Why I Oughta...

We drove by this beautiful electric organ in our neighborhood the other day.  It was out on the curb.  We were in the van.  So, we had the space. And it was a Sunday, so we had the time.  I'm also FRESH off of the Disney+ 'Get Back' series with the Beatles featuring Billy Preston playing on a Fender electric piano.  This electric organ seemed like something that deserved a home. But...before I could even get out of the car, Nat was seemingly using the ' Immediately, no' audio from TikTok .  In fact...you, dear blog reader, are in luck.  I happen to be running a dashboard camera that day -  so, here (below) is some video footage captured from our van.  That's Nat on the left and me on the right.  She's pretty clear regarding her opinion of the "FREE WORKS" organ on the curb, isn't she? I suppose this is a good time to remind myself of my own collecting mantra (courtesy of one of the Imagineering GOATs Joe Rohde):   It is enough to enjoy the exi

Below is a photo of our second Christmas tree - the Green Room Tree - that is now standing tall and proud in our front room. This is the tree you see from the street and the one that is full of white lights and vintage ornaments.  Otherwise known (at least around here) as Nat's 'fancy tree'.    Over the weekend, I shared a photo of our Family Room tree .  This one is smaller, less girth-y and is 18" or so shorter.  But, just like the one in the family room has a lovely shape and, similarly, came from Wisconsin. I've been tracking these trees on the blog over the years. This is the 17th tree that I've documented and is the second one of this season (2021). Here's our 2021 Green Room Tree . Just like in years past:  a little smaller than Family Room.  But just about perfect-looking.   Here's our 2021 Family Room Tree - between 8' and 9' tall and picture-perfect shape. Here's our 2020 Green Room tree - about 6' tall in total and perfect

It was just a few days ago that I posted a photo of some of the buds that had emerged on our Christmas Cactus and today that very cactus has the first bud that has opened and is VERY tropical-looking.  The flower is white/(very) pale pink flower petals with a bright pink stalk that has emerged.  (Is that the stamen?  The pistil?).  I'll be watching to see how these die back and if they need to be removed. In the photo below, you can see a few of the other buds that are growing up and out.  The one on the far left is about to open while the others continue to get larger.  I watered this thing in early this morning, but have to get read up on how much water it wants now that it is flowering.  

I started my lawn feeding program this year (2021) with a granular bio solid product called e-Corganite (from Menards) and I'm finishing off the year with the same 40# bags of e-Corganite for my late Fall/early Winter dormant feeding.  I had three bags of this fertilizer on hand and threw it down heavy this weekend.  I'm PRETTY SURE that I did the same thing (an early December feeding) last year, but I don't have it posted on the blog.  Here's a post from early December 2019 showing how I used a few bags of Milorganite on the lawn as it was dormant and cool .   Many folks will tell you that this late Fall/early Winter dormant feeding of the lawn is the *most* important one you can do - and if you were to do JUST ONE feeding per year, this one might be the one to choose.  Penn State's extension office says the benefits of feeding your lawn this time of year include a good 'green up'.  From PSU : Late fall fertilization should take place when shoot growth ce

A week ago, we went up to Wisconsin and came home with a pair of fresh-cut Christmas trees from Evergreen Acres.  They're both lovely trees that are shaped quite nice and have made both Nat and I realize that we were getting some ratty-looking trees in the past.   Here, below, is our family room tree for 2021: I've been tracking these trees on the blog over the years.  This is the 16th tree that I've documented with the front room one from last year being the most recent (#15 ).   Here's our 2021 Family Room Tree - between 8' and 9' tall and picture-perfect shape. Here's our 2020 Green Room tree - about 6' tall in total and perfectly shaped. Here's our 2020 Family Room tree - about 8' tall in total , but really nicely shaped. Here's our 2019 Family Room tree that we bought from Wannemakers . Was taller than 2020's tree. Here's our 2019 (small) Green Room Tree . Here's our 2018 Family Room Tree . Here's v1 of our 2017 tree -

This Christmas season, we added a new Christmas plant - a Christmas Cactus - to our normal Amaryllis bulb setup that we plant every year.  I mentioned the Christmas Cactus back in late November and posted a photo then that showed tiny buds were already on the plant .  Today - about 10 or so days later, those buds are getting larger and getting ready to unfurl.  See below for current state of Christmas Cactus: The instructions said that this particular cactus (non-cactus) will bloom more if it is root-bound , so I'll have to remember that and not transplant next Winter (if it makes it that long!).   I'll try to track the blooming of this one to see if it stays in bloom all the way up through late December and lives up to the "Christmas" in the name.  

Yesterday, I posted some photos of our Frans Fontaine Hornbeam hedge (eight trees) that are still clinging to their leaves as we head into December.  One of the known features of those trees is that they hold their leaves longer than most trees - something called foliar marcescence.  Oak trees do something similar - in that if you look around right now and see large, mature trees with leaves on them, they're very often Oak trees.   Last year, I posted a photo in mid-November showing the pair of mature Oak trees in our backyard that had - by then - dropped all of their leaves .  This was unique as I remember the Oaks holding their leaves deep into Winter.  I wanted to document what these two trees looked like this year - in early December. Here, below, is a look at both of the trees (and other parts of our backyard canopy).  The large Northern Red Oak on the right (the tree swing) has leaves up and down the main trunk and branches.  The other mature Oak (on the top left) has none.