Actual pictures and stuff.

The weather is mostly clear with high and low puffy clouds so a wonderful aftermath to the cloudy rain days. Took the scraps down that was loaded with potato peels, bell pepper scraps (including seeds) and eggshells and onion skins.

 

I realized my mistake when I saw the bell pepper seeds. Well, if they grow that will be fantastic and a bit weird as I don't know where to plant them that's safe. Also the garlic clove I planted is shooting up nicely and the other lady has planted some odd things.

 

That stick on the right. WTF? It looks like it could be a branch from one of the trees...maybe a branch from a fig tree.. but.. there's no room for that and I will call it a miracle if it starts to sprout and will warn her then. This is not an orchard, nor do you want a tree there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So yeah, random cuttings just dug into the ground, the (possible) fenugreek seedlings are coming up and then there's my garlic which has tripled it's height since I planted it four days ago. If the peppers sprout I'll probably dig them in to that bed despite it being more shaded it might be better.

And then there's the other surprise. I mentioned the little hummer that built a nest at the bottom of the stairs?

She's got 2 eggs now! I took Rocky out for a walk and paused at the landing there and heard her wings really close then realized why. She was no more than two feet from my head making sure I didn't do anything to her nest. As soon as I walked on she watched us, flew into the Bougainvillea then dipped back out to sit on the nest.

I remember every spring at the nursery looking for the new nests from the hummers. All the various places they could put them, some really close to where people would be and others just a tad out of the way. I hope to get progress pictures as the days go by and watch them hatch and fledge out. (I'm frankly surprised at how good the picture of the eggs turned out.)

The compost is really wet, here's hoping we get some dry days for a while but considering it's in the shade it's going to take more than a few days for it to lose some of that moisture. There's also a good amount of dirt that's been pushed up by the gophers which doesn't help. I'm hoping that between the leaves and all the scraps I'm putting on it, by mid summer it might be some decent soil to work back into the bed next to it. Stirring it every time I add more material because otherwise the scraps would attract flies. I trimmed my hair the other day (a lot) and remembered something said you could put hair in there as long as it wasn't treated with anything. Nah... that just seems wrong but I understand why it's okay. I would rather put it out in a holder of some sort for the birds to use for nesting materials.

I am lucky that at this time of year we have the weather that keeps some birds all year round and continuing the life cycle despite what the calendar says. The parrots came in this morning and hung around making noise for a good hour or so. I still wasn't dressed yet so had to suffice with looking out  my window to see where they were. They quieted for a moment until one of the hawks came swooping in to the tree and they all made a ruckus again and flew off.

This being January, we may end up having an early spring at this rate. We might get a little more rain but the best cycle would be three days of rain, three days off and so on. But that would have to happen for months to fill some of our ground water a little. Snow pack is good for that as well and that is still below normal for this time of year.

The weather is changing, not for the good unfortunately but we will have to adapt in order to continue doing what we need to do.