Bogieblog

Climate Info

Buffy found basic climate information from her area, so I went and go the info for our area (I have a feeling there were a lot less choices for NH; 2, the Concord area or the Mt Washington area - not real inclusive for us).

I was surprised to learn that Chicago normally gets more rain during the summer than NH does. We rarely have to water here unless it is for new plants (although, I have had to water the last 10 days - until we got rain last night). Maybe the difference is our clay soil which holds the water longer. NH does get more of an annual rainfall than Chicago as we make it up at other times of the year.

Then too, we get more snowfall, so that clay soil really does make a big difference.

Gardening

I finally got the pictures back that I thought had been lost. The pictures were taken in June, so they are in between all the other garden shots that I previously posted.

The planters that WS incorporated in the retaining wall below the fence did beautifully this year - as can be seen by this picture , this picture, and this one too.

The creeping thyme put on it's own show shortly after the phlox finished its spring spectacular (youve seen the phlox photo before).

At the beginning of summer, I thought that we would have a horrible year for the flower gardens. The bugs were having a banquet and the weather was downright cool - except when it was downright HOT. The weather swings have calmed down a bit (although last week we went from a 90+ degree day to a 61 degree day overnight), and really, the gardens haven't done badly (I never did get any parrot tulips to bloom though). The cone flowers, tall phlox, fireworks allium, gayfeathers, black-eyed-Susans and butterfly weed have been doing very nicely for the last week or so.

We have had help from the spiders and frogs, who have really been breeding their little hearts out. There isn't anywhere I can walk or water that spiders aren't rushing out of the way. Frogs are pretty much the same way. We only have a couple of snakes that we are aware of, but I'm sure they are eating well too.

The vegetable garden still isn't doing well, but I have gotten a couple of little yellow tomatoes and 1 small red tomato (why yes, I'm excited that I've gotten 3 tomatoes this year - is there something wrong with that?). Actually, the stuff doing the best, vegetable wise, are things I didn't plant; potatos in the mulch pile (obviously that pile doesn't get very hot), and some melon/gourd/pumpkin-type thing growing out from under a leaf and ash pile. I have no idea what it is (besides a vine), but it has flowered profusely so I may find out at some point in time.

Hmm, now that makes me wonder if I have any fall flowering things planted - guess I'll find out in a couple of weeks!

Camera Eye View

I was reading Cop Car's latest post about how HH was muttering about perspective and distortion when taking pictures of a quilt that was laying flat (instead of hanging).

That remark reminded me that I have a perfectly good 35mm camera that I haven't been able to use for many years. It's not a great camera, but a decent one for someone who doesn't plan to be a pro. It also has several filters with it (cuts glare from water shots and stuff like that). WS bought it for me for Christmas shortly after we moved up here. I can't use anymore it because I can't ever get it focused; when I think I have lines lined up - I don't. WS can use it, but he has no interest in using such a fancy camera (and really, prefers that I do that stuff - although he composes pictures much better than I do).

Distortion is the problem. My keratoconus screws up my vision just enough that I can't take a decent picture unless using an auto-focus camera.

I don't imagine I can even sell it since everyone is going digital, so it just sits in the workout room collecting dust. Maybe the Fantastic Niece would like it.

Diggin the Walk

Another busy weekend - thus the lack of posts. I took care of horses and cats all last week (and into this weekend - all the same customer) and Friday night thru this morning I also took care of another cat.

Friday afternoon, WS started digging into the walkway from the stone steps to the porch steps. That area will also get stoned along with the patio. We never got the packer last weekend as we had intended, so WS decided to get the digging done for the walkway so it could be packed this weekend.

That was some horrible digging, let me tell you! While WS was at work Saturday, I dug and picked rocks. It was so hard packed that the only things getting into the ground were a pry bar and a fork (WS could get the fork to go in some, I had to stick to the pry bar). 2 1/2 carts full of rocks later on Sunday evening, we had finished the job - all for a lousy 5' x 15' walkway!

Hopefully we will get the packer next weekend then we can get rid of the pile of sand we picked up Saturday afternoon. Thanks to Harry for letting us borrow his little dump truck, we didn't have to take 3-4 trips with the Toyota and shovel the sand out of the bed. Thanks to Jim for going to the pit on his day off and loading us up too!

We need to get new landscape artists - the ones we have are costing us way too much physical labor!

TV and Me

Last week, I participated in a Scarborough survey. Correction, two weeks ago I participated in the survey by phone, then they sent me a questionaire to fill out last week. This was a 2-part questionaire, but the only part that is of any interest (in a blogging sense) is the part where I kept track of what television I watched during a 7 day period.

The week started on Saturday, 7/30 in which I watched 1 hour of television - a CSI rerun on the Man Channel (Spike).

Sunday was the big day of watching TV as I watched the weather, local news, nightly news, AFV, CSI and PBR. That covered from 5:30 until 10:00. Actually, a lot of that I watched while I was reading and making dinner, but I actually did pay half-assed attention to the TV, so I put them down.

Monday I watched the local news and the nightly news (while doing other stuff), took 1/2 an hour off then watched Modern Marvels (which was cool) and All Star BBQ (don't ask me why!).

Tuesday, I watched the local news.

Wednesday and Thursday I watched absolutely no TV (WS did - but I did not).

Friday I watched and hour of CSI (man channel again) and Sanford and Son on TV Land.