Flowers from the LARGE pink Tabebuia impetiginosa tree have been falling lately.........they make a great mulch although it is rather short lived.
My princess tree now has open flowers....actually my princess 'stick' is flowering.....however this 'stick' is one year old and 10 feet tall....soon it will be branching and creating a canopy for me to sit under.....things take time you know....
Below is a closer view of the flowers.....hopefully there will be seed....but I may need to tip the top to get the branching I want....that will take care of the seeds....I can always do cuttings though...
Last Saturday was muffler day.........the old one had been repaired 2 years ago with a nice patch.......looks like a new hole appeared....in addition the tail pipe pulled out by hand as it had rotted out.....so here is the new muffler and the old tail pipe welded on and ready for installation....
Here it is the installed....the Z boys and I did a really fine job of course....the final cost included a savings of $150.00 including the cost of several pain pills and 1 Sunday on the couch......still a good deal....
Now the truck sounds like new........actually I can hardly hear it after 2 years of loud rumbling.......the peace and quiet are quite refreshing.........like having a new truck without spending $$$$$$.Where I live has lots of live oaks........nice in the summer but not now since it is leaf raking season.....that is not so bad except that the trees are seedlings and vary a lot in time of leaf drop...for exampel in the photo below I point out large trees in 3 diferent growth stages.....some trees have alrady dropped all their old leaves, finished flowering and have put out new leaves (stage 1 in the photo)... stage 2 trees are in full flower and not yet finished dropping old leaves..... while stage 3 trees still have most of last year's leves and have not yet flowered....
So what you say.....isn't genetic diversity nice?....NOT when you have VERY LARGE tress with each stage in your yard....you end up raking leaves for 6 weeks....grrrrrrrrr......If I had an early flowering clone I would be done with leaves already.....but I guess it is good excercise to rake and rake and rake....oh well......NOTHING IS EASY...........
People like to name plants just like they do pets....some names make no sense to me but that is beside the point...
My friend sure got the name right....any blooming idiot can see that....
Mosaic Mom was out crossing three counties today taking care of things for the homestead.....
" Now what?" I asked.... Then the vision came....."I think we will have vegetarian"..... and so it will come to pass.....Over and over I seem to say the above "Nothing is Easy".... Unfortunately getting loquats to ripen without some sort of trauma seems to be the case.... The frost last weekend was more severe than I first thought....note the fruit in photo below.....
....not to be outdone by the loquats the young citrus tree got nailed....it was full of new growth that seems to have gone bye bye.... nothing is easy..... gee I had actually fertilized and watered it this year.... 
The lonely peach tree at work is in full bloom today - even after the hard frost 3 days ago...
It is a pretty tree all alone out here...
Its fruit are not too good but I admire its toughness....anyway it is a nice view in a field of brown this time of year...
btw....my loquats did take a hit in the freeze......farming is tough.....even our cauliflower got burned....I guess 4 weeks of 75-80 degree days does not make for dormant/hardened off plants (regardless of the genus) for the rouge freezes....
nothing is easy.....sigh....
We went to a ham radio trade show last Saturday.............I am not into ham radios but my sister- and brother-in-law have a business booth there so we visited them......It was jammed with people.......The weather was nice and sunny with lots of people outside.....here is a photo of the place where I got a pizza......I liked the colors............happy colors....
Here is another colorful booth......Maybe it is time to repaint the house......
or................Maybe it is time to go back to work......Yeap.....So after a great warm winter and with all the plants breaking dormancy we get a cold snap. That is a hard frost on the ground this morning. It has been so nice and warm that the loquats are 1 month early this year.
At least it was not so cold as to hurt my loquats seen in this morning's photo. They have been awsome and now we have several different varieties to munch on. So it should be another 6 weeks of great eating. Then we get into some serious garden production ...................... not that we can eat what we produce at the moment.
Saw this blimp come floating above us at work this morning.
No one else was on the ball today.
My bottom heating tents are working so good that now I have installed a total of three. Of course the costs keep rising along with the temperatures. But OMG do the plants like it. I personally hate the cold but now a chilling spell is welcomed by me since my systems are keeping the rooting going at summer rates.Finally got to make a new propagation tent for the research house. This one has new features including steel pipe roof girders, adjustable outer shade cloth, it is tall enough that so that 36 inch totem poles fit easily, the side walls are easily raised in one piece and best of all it has BOTTOM HEAT. Bottom heat is one of the best horticultural tools for propagtion - period. Below is the inside of the new empty tent.
So now the minimum soil temp is 75 - 77 degrees. This is critical when you are propagting pothos and other tropical aroid in the winter. Below is an interan view of the tent filled. Pretty exciting huh.
Here (below) is an exterior view of the tent with some goodies inside. They are doing very very well and it appears that additional watering will be minimal.
