Why I Oughta...

That's us in the photo up top - this year in San Diego at Nat's brother's wedding.  And that's us on the front of our Christmas card for 2019.  If you received one, you can find the url of our family blog on the back and come visit all of the things we did this year.  I've successfully kept it out of being indexed - and a link from here to there - isn't going to happen.  Hope you can ignore the big blurred boxes on top of the kids and appreciate the wonderfulness that is happening in the photo.  All because of one person:  My dearest Natalie.  Merry Christmas!  Happy New Year.  Happy Hanukkah!  Happy Festivus!  Happy Solstice!  Whatever it is that brings you together with your family today, I hope you enjoy it.  I know I will.  2019 has certainly been Merry + Joyful.  This marks the 359th post of the year - and I'm on pace for another year of 365 posts - one a day.  But, that's for another day.  Today, let's enjoy the company of our little one

My love of columnar trees and what are often called Fastigiata form in trees is well-established.  I've posted about them many times here and have posted photos of my travels to Tokyo where they, too, seem to have been drawn to the columnar form .  I've planted a few different columnar trees in our yard including a *somewhat* columnar shaped Chanticleer Pear tree in a few spots.  But, the list of columnar or narrow trees and shrubs is pretty deep here on the blog: I  made the largest tree investment in our yard in a series of eight Columnar European Hornbeams as a screen .   I planted a hedge of small Hicks Yews - which are upright in nature - in the far back of our lot. We have a columnar Weeping White Spruce conifer near our fenceline in the back. This past Summer, we added a Dwarf Alberta Spruce to the backyard .  I planted - and lost - a Weeping Cedar tree a few years back.  After looking around for some other Columnar trees, I came across - and shared - th

For the first time , our blowmold 1 Santa Claus - sitting in his sleigh - has his three blowmold reindeer up and flying up, up and away.   He's in our front yard and all lit up with a brand new set of reins that are made of 30' of rope light from Menards.   I have been trying to think about how to get the reindeer to 'fly' for a number of years.  We didn't even put this set out last Christmas because I was caught in 'planning mode' too long and never got around to getting them to fly.  My initial design called for them to be 'wired up' between the ground and the large Maple tree in our front yard.  I went so far as to install two large metal eyelets directly in the trunk of the tree about 12 feet up in the air.  I was contemplating running some wire (kind of like the wire I used on the espalier system in the back ) from the eyelets down to some sort of grounding mechanism.  My initial thought was to buy one of those spiral metal things that

I'm posting this Festivus-related post here on the blog one day *before* Festivus.  Why?  Because a bunch of people who read these things happen to read them in their email inboxes. And those emails get delivered in the morning and include links to the blog post that I posted the previous day.  Hence...this post going up on the blog with a date of 12/22/19, but being delivered on Festivus - 12/23/19 - and we all can rejoice around the aluminum pole together.  Via Seinfeld Scripts , we can all see how the gif above is slightly off.  No mention of Harry in the first screen! KRAMER: No. (To manager of H&H) Ah, listen, Harry, I need the 23rd off. MANAGER: Hey! I hired you to work during the holidays. This is the holidays. KRAMER: But it's Festivus. MANAGER: What? KRAMER: You know you're infringing on my right to celebrate new holidays.. MANAGER: That's not a right. KRAMER: Well, it's going to be! Because I'm going back on strike. Come on Elaine. (Takes o

Yesterday, I posted some photos of the four-bloom Star of Holland Christmas Amaryllis and how it has given us some really nice red and white color flowers in the week leading up to Christmas.  Today, you can see the other three bulbs. This is now the fifth post 1 on these bulbs as a group for the season.  Starting with  the original post in this year's (2019) series of Amaryllis bulbs  that shows off all four of the containers.  Then,  by the end of November this Star of Holland had gone far ahead of the other ones .  Once the bud emerged, I switched to a diluted alcohol/water mixture to try to stunt the height on the stalk(s). And, on December 11th of this year,  I shared photos of the Star of Holland about to unfurl and show off for the Christmas season . And yesterday (as I mentioned in the lede here), was the full-show of the Star of Holland . As for the other three bulbs, let's look at where they are in the photo at the top of the post. The tall stem in th

Almost two weeks after my last update and this Star of Holland Amaryllis bulb from Menards just keeps powering on.  It has put on a show that has lasted more than 10 days and we're now - I think - at peak flower. In the photo at the top of the post you can see a more "top-down" view of the flower that includes the oldest bloom on the back that is just starting to fade.  That first bloom is now complemented by these three blooms that have emerged just in time for Christmas.  There are two, distinct stalks that have emerged from the bulb that you can see in the photo below.  No real 'leafs' or other green shoots coming out of the bulb at this point. Here's the original post in this year's (2019) series of Amaryllis bulbs that shows off all four of the containers.   This Star of Holland bulb is on the far right of that original photo. Then, by the end of November this Star of Holland had gone far ahead of the other ones .  Once the bud emerged,

Earlier this year, I bought a couple of small (less than $10) junipers at the Home Depot and began to prune them a little bit to make them into a shape that would be more bonsai-like.  This year, I just started my bonsai-journey with a small Cypress - and overpruned it.  It ended up dying.  I think it was a combination of OVER-pruning and putting it into a bonsai pot prematurely so it dried out.  I decided to learn my lesson with these two other junipers:  A Youngstown Juniper .  And a Chinese Juniper .  With both of those, I cleaned up some of the limbs and established a clear leader.  I didn't do any wiring or cleaning up of the roots.  But, instead left them in their nursery containers.  We live in Zone 5B - in Northern Illinois - so we have a couple of choices with Winter coming: 1. Overwinter bonsai in climate controlled environment. Ideally in a place that keeps the temperature right at 34 degrees. Greenhouse or quonset hut that is heated and vented to keep the