Frost Tender is Gone

The weekend marks the beginning of the gardening season.

It is the end of the period of time that plants and flowers grown in the area can be damaged by overnight frost. If a frost occurs after this date, it would a a totally unpredictable frost. This doesn't mean that it is time to set out the tomatoes and the summer garden. The tomatoes would just sit and shiver in the evening and would work all the daylight ours to overcome the cold of the night. The real start of their growth occurs when the night time temperatures are over 50 degrees. Right now our overnight temperatures swing around 40 degrees. This is why it is good time to start tomatoes in the little peat pellets that expand in water to protect the seed. It takes a while for tomatoes to get past the seed time and develop their root structure. Maybe I will have some planting boxes made by then to allow them to grow and produce the one thing that Sue likes from the garden... fresh tomatoes. I am planting both early girl and a beefsteak hybrid from seeds this week. They will occupy the window sill as they grow. Later they will be transferred to small peat bots with planting soil and then to bigger containers before being tempered outdoors and eventually nurtured in the soil.

This is the perfect time for the fruit trees to blossom. The pluot trees have been blooming for about a week and a half. The peach trees in the front are just starting to bloom. It is interesting in that it looks like the peaches will not have much of a crop if you looked at their bloom at this stage. These trees start off with just a bloom here and there and eventually become a tree of pink.

The pluot trees take the side of the plum trees and have very white blooms with dark red centers. Nectarines take the side of the peach and have hot pink blooms. The pluots, half plum and half apricot take after the plum in fruit. They vary in color and taste depending on the parents of their linage.

The pomegranate will not bloom until it has green leaves throughout the plant. The kumquat has maintained its crop throughout the winter and provides a nice display of grape sized fruit right near the sidewalk.  The lemon tree was hammered pretty solidly early this year and is just now recovering. Most of the top leaves and the fruit on the top were damaged by the heavy frost.  I am interested in seeing if my artichoke plant will produce flowers and thus fruit this year. It looks like a division might be in order as a whole new plant seems to be growing up on the side of the old plant. The older plant seems to be in perfect shape for its third year. The Western Garden book says that artichokes can grow perfectly well in this climate zone but may require some shade and more water than than ordinary if in the heat. We certainly have the heat here in the summer.

The three new trees have been planted this winter. A moorpark apricot has been planted near the 34 year old Tilton apricot. A Fairtime late peach was planted in January near the new apricot. A Fantastic peach, a version of the classic Fay Elberta was planted on the east side of the yard. I am hoping that the Washington navel will survive the devastation of the early frost. Right now it looks pretty gone. All of its leaves are dried out from the cold.

So... onward and upward we would like some more rain... its been really dry this year... but realistically we are almost to the end of the rainy season with less than 3 inches of rain. Our average is usually around 9.

As this is President's day weekend, 2014, lots of kids were at my Starbucks having a coffee or hot chocolate beverage with their parents. It made for and interesting group. Most of the kids have been to Starbucks many times before so they pretty well understand the procedure and and very well behaved.
: ) Pat

Two Movies that will Suck you in- Captain Phillips and Rush

Rented from my closest Redbox, the two fifty rental fee was well worth the viewing of these movies.  Both of these movies I started watching with somewhat of a jaundice eye. What more could they do with the formula One racing that hadn't been exposed on the big screen. The movie Rush opened some new ground. Most people were aware of the situation of the seal team rescuing the sea captain from the throws of the Somali pirates. The movie, Captain Phillips, brings this story much more vividly intimate to the movie goer than the news stories of the incident.

Rush

Ron Howard directed this masterpiece of 1970's racing culture. It highlights the rivals for world championships racing for the McClaren and the Ferrari teams. The rivals are as different in personalities as possible. Ferrari, represented by the Austrian, Niki Lauda and, McClaren, represented by James Hunt. James Hunt has the character that we all suspect as formula one drivers. Niki Lauda has the character of the scientist driver moving into racing. The racing scenes are pretty authentic looking and the deeper character building of using your opponent to spur your recover was pretty significant in this film.

This is an engaging film on several levels. Its a snapshot of the middle 70's both in race cars and in fashion. There is an engaging emotional component with the car and quest. There is a interesting plot thread involving the women of these stars. There is also an engaging emotional thread in following how each of them use their rivalry to improve their race performance.

Captain Phillips

The true story of Captain Richard Phillips and the 2009 hijacking by Somali pirates of the US-flagged MV Maersk Alabama, the first American cargo ship to be hijacked in two hundred years. Tom Hanks plays the Captain as he attempts to protect his crew and his ship from the Somali pirates that board his ship an attempt to hold it for ransom. The interaction with the pirates and the interdiction of the navy and the seals make this one a real intense movie.

I think that this movie brings new awareness of our shipping business of these enterprises as they travel around these dangerous corridors. I was impressed by how inventive the captain was in protecting his ship before boarding. The toughness of trying to protect his ship from people who had so little to lose was amazing. Each side developed constructs from which to negotiate their side.

This is a beautifully made intense movie.

 

New Modem And Superbowl Blow Out

 New Modem

The DSL modem, 2 wire starting acting up this summer.

It would all start with my home page not coming up when I hit the browser icon. After investigating this, I would realize that nothing on the web was coming up on the computer and all the wifi connections were complaining and not linking.

Periodically I had to pull the DSL mondem's  plug and let it reset itself. The modem would get down to the power light coming on and then it would blink off and turn itself on in a couple of seconds. The power light would power up and the internet light would turn to red and then to green and the wifi light would turn on the connection was made and life would be good for a couple of weeks. This series of events was starting to occur with greater frequency. The first thought is that my ATT connection was crap. It wasn't.

In two other occasions I had to replace the modem. This is pretty good since I have been a DSLer for a long period of time... maybe... 14 years? In the past I walked into Best Buy and found a modem that looked like the one I had at home. My computer is set up for this.  But this time there was no 2 Wire solution. No box looked like the 2wire box that I had.

 At Best Buy or any tech store outlet, It is important not to get hooked into a "router" since these look very much like a modem wifi box. They do not have a connection with the DSL line and just broadcast the signal to other areas of the house. There are also cable modems for the comcast folks and these are also products that I know to avoid.

I had bought a 2 wire brand replacement DSL modem through Ebay and I thought that I had the perfect solution but it did not come with the requisite CD that would have connected my computer with the modem. The only software that I had that would have connected with the modem was Power Pc apple software which apple has completely blinded in its latest system upgrades of which my computer has updated. So off to Best Buy.

I navigated their shelves and came across and ATTnT 802.11N Wireless Router with DSL modem (written in smaller print).  It is a Pace product.

When plugging it in I plugged in all the connections and headed the warning that the modem ran on a specific power supply and followed the caution not to plug in my old power block to run the new modem. It also recommended that I write down the wireless wifi password, a huge number that when called for activates the wifi connection so that the ethernet connection is not needed to connect the computer with the built in router. 

Once I plugged in the power... the other connections (the ethernet (yellow cord) the connection to the phone line and the line to my airport extreme. My brower came up and the attnt account was requested.. my email for it and my account password allowed the DSL connection to be made and the software was configured over the web. Pretty amazing stuff.  Throughout this whole process I did not have to get an appointment, or talk to a customer support techie.  I am back on the web and the wifi connections for my home are improving the connection speed for the Iphones and the Ipad and even the kindle.  High fives all around.

Super Bowl

The old adage is that defense wins games. Seattle has a marvelous defense. Denver not so much. Many people were cheering for the story. The Peyton Manning, comeback kid had landed in Denver and was to be the Elway heir apparent. The neck surgeries made Peyton a disposable commodity in Indianapolis. He was ripe for the offense laden Broncos in Denver. But there is a reason for old adages. They are mostly true. The Seattle defense with the turnovers completely blew out the hero story that Denver wanted to write. So sorry Bronco fans. Hurray for the competitive Western NFC conference.