Two Bad Winters in a Row

This winter was supposed to be different! I was sure there would be less frost damage because the wimpy plants had bailed after the very unusual 13ºF of January .., right? The covers and lights used on the in-ground Meyer's Lemon & Mexican Lime trees helped keep the stems alive, but they'd still lost all their leaves and had no fruit in ...
We had space for the two medium-size plumerias, a ginger, Stapelias, the allspice bush, staghorn fern and the smaller lemon inside the house & garage. So if we had a normal winter, all should be well.
But the big plumeria had grown too tall to fit inside the garage.... what to do, what to do?
I decided to ignore the citrus - they no longer fit inside their N-sulate fabric pillowcases - and in November I took that fabric, ripped out the stitches and tried a different idea. The rain barrel had been moved and the little brick-lined sun-catching cove next to the chimney was accessible. I sewed the fabric into one large curtain and Philo put a rod close up against the wall over the window. My idea was to shove the too-tall plumeria and more marginal plants against the window, using the curtain to trap any heat that escaped through the glass from the house, counting on additional heat being captured and released from the bricks.
Winter came, things froze, and you know, the idea worked great as long as the low temperatures were in the mid-2o's - that plumeria still had leaves 10 days ago!
Then last week, as the north was buried in 2-feet of snow, we were hit with a long-lasting cold snap, going down to 14ºF or 15ºF . A power glitch hit Monday, while we were still warm - and it was farewell, computer! On Tuesday February 1st, before the cold came, I piled burlap bags around the pots and swagged a big sheet across the bottom of the curtain. We unplugged the birdbath fountain so the motor wouldn't burn out... and crossed our fingers.
The wind howled all night long, whipping things around the yard and unsettling the sleepers as the temperatures dropped. With daylight on Wednesday we could see the wind had flipped the yellow adirondack chair and tossed a patio umbrella across the yard like a javelin. The wind kept pulling the curtain off the plants. Each time I'd go out to tuck them in the wind would whip the clothes off again. There was no sun in the cove, so no extra heat gathered by the bricks.
The temperatures stayed below freezing so we set up makeshift birdbaths, tapping out the ice blocks and refilling with warm water when the water froze. Rolling brown-outs didn't hit our neighborhood too hard but Vertie's neighborhood didn't have power stay on long enough to keep warm
The power was more stable the next day, and early Friday about an inch of snow lay softly on the garden, looking extremely decorative for awhile- and melting by Saturday as we returned to the 50's or 60's.
Another cold snap is predicted for this coming Tuesday night, so today I went around with the camera. With luck, the plants that usually lose their tops, go dormant and return -the Mexican mint marigold, cupheas, Mexican honeysuckle, crinum lilies, salvias, etc. - will still come back in spring. But I have no experience with other plants that were new in .. - will the Lion's Tail or the two Abutilons live? How about the pink Malvaviscus?
Can these blackened Shrimp Plants spring new life from the roots?
Will the frozen Meyer's Lemon drop this set of leaves and have the strength to releaf two springs in a row?
The asparagus ferns in the hanging baskets don't look too bad, but I was fooled last year
I brushed my hand across one and the resulting shower of fern bits does not bode well for their longterm survival
An African aloe from Pam/Digging that survived January .. looks bad - and feels mushy.
The native Barbados Cherries and the two dwarf pomegranates are already dropping their leaves
Inside the fabric tent the Thai Lime looks good at the base but frost damage shows on leaves at the top. I still don't know if any parts of the tall plumeria will live. The fragrant ginger always loses its top so that doesn't worry me yet, and the 'Dorota Blue' scutellaria looks fine, as does the Scilla peruviana in the front container.
It seems the curtain idea is a qualified success so far - and if there had been a better system for keeping the curtain tight in wind it might have been a real success.
The evergreens that made it last winter look alright so far... and there are still flowers! The pansies weren't impressed by a mere 15 degrees -
Nor was the parsley - although the Sweet marjoram behind it was shocked
And if the Variegated ginger could talk, it might have thanked me for bringing it into the garage.

Fun Match and BBQ with Dogs!

This club (they have great facilities in Santa Rosa and lots of cool classes!) put on an obedience fun match Saturday (tho we did miss y'all at the Hop), and I entered a couple of my very first practice "Open" classes. Dad sat by the ring and taped my performance. Twice, I decided I had to leave Ma for a sec to go say hi to him. Apparently, that was not a good idea. (He just looked as if he could use a few licks.)
Here are a few of us, just hangin' between classes. I also had to do very long sits and downs - with Ma out of sight. On my down, I got up for a bit, then lay down again. Ooops. If you want to see me do a final Broad Jump exercise (with a bad front - oops), you can see it here. Then we were on to better things!
Here I is, waiting for some human to throw me my kong. Below is a collage of McInnis Park, where I go to play and also practice obedience a couple of times a week. It's a pretty nice place and close to my pad. Ma can park in the shade, so Avalon can hang in the car while we play... well...until the lil tyke is allowed to go on doggeh park grass (next week, I hope!).
Ooops - think there are two identical pix in that! And below, I'm getting ready to toss my kong at somebuddy's foot, hoping that they will throw it again heheh!
Here are some of my doggie pals - some of you is missing from this collage. Dumb Ma has forgotten some of your names and didn't get your pictures, although I tried to woof them to her.
Even though this wasn't a golden event, a lot of us seemed to have shown up!
It looks like Olivia and Roxie are trying to get the dogs away from Maureen!
Look at all the puppers who came! And so many of us were so hungry for those dogs too... well, most of us got yummy treats! Thanks so much for putting on this great party - we had a wonderful time!

Retirement Presents

Originally I was looking for Roy Strong's Destruction of Country Houses, but whenever I did find a copy it was $75.00 on up. I didn't want it that badly. I'll keep looking though. Part of the thrill for me is the hunt. Excess testosterone, I guess!
These two treasures came in the mail yesterday as part of a 'retirement present' I'm giving myself for 28 years of homeschooling our five children. I don't need a gold watch.

Scottish Election Sausage

I should have known better than to post something about the election. People have asked me to explain the British political system (Pamela and Alli, your curiosity is commendable) . That's like being asked to explain cricket. A visual aid is always good, so with the help of the Scottish election sausage, here goes:
The election sausage explains the political landscape in Scotland. The SNP is the Scottish National Party (nickname 'the snips'. Their leader is Alex Salmond, who is nicknamed 'Eck the Fish' - Eck is a Scottish diminutive of Alexander. Their deputy leader is a Nicola Sturgeon, thus pleasingly continuing the fish motif) They are a left-wing/social democratic party committed to Scottish independence from the rest of the UK (we have oil, I think is the basis of the argument). At the last general election they won the most seats in Scotland and now form a minority administration in the Scottish Parliament.
The Liberals are a UK wide social democratic party. They were one of the two main political parties in the UK until the Labour movement in the 1920's, when they were pushed into 3rd position. Recently they have had a resurgence, and are hoping for big gains this election, including in Scotland.
The Conservatives are our right wing party, but without for example a strong base in Christian groups as in the US. In favour of less state intervention, less European Union intervention in national affairs. Think Margaret Thatcher. They have only 1 of the 59 Scottish seats in the UK Parliament.
The Labour party is the current administration, centre left in terms of European definitions of left-wing. Not as left-wing as certain parts of the US media would have us believe.
And the Green Party is a left-wing environmentalist party which doesn't have any members of either the Scottish or UK parliaments (correct me if I'm wrong), but can make a strong local showing. Green politics is much bigger in continental Europe than here. **Edited to say that
Jacqui and Svenske Floyd have pointed out that the Greens have 2 seats in the Scottish Parliament. Which is shameful of me not to know, because I have voted Green in the past.**
Phew. On to parliaments. I'll have to speed up - I'm out of time for blogging! A referendum in 1997 led to the formation of a separate Scottish Parliament with its own members, separte from the United Kingdom Parliament in London. **Edited to say add that Wales has had an equivalent, in the National Assembly for Wales, since 1999.** The Scottish Parliament has certain powers devolved to it- among them agriculture, fisheries, environment, health, education, taxation (to an extent), legal system, economic development, sport, the arts...The UK Parliament has reserved powers which include defence, foreign affairs, social security and monetary stability. The reference to 'devolved cost' in the poster above is an in-joke about the devolution issue. And a 'porkie' is either a lie, or a pork sausage.
Just to stress - we have completely separate education and legal systems from the rest of the UK. Worth several posts in their own right.
That's it. Out of time. Please comment and fill in my woeful gaps.

10,000 hours of deliberate practice may just make perfect

During a discussion of why our shoelaces never stay tied, our sonJeremyinformed us that we've been tying them incorrectly all these years. Turns out we tie granny knots, not square knots. We had never thought about laces this way. This discovery required us to correct something we've been doing incorrectly for more than four decades--no small feat.

We immediately thought about the concept that it takes 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to become expert at any task. We first encountered this idea in the 2006 edition of the BCU Coaching Handbook, which states: "Practice makes permanent. Therefore poor practice will indeed make poor performance....If we are to produce high-level performers, we could be talking of up to 10,000 hours...to hit our genetic ceiling and produce performers who excel at their chosen sport."

This notion is actually based research by K. Anders Ericsson and Neil Charness, published in 1994 in the journal American Psychologist. In"Expert Performance: It's Structure and Acquisition," Ericsson and Charness analyze the results of their study of musicians. "By age 20, the top-level violinists in their study had practiced an average of more than 10,000 hours, approximately 2,500 hours more than the next most accomplished group of expert violinists and 5,000 hours more than the group who performed at the lowest level," they wrote. This is the only reference to 10,000 hours in that report, which emphasizes that diligence trumps innate talent even in areas like athletics and music performance.

It wasn't until Malcolm Gladwell published his best-selling book Outliers: The Story of Successin that the notion of 10,000 hours took off.

This wonderful infographic, created by nowsourcing.com on behalf of Zintro, visualizes Malcolm Gladwell's explanation of the 10,000-hour rule.

Soon the concept was extended to the acquisition of all kinds of expertise; a Harvard Business Review blogclaimed that it also applied to "collaborative knowledge work -- the type of expertise required to create, or lead, or grow a company," and quoted a article in the journal Performance Improvement that stated: "Deliberate practice--meaning drill-like practice under the direction of a coach--is key to developing expertise in sports and music. But working professionals and businesspeople typically have no time for practice. We propose deliberate performance as a type of practice that professionals and businesspeople can pursue while they work as a way to accelerate their progression to becoming experts."



And, of course, plenty of people disputedthe idea.Clearly, there's nothing magical about the exact number 10,000. But there's plenty of evidence that deliberate practice does improve performance, and that while some is good, more is better.

Which brings us back to the shoelaces. Learning to tie them correctly after years of poor practice is difficult. It requires conscious thought and deliberate practice to undo the deeply ingrained motor memory we have developed over the past 40 years. It reminds us of how hard it is for our students to become competent paddlers if they don't spend adequate time working on their skills in a methodical fashion. Deliberate practice, according to Ericsson, means "activities designed, typically by a teacher, for the sole purpose of effectively improving specific aspects of an individual's performance." Or, in kayaking terms, good coaching and lots of practice.

Back to Mitchell Lake Audubon

One of my very favorite nature Volksmarches in San Antonio is the Mitchell Lake Audubon wetlands. I go frequently because it is very close to our RV park and I always see a variety of wildlife. Bob came with me today. We walked 10K (6.2 miles) in two hours ten minutes which included stopping to spot and watch birds and taking photos.

What was so nice today is that the temperature took a plunge overnight. During the night we had very loud thunder, loud rain, and lightning. I remember waking up at 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. to rain pounding on the roof. Because San Antonio has had quite a bit of rain in the past three weeks, things are greening up beautifully. Walking today was pleasant with cooler air and light breezes. That's good because there isn't much shade on the Mitchell Lake walk.

First up on the critter-spotting radar was a nice-sized lizard on the railing leading up to the Visitor Center.

Texas spiny lizard

The first third of our walk we only saw mockingbirds, but once we got to the poulders (ponds), bird sightings were more frequent. When we signed in at the Visitor Center, we noted that a number of people had signed in for a Bird Tour. We weren't sure if they would still be out on the trails. Sure enough, they were. One of these days, I am going on the Bird Tour. They have one on the second Tuesday of the month.

We spotted quite a few different birds today. I asked the lady in the Visitor Center if the fall migration had started yet and she said no. I'm definitely coming back to look for unusual birds in a few weeks!

Semipalmated sandpiper (Calidris pusilla)

Least sandpiper.

The Bird Tour group below. If you have seen the movie "The Big Year" with Steve Martin, Jack Black and Owen Wilson, you will know that this photo shows bird-watchers in their element. It's a funny movie. If you haven't seen it, give it a shot. These people were not posing for me, I caught them doing what bird-watchers do.

The Bird Tour group.

American pelicans in flight formation.

American pelicans.

In the following photo, you can see a portion of the hundreds of birds hanging out in this poulder.

Great egrets, tri-colored heron, American avocets, coot.

Tri-colored heron.

Roseate skimmer dragonfly.

Cool-looking pods.

American pelicans in flight.

Black-necked stilts.

Least sandpipers.

Cute coot retreating.

American avocet.

American avocet.

Good comparison in differences between the black-necked

stilt versus the American avocet.

Adult scissor-tailed flycatcher.

Ground cover with tiny magenta flowers.

The beetle in the following photo was running across the ground. I was having a hard time getting a photo until he got up next to the rock where he stopped and froze in place. This black beetle is about 2" long.

Big black beetle (Calosoma macrum)

Laredo striped whiptail lizard.

I always get my nature fix walking the trails at Mitchell Lake. I hope you enjoyed the show.

After our walk, we rested and had lunch. I did the laundry, though Bob offered, but I knew he wanted to go to work for a bit.

And now for a couple of kitty photos...

We have totally conquered the mousy plaything.

So sweet. (Believe me, they weren't this quiet at 4:00 a.m.!)

The rest of this lovely Sunday Bob went to Random event center to see his son, Randall, and to talk to his boss. I stayed home and did chores: vacuumed, hand-washed delicate laundry, filled new hummingbird feeder, cleaned and filled the cardinal feeder with seed that is supposed to be bitter to squirrels (we'll see how that goes), and put some new Velcro in our laundry hamper to hold in the laundry bag.

In the evening, I watched "60 Minutes" and when Bob came home we watched "The Amazing Race" (with channel flipping for him to see bits of the Dodgers/Atlanta game).

I hope you had a good weekend too. Enjoy your week.

The end.

Travel Bug out.