Bogieblog

New Look for MWO

The Mt. Washington Observatory has redesigned their website, and it looks like a winner. I was puzzled for a moment on how to get to previous "observer" posts, but then discovered that the heading "Observer Comments" was a link to the archives.

Thanks to them, I am saved from having absolutely nothing to write about this weekend!

Pot Up or Shut Up

Over the last week, I have been receiving plants and bulbs that I ordered over the internet. Many plants I have had to pot up, to wait until the weather warms up. I got 3 bare root bushes/trees, two of which I potted up because I’m not sure where I am putting them yet. The third, a Blue Moon rose, I planted on Friday. I just happened to have the perfect place for it in an area I had prepared last fall, but for which I had not found the right plant for.

Saturday, although it was cool, was a good day to work outside (until the sleet started anyway). As I was potting up the two bare root bushes, WS asked me if I wanted to divide up the Japanese iris. This iris clump has been in place for over 10 years and has grown to about 6 feet wide. In thickness, it was only a couple of feet because it was bound by a rock wall and the house foundation.

I had been wanting to divide that clump for the last couple of years. When WS asked the question, I jumped and said “Fer Sure!” (or something to that affect). Now is the perfect time for dividing it since it is just now breaking dormancy and has not really put out any growth. He dug it up, split into 5 parts and let me take care of the planting (which is as it should be).

I put two of the clumps up by the dog pen; next to the lilacs I planted last year. Two other clumps were placed toward the bottom of a steep bank below the back corner of the fence. Vinca and dead nettle is along the sides of the bank, to control erosion, and this is the area that I want to let naturalize. I figured that the Japanese iris would do well there.

The last clump, of course, went back to where it came from. This left a whole lot of room, so I was able to plant some of my new lilies (American Spirit and freebie oriental lilies) along with orchid gladiolas.

Bird Count Tally

The results of the Great Backyard Birdcount of North America are in. Over 630,000 checklists were submitted, 623 species observed (according to the email I received, a record) and close to 7.6 million birds counted (another record).

Whoo, that sounds like we all did a lot of work so we deserve the day off!

Geekiness

I've been busy being a geek this week. Two years ago, I recieved back a computer that I had gotten for a friend of ours. It's just an e-machine, but it doesn't have bad specs for processor speed and memory (800 mhz and 384 RAM - not a gaming machine by any means but plenty powerful for what I need). Anyway, when I got the computer back, I noticed that the friend had never updated the virus protection so I did what any sensible geek would do and formatted the hard drive (gets rid of most nasty buggies).

Naturally, it wasn't until after I had reformatted and re-installed Win 98 that I realized that I had no video driver for the thing. When I had originally set up the computer, I had to go to a website to install the correct driver - this was 2 years later and I had no clue what the website was. When I set up the computer originally, I had thought I was being smart and stored all the drivers on my personal computer. Well, if you remember, I killed that computer and had to get a new one. Thus, the video driver was gone. All the rest of the drivers were small enough to fit on a floppy disk, so I was okay with them, but the video driver was too big (and I didn't have a CD burner at the time), so I had no other back up of that one.

Driving - Sort Of

I heard this while I was driving home from work yesterday. I was, at the time, following someone who was trying to reach something in his (yes, it was a he) back seat. I don't know what he was reaching for, but apparently it was more important than watching the road that he was all over. Fortunately, there wasn't anyone coming the other way. Unfortunately, he never made his way to a ditch (he was going slow enough that it wouldn't have hurt him - too badly). He eventulally accomplished whatever it was he was trying to do and started paying attention to the road anyway.

Like The Weekend Pundit, all I could think of while I heard the news report was NSS*!

Thanks to the aforementioned Weekend Pundit for posting on this and reminding me about the article. Another one of thsoe "I'll have to post about it," but I forget about it subjects!

April Flowers

The flowers that are blooming so far:

• Squill
• Iris Reticulata
• Glory in the snow
• Crocus - yellow, white and purple

Those are still blooming from last week, but I've had some newcomers join the show:

• Botanical Tulips - really pretty, if short (about 6" tall), wild-type tulips that are magenta with gold centers. The picture, which I found at The Plant Expert, says that this is a Persian Pearl Tulipa Humilis. I got them as freebies with an order of bulbs last fall and am extremely pleased with them. They will put on a stunning show in a couple of years, after they have had time to multiply.

  (botanical tulips)

• Grape Hyacinths - only a couple so far. The larger hyacinths will probably bloom next week. These were planted last fall.
• Ice Follies Daffodils - yesterday about 7 of the daffodils that I planted amonght the daylilies along the fence opened up. There are a whole bunch more that need to open. Interestingly, it was the bulbs that are more shaded that have flowered first. These also were planted last fall and I can't wait for them to naturalize along the fence so we can have a spring show and with summer show of lilies (I thought I had a picture of teh lilies along the fence, but I can't find it).
• The Forsythias are blooming too. The ones that I transplanted last fall are looking a bit straggly (they looked that way before I transplanted them), but there is one next to the roses that just does an outstanding job year after year.
• Oh yeah, let's not forget the lone dandylion that is blooming out by the shed!

I can't wait for the rest of the tulips and daffodils to get into the action!

Birding

Thanks to Amy, I now know about the Cape Cod Osprey Cam. Unfortunately, it is still dark, so all I saw was black. Maybe y'all will have better luck.

Landscaping Basics

For those that wrote that I would have to share all my learning from my landscaping class, here is a website that looks like it pretty much follows what the instructor is covering (and in the same order).

However, reading books and websites on the subject won't actually give you the motivation or ambition to sit down and do everything you should (which is pretty much common sense anyway) - that would be why I'm taking the class.

Springtime Silliness

You Are a Blue Flower

A blue flower tends to represent peace, openness, and balance. At times, you are very delicate like a cornflower. And at other times, you are wise like an iris. And more than you wish, you're a little cold, like a blue hydrangea.

What Color Flower Are You?

Nothing wrong with Blue Hydrangeas - I love the two that I planted last year!

Thanks go to Jay for the quiz and the link.

Bring It In

We have a time of year to bring in the birdfeeders so as not to attract bears, but the Bogie household also has a time of year to bring in the cat food off the deck.

We usually keep cat food in the cat house for when our cats are out, for Fuzzy (the transient cat), and sometimes Sammy from across the street (coming over for a snack and a visit). This time of year though, momma raccoon figures it is a great meal.

When I got up to work out this morning, I let Tory in (he had spent the night outside, much as I tried to persuade him to come in last night). I worked out, then went to feed the dogs. At that point, Shadow was at the slider, waiting to be let out.

About 30 seconds after letting him out, it sounded like a herd of elephants was on the deck. I turned on the light and saw Shadow going after a coon that was, at that point on the railing. I opened the door and called Shadow to come in, but he lunged at the coon and the coon lost its nerve and jumped off the railing. Shadow proceeded to puff up his chest and strut back and forth on the deck - stopping every few feet to peer thru the slats to make sure the coon was really gone.

So, it is time to bring in the cat food for a while. Fuzzy will have to utilize his other sources of food.