The News from South Philly

...except when it isn't. But today it's sunny, with temperatures forecast to be in the Fifties.

The Tucson Kid, from his hotel room at the Marriott where he's putting the finishing touches on his presentation, is complaining bitterly about the arctic cold and the absence of leaves on the trees here. I remind him that leaves come out on or about his birthday, something I really noticed when I brought him home from the hospital to a green and leafy world.

Kind of weird knowing he's a mile down the road, has been since last night, and I haven't seen him yet. But he should pay attention to his meetings and then play with Mom later.

The first Nopalxochia flower is going all squishy the way finished flowers do. Theoretically it will become a fat red fruit. This seems unlikely to me, given that there were no other flowers to pollinate it, but we'll see. I'll cut off the fruit if it does materialize.

I think I see signs of swelling at the base of the hippeastrum flowers I fertilized the other day. But last year, when I tried this in reverse (with Ma serving as Pa, so to speak), the seedpods swelled and then deflated, so we'll see.

Ferko seems to have settled into a pattern of peeing in her kitty litter, crapping on the carpet/floor. Since her solids are quite solid, that's not much of a hardship to clean up.

Yesterday I swept up the 1"-thick layer of birdseed hulls and winter debris from part of the "patio" area of my minuscule backyard. Today I plan to finish the job, so that when daughter-in-law comes to take the peach and crabapple trees to a Far Better Place she won't get squicked out.

I don't know how I feel about seeing my face in the user icon. I don't plan to make it my default.

It's a warm day. When I went downstairs for lunch, I got my first urge to start sweeping up the winter's layer of birdseed hulls and generally tidy up.

The peach, maple, and crabapple are all budding. I will need to contact my daughter-in-law so that she takes the peach tree off to what is sure to be a better home before it gets rolling.

I felt around in the peony pot and am reassured that there are new shoots on the way.

It's warm enough that I set out my three small pots of rosemary and my bay tree so they can get a little more light this afternoon. I will have to bring them in last night.

In a move I will probably regret next spring, I attempted to pollinate the Trader Joe amaryllis with pollen from the Pathmark amaryllis. If that works, I'll be shoved out of house and home by the things.

I saw three fungus gnats in close proximity when I went down to look at the coleus. I don't like that. It means that there is fungus gnat romance in the air, to be followed by directly by a fungus-gnat population explosion. Biological warfare will be called for: I hope that the bacillus thuringensis stuff I've got is still potent. Double strength doses all around!

Next week I think I'll start some basil, and perhaps a couple Supersonic tomatoes.

A flower opening from the first seedling hippeastrum to bloom. So far, it's looking good.

It took an awfully long time to go from sprout to bloom, though; six weeks. And there is no foliage emerging from the bulb. I wonder what will happen next.