishwasher, put out clean towels, change the bed, that sort of thing. It drives my husband crazy, watching me race around the house doing all this stuff just before we leave, so I'm getting it all done today.
04 June 2007
Omnes Didn't Exuent Today; Maybe Tomorrow
We didn't manage to leave here today. IA migraine sneaked up on me and the weather decided to be unreasonable. No one needs 109° weather when they're going over Banning and El Cajon passes, so we waved off and spent the day relaxing. This is one of the pitfalls of being retired. It's really easy to just let things slip a day or two when you have no real deadlines to meet.
I got off top dead center on my Argosy baby blanket and finished pattern repeat 16, the middle row. I've bound off two pattern squares and it's all downhill from here. Every time I finish a pattern repeat I'll have two fewer squares and 24 fewer stitches. Those 373-stitch rows were getting to me. Photos will follow soon, once I get to Lancaster tomorrow.
That is, if tomorrow really is cooler, albeit windy, as they're forecasting and my migraine finally goes away and nothing else happens to delay us. I'm avoiding sounding certain in hope that it works better that way.
I got off top dead center on my Argosy baby blanket and finished pattern repeat 16, the middle row. I've bound off two pattern squares and it's all downhill from here. Every time I finish a pattern repeat I'll have two fewer squares and 24 fewer stitches. Those 373-stitch rows were getting to me. Photos will follow soon, once I get to Lancaster tomorrow.
That is, if tomorrow really is cooler, albeit windy, as they're forecasting and my migraine finally goes away and nothing else happens to delay us. I'm avoiding sounding certain in hope that it works better that way.
28 May 2007
Blanket Progress and Lace Blocking
I just started the fourth ball of yarn on the baby blanket. I've knitting the fifteenth pattern repeat, and have over ¾ of it done. My tape measure and I think that the edges are well over 40 in. I'm pretty sure I'm going to quit increasing at the end of the sixteenth pattern repeat. I'd show you a photo, but it doesn't look that much different, even to its devoted creator's eye. Maybe later today.
As soon as the casita cools down, I'm going to go unpin the Forest Canopy Shawl that I blocked earlier. It's definitely dry. It looks pretty good; I'll take a bunch of photos. I threaded a strand of plastic-covered steel wire (bead stringing wire) through the long straight edge and pinned out the points on the other two edges. I strung the wire tightly between the two front legs of the day bed to be sure the edge was really straight. That worked very well.
The feather and fan stole doesn't look nearly as good. I didn't have enough long pins or wire to get the two edges straight, so they wobble all over the place. The scallops came out way too pointy because of the pin shortage. I'm going to re-block it by threading the wire through the edges and tying it to the day bed frame. I'll make the scallops more scallop-y and less pointy, too. I'll take some photos of it now, but I may not show those to the world. However, once I get it wired up, I'll snap a few more for show and tell.
The casita was 88° F when I turned the A/C on, so it should be pretty comfortable after lunch. Blocking is surprisingly hard work with all the back-and-forth iterations. I have to work fast because the relative humidity is 14% outside and things dry very quickly indeed. Spray bottles help a lot.
Today was probably our last day of having our groceries delivered for a while. We intend to go back up to Lancaster for the rest of the summer, only coming down here for short visits. I think we're leaving on Thursday or Friday, but that could change. I've been packing up yarn from my sub-stash down here. Some of it's returning to the main stash, but too much is joining the main stash for the first time. I'm going to leave the heavier winter stuff here and concentrate on summer knitting. My goddaughter needs crop tops and shells and tank tops and cool little skirts.
As soon as the casita cools down, I'm going to go unpin the Forest Canopy Shawl that I blocked earlier. It's definitely dry. It looks pretty good; I'll take a bunch of photos. I threaded a strand of plastic-covered steel wire (bead stringing wire) through the long straight edge and pinned out the points on the other two edges. I strung the wire tightly between the two front legs of the day bed to be sure the edge was really straight. That worked very well.
The feather and fan stole doesn't look nearly as good. I didn't have enough long pins or wire to get the two edges straight, so they wobble all over the place. The scallops came out way too pointy because of the pin shortage. I'm going to re-block it by threading the wire through the edges and tying it to the day bed frame. I'll make the scallops more scallop-y and less pointy, too. I'll take some photos of it now, but I may not show those to the world. However, once I get it wired up, I'll snap a few more for show and tell.
The casita was 88° F when I turned the A/C on, so it should be pretty comfortable after lunch. Blocking is surprisingly hard work with all the back-and-forth iterations. I have to work fast because the relative humidity is 14% outside and things dry very quickly indeed. Spray bottles help a lot.
Today was probably our last day of having our groceries delivered for a while. We intend to go back up to Lancaster for the rest of the summer, only coming down here for short visits. I think we're leaving on Thursday or Friday, but that could change. I've been packing up yarn from my sub-stash down here. Some of it's returning to the main stash, but too much is joining the main stash for the first time. I'm going to leave the heavier winter stuff here and concentrate on summer knitting. My goddaughter needs crop tops and shells and tank tops and cool little skirts.
25 March 2007
Spring Scarves
I've been knitting spring scarves for my goddaughter and her dorm-mates at Penn State. Knitting 14-stitch-wide scarves 0f Fun Fur in garter stitch isn't exactly challenging and I'd been doing a little Web surfing as I knitted. The packages have started arriving and I've been very pleased with some of the new scarf yarn. There's always a little risk, particularly in color, when ordering off a monitor, but the colors seem to have been fairly accurate.
I like to use hand-painted yarns for scarves. It makes them dramatic and unique and, because one skein is usually enough, isn't likely to bankrupt me. The best value seems to be sock yarn, followed closely by sport yarn. I've fallen in love with Great Adirondack's Bahama Mama colorway, much to my surprise, and managed to convince myself I needed two skeins in sport weight superwash merino for a shawl and another two in worsted weight for a small baby blanket. Smaller blankets work better than big ones when baby's in the car seat/carrier.
Only one of my purchases seems a bit foolish. I bought three skeins of Twisted Sister mohair and silk(70/30) lace yarn. It's Lust Monochrome Variegate in Lemongrass (pale lime) and there are 460 yd in each 50-gm skein. That's just a titch over a quarter of a mile.[1] I don't have the faintest idea what pattern I'm going to use. In fact, I don't have the faintest idea why I bought it, except that I fell in love with it. All I know is thats it's going to be my lace whatever it turns into.
Still lots of airplanes today, but not so many biz jets. The weather is just beautiful for flying and everyone with a recip seems to be out flying today. There was just a little too much of a breeze or we'd have had a flock of hot air balloons drifting overhead, too.
[1] I used to go to a lot of track and field events, like the Modesto Relays and the L A Times Games, and knew, from that experience, that the 440-yd race was a quarter of a mile long. Now that track and field have been metrified, it's the 400-m race, but it's still close enough to a quarter of a mile to think of it that way.[2]
[2] Didn't expect footnotes, did you? Using them is sometimes the only way I can get through a topic without zinging off onto multiple tangents.
I like to use hand-painted yarns for scarves. It makes them dramatic and unique and, because one skein is usually enough, isn't likely to bankrupt me. The best value seems to be sock yarn, followed closely by sport yarn. I've fallen in love with Great Adirondack's Bahama Mama colorway, much to my surprise, and managed to convince myself I needed two skeins in sport weight superwash merino for a shawl and another two in worsted weight for a small baby blanket. Smaller blankets work better than big ones when baby's in the car seat/carrier.
Only one of my purchases seems a bit foolish. I bought three skeins of Twisted Sister mohair and silk(70/30) lace yarn. It's Lust Monochrome Variegate in Lemongrass (pale lime) and there are 460 yd in each 50-gm skein. That's just a titch over a quarter of a mile.[1] I don't have the faintest idea what pattern I'm going to use. In fact, I don't have the faintest idea why I bought it, except that I fell in love with it. All I know is thats it's going to be my lace whatever it turns into.
Still lots of airplanes today, but not so many biz jets. The weather is just beautiful for flying and everyone with a recip seems to be out flying today. There was just a little too much of a breeze or we'd have had a flock of hot air balloons drifting overhead, too.
[1] I used to go to a lot of track and field events, like the Modesto Relays and the L A Times Games, and knew, from that experience, that the 440-yd race was a quarter of a mile long. Now that track and field have been metrified, it's the 400-m race, but it's still close enough to a quarter of a mile to think of it that way.[2]
[2] Didn't expect footnotes, did you? Using them is sometimes the only way I can get through a topic without zinging off onto multiple tangents.
24 March 2007
Sky Full Of Jets
The bizjets are really streaming in. It's an LPGA (Ladies' Professional Golfing Association) tournament at one of the 100+ golf courses in the area. We have some very fine golf courses, at which many tournaments are played, and we have some average golf course and we, probably, have some poor golf courses, but the local golfers seems to love them all and play as much as they can.
However, our golf courses are more than just manicured venues for cow-pasture pool. They're part of the Coachella Valley flood control system. There's at least one municipal course that's mostly in a usually-dry riverbed; the planted course reduces erosion when the Whitewater River is in full spate.
Most of the courses, however, are flood control systems for their surrounding housing developments. They're carefully laid out much lower than the houses, which has advantages in limiting the flight paths of balls, making pretty views, and being run-off channels. The planted channels slow the flow and greatly reduce damage. It's not perfect, of course, since desert storms, although infrequent, can drop a lot of water. The tract we live in had several holes damaged badly a couple of years ago, when we had several rainstorms that dropped over an inch of rain each. We've got one low-lying stretch of road (a ford, actually) that's still being repaired from damage that happened last year.
The other thing that makes golf courses in the desert more sensible than you'd think is that they're watered with recycled water. It's been through the treatment process and is quite safe, but it isn't the final, sparkling pure potable water that recycling can produce. Since it's going to be used for agriculture it doesn't have to be potable. Watering the golf courses has the advantage of refilling the shallow aquifers, which helps native plants. Of course, taking out the tamarisk all over the valley would help them even more but no one has come up with an equally good wind screen, so some of them will have to stay. The rest are going. It's really good firewood, too.
However, our golf courses are more than just manicured venues for cow-pasture pool. They're part of the Coachella Valley flood control system. There's at least one municipal course that's mostly in a usually-dry riverbed; the planted course reduces erosion when the Whitewater River is in full spate.
Most of the courses, however, are flood control systems for their surrounding housing developments. They're carefully laid out much lower than the houses, which has advantages in limiting the flight paths of balls, making pretty views, and being run-off channels. The planted channels slow the flow and greatly reduce damage. It's not perfect, of course, since desert storms, although infrequent, can drop a lot of water. The tract we live in had several holes damaged badly a couple of years ago, when we had several rainstorms that dropped over an inch of rain each. We've got one low-lying stretch of road (a ford, actually) that's still being repaired from damage that happened last year.
The other thing that makes golf courses in the desert more sensible than you'd think is that they're watered with recycled water. It's been through the treatment process and is quite safe, but it isn't the final, sparkling pure potable water that recycling can produce. Since it's going to be used for agriculture it doesn't have to be potable. Watering the golf courses has the advantage of refilling the shallow aquifers, which helps native plants. Of course, taking out the tamarisk all over the valley would help them even more but no one has come up with an equally good wind screen, so some of them will have to stay. The rest are going. It's really good firewood, too.
23 March 2007
Overhead
We've had a lot of jets (OK, turbine-engined aircraft, which may not exactly be jets, but sound like it) flying around here during the last week. There was a big tennis tournament on the weekend, which brought in a lot of bizjets to Bermuda Dunes (UDD), with arrivals starting on Thursday and building up all day Friday. Then out everyone went on Sunday afternoon and Monday. You know, I don't know who is in those airplanes, players or spectators. I'd expect players to show up a bit earlier, to play a few games and get familiar with the courts. Also, I don't think there are that many tennis players who make enough money to fly around in bizjets. Sure, the big stars do, but there are a lot more non-stars than stars. So I figure it's mostly spectators flying in and out.
We'd had a week or so of unseasonably hot weather, which laid former-President George H. W. Bush low during a round of golf; it was in the 90's that day. We even set all-time records for highs for the day and month on a couple of days. It was over 100° at least two days. We were running the air conditioner and grousing about how hot it was until this weekend, when it cooled down. Then we had clouds overhead and it's been in the 70's and low 80's. It even sprinkled twice for a total of about fifteen minutes.
But to get back to jets, this shift in the weather was accompanied by a shift in the wind. When I went to check the mail on Wednesday I looked up and saw an airplane I knew wasn't going to be landing at UDD, on that short little runway. This was a big airplane that was going into Palm Springs (PSP). The controllers at the airport must not have been using the usual runway because of the change in wind direction, which meant that the approach and departure pattern changed, too. The PSP traffic is still flying over us and it's still cool and a bit cloudy.
Now when I hear a bigger jet fly overhead (they do sound different, maybe because of the high bypass ratio engines) I don't need to worry that there's going to be an airplane overrunning the UDD runway and ending up on I-10. Not that I ever really thought it was likely to happen, but it did cross my mind more than once.
We'd had a week or so of unseasonably hot weather, which laid former-President George H. W. Bush low during a round of golf; it was in the 90's that day. We even set all-time records for highs for the day and month on a couple of days. It was over 100° at least two days. We were running the air conditioner and grousing about how hot it was until this weekend, when it cooled down. Then we had clouds overhead and it's been in the 70's and low 80's. It even sprinkled twice for a total of about fifteen minutes.
But to get back to jets, this shift in the weather was accompanied by a shift in the wind. When I went to check the mail on Wednesday I looked up and saw an airplane I knew wasn't going to be landing at UDD, on that short little runway. This was a big airplane that was going into Palm Springs (PSP). The controllers at the airport must not have been using the usual runway because of the change in wind direction, which meant that the approach and departure pattern changed, too. The PSP traffic is still flying over us and it's still cool and a bit cloudy.
Now when I hear a bigger jet fly overhead (they do sound different, maybe because of the high bypass ratio engines) I don't need to worry that there's going to be an airplane overrunning the UDD runway and ending up on I-10. Not that I ever really thought it was likely to happen, but it did cross my mind more than once.
05 March 2007
After The Freeze
Well, I've gone around and inspected the landscaping here in Palm Desert. We had at least one night of freezing weather, maybe two.
Pretty much all the bougainvillea froze pretty severely, it looks like. Our gardeners cut them back to live wood and they've coming back very robustly. The root systems weren't damaged by the freeze, so that's what I'd expect. The rest of the shrubs look OK, with a little damage here and there, but not enough to worry about.
The sansevierias and euphorbias are kind of a mixed bag. Some of them look just fine and are growing very well. Others have a fair amount of damage to the ends of the leaves. Did you know that if you damage the tip of a sansevieria leaf it will stop growing, even though the growth takes place and the bottom, not the top? One of my sansevierias, a hedgehog type, has sent up a flower spike that will bloom in a week or two. The crowns of thorns are both blooming very abundantly and one of the cactus-type euphorbs has flower buds amid the spines.
As for the trees, the only one that seems to have had much damage, based on how much they pruned off it, is the lemon. There are still a dozen lemons left on it, even after the pruning. I don't know how good they are, but if they're OK I may make a lemon meringue pie.
Other than having most of the plants look as if they got a buzz cut, not a pruning, everything is find. I see some damage around the neighborhood, all about the same. It may well be worse further south, where it's lower and the cold air drains and pools. You'll be able to tell by watching the price of lemons.
Pretty much all the bougainvillea froze pretty severely, it looks like. Our gardeners cut them back to live wood and they've coming back very robustly. The root systems weren't damaged by the freeze, so that's what I'd expect. The rest of the shrubs look OK, with a little damage here and there, but not enough to worry about.
The sansevierias and euphorbias are kind of a mixed bag. Some of them look just fine and are growing very well. Others have a fair amount of damage to the ends of the leaves. Did you know that if you damage the tip of a sansevieria leaf it will stop growing, even though the growth takes place and the bottom, not the top? One of my sansevierias, a hedgehog type, has sent up a flower spike that will bloom in a week or two. The crowns of thorns are both blooming very abundantly and one of the cactus-type euphorbs has flower buds amid the spines.
As for the trees, the only one that seems to have had much damage, based on how much they pruned off it, is the lemon. There are still a dozen lemons left on it, even after the pruning. I don't know how good they are, but if they're OK I may make a lemon meringue pie.
Other than having most of the plants look as if they got a buzz cut, not a pruning, everything is find. I see some damage around the neighborhood, all about the same. It may well be worse further south, where it's lower and the cold air drains and pools. You'll be able to tell by watching the price of lemons.
13 January 2007
Update On The Inside Slider
I finally decided to cover my plants in place last night. Good thing, too, because it got down to 7 deg F (-13 deg C). It got all the way up to 37 deg F (2 deg C) this afternoon, with a light breeze. I'm not going to transcribe any more numbers, but if you're interested go to Weather Underground and enter WJF for the airport.
I'm going to go fetch my sansevierias in for tonight. I don't think a cardboard box is enough protection, somehow. I think I got lucky last night.
A friend and former cow orker has twenty acres of lemons down in the Coachella Valley. He gave us a call as he drove down there and told me he was about to lose a lot of money from the freeze. His workers were there picking as many lemons as they possibly could, because it was going to be so cold tonight that he was going to lose the remaining lemons and some of the trees. It takes seven years to replace a frost-killed lemon tree. He isn't alone, of course. He suggested that I buy some lemons now, as the price was going to soar, perhaps to the point of dollar lemons being a bargain.
We have a lemon tree in the back yard of our Low Desert house, across the Coachella Valley from his grove. I probably won't lose a single lemon because it's not going to get as cold there. The NWS has a freeze warning for a hard freeze over all of SoCal tonight but historically our area is warmer than the other side. Of course, all the agriculture is on the other side.
What no one much mentions is that this is going to be very expensive for a lot of ordinary people. A lot of plants that commonly grow in SoCal can't stand a hard freeze, so a lot of landscaping is going to be damaged or even killed. That's expensive and it's not covered by insurance.
Incidentally, given the right conditions (mostly a clear sky and no wind) the air doesn't have to be freezing for fruit and other things to freeze. This is because of black body radiation, with the heat of the object being radiated, some of it to space. Years ago I took Heat Transfer and this was one of the examples the professor worked out. As I recall, citrus can freeze when the air temperature is as high as 37 or 38 deg F (3 deg C). That's why citrus groves in some areas have those great big fans, because moving air disrupts the radiation. Ditto smudge pots back before air quality was an issue. Another method for saving citrus is overhead watering to make "freezing rain". Covering the trees with ice keeps them from getting any colder than 32 deg F (0 deg C).
I'm going to go fetch my sansevierias in for tonight. I don't think a cardboard box is enough protection, somehow. I think I got lucky last night.
A friend and former cow orker has twenty acres of lemons down in the Coachella Valley. He gave us a call as he drove down there and told me he was about to lose a lot of money from the freeze. His workers were there picking as many lemons as they possibly could, because it was going to be so cold tonight that he was going to lose the remaining lemons and some of the trees. It takes seven years to replace a frost-killed lemon tree. He isn't alone, of course. He suggested that I buy some lemons now, as the price was going to soar, perhaps to the point of dollar lemons being a bargain.
We have a lemon tree in the back yard of our Low Desert house, across the Coachella Valley from his grove. I probably won't lose a single lemon because it's not going to get as cold there. The NWS has a freeze warning for a hard freeze over all of SoCal tonight but historically our area is warmer than the other side. Of course, all the agriculture is on the other side.
What no one much mentions is that this is going to be very expensive for a lot of ordinary people. A lot of plants that commonly grow in SoCal can't stand a hard freeze, so a lot of landscaping is going to be damaged or even killed. That's expensive and it's not covered by insurance.
Incidentally, given the right conditions (mostly a clear sky and no wind) the air doesn't have to be freezing for fruit and other things to freeze. This is because of black body radiation, with the heat of the object being radiated, some of it to space. Years ago I took Heat Transfer and this was one of the examples the professor worked out. As I recall, citrus can freeze when the air temperature is as high as 37 or 38 deg F (3 deg C). That's why citrus groves in some areas have those great big fans, because moving air disrupts the radiation. Ditto smudge pots back before air quality was an issue. Another method for saving citrus is overhead watering to make "freezing rain". Covering the trees with ice keeps them from getting any colder than 32 deg F (0 deg C).
12 January 2007
Baby, It's Cold Outside
We've got an Inside Slider, a dip in the jet stream that comes down the front of the Sierra Nevada, bringing us cold Arctic air and it's really making SoCal miserable. It snowed in Reseda, for example. Our lows are going to be in the teens up here in the High Desert and our highs are below 40 degF.
I've got to scamper out into our entry and rescue my sansevierias. I don't know whether to leave them out there and cover them or to bring them up by the door (close to the house and away from the open) or to put them out on the west-facing patio surrounded by leaky sliders or actually bring them into the house. I've got five or six of them, ranging from $7.99 supermarket specials to a Blue Bat I spent $50 for. It's the Blue Bat I'm worried most about, because it's got a fat rigid leaf and is exceptionally slow growing. It's S. halli "Blue Bat", which you can see here, not quite halfway down the page. Interesting, isn't it? Mine has three leaves now, triple the number it had when I got it.
Sansevierias are the perfect house plant for absent-minded owners like me. They're extremely robust and can stand infrequent and irregular watering. Down at the Palm Desert house I have about a dozen planted along the side of the house. They do very well there, as they can tolerate the heat if well-watered and it almost never freezes. I hadn't wanted to plant out my favorites until I saw how the others did, so I ended up bringing them up to the High Desert for, I thought, the summer. However, when my mother's cancer was diagnosed we decided not to go south for the winter and the plants are roughing it.
I've got to scamper out into our entry and rescue my sansevierias. I don't know whether to leave them out there and cover them or to bring them up by the door (close to the house and away from the open) or to put them out on the west-facing patio surrounded by leaky sliders or actually bring them into the house. I've got five or six of them, ranging from $7.99 supermarket specials to a Blue Bat I spent $50 for. It's the Blue Bat I'm worried most about, because it's got a fat rigid leaf and is exceptionally slow growing. It's S. halli "Blue Bat", which you can see here, not quite halfway down the page. Interesting, isn't it? Mine has three leaves now, triple the number it had when I got it.
Sansevierias are the perfect house plant for absent-minded owners like me. They're extremely robust and can stand infrequent and irregular watering. Down at the Palm Desert house I have about a dozen planted along the side of the house. They do very well there, as they can tolerate the heat if well-watered and it almost never freezes. I hadn't wanted to plant out my favorites until I saw how the others did, so I ended up bringing them up to the High Desert for, I thought, the summer. However, when my mother's cancer was diagnosed we decided not to go south for the winter and the plants are roughing it.
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