Good morning, and here's to a picture perfect Christmas.  Welcome to Saturday Morning Garden Blogging.

On Tuesday, Denver's weather turned from the 59° high of the previous day, to cold and... SNOW.

We had light snow falling on and off through Christmas Eve — only about six inches, just enough to provide a beautiful and pristine crystal blanket.

It's been cold, with lows hovering around 0°, and the highs for the last two days in the low to mid 20s.  But the roads were clear yesterday for those who travel on Christmas.

As I said — a picture perfect Christmas.

This is the third posting of my annual Christmas message

As I've wallowed in Christmas music the last couple of weeks, I've pondered the traditions of the Christmas story; and I've come to a conclusion.

Mary was shafted.

There she is, 8+ months pregnant, having been dragged all over Israel on the back of a fucking donkey.  I know that when I was 8 months pregnant, I had a hard time riding for two hours in a car to attend my father-in-law's funeral.

And men just do not understand how often one has to pee when there's a baby sitting on one's bladder, especially when one is being jiggled by travel.  Do you think Joseph cheerfully stopped every 15 minutes for a potty break, heaving Mary on and off the donkey with nary a complaint?  I mean, he didn't even get the fun of the conception.  That had to have had an effect on his equanimity during the pregnancy.

Update [2009-12-21 19:49:15 by Frankenoid]: Jeff Lieber has posted his companion piece: I've Just Discovered My Wife Has Been Unfaithful

Good morning, and are you ready?  Welcome to Saturday Morning Garden Blogging.

Denver's weather has returned to normal, with highs in the 40s and 50s, and lows in the 20s.  Depending on which forecast one looks at, we have a chance of snow mid-week; it would really nice to get a light snowfall Thursday evening.

Meanwhile, after delays caused by cold and colds, I managed to get the necessaries for Christmas accomplished this week.  Wednesday was my last chance to have Da Boys out of the house and at school, and, after a bit of shopping, I spent the day cramming presents into boxes and throwing paper around them.

Caligula thought it all was great fun.  Not only were there boxes to jump in and out of, and bubble wrap to carry off (along with a roll of Scotch tape!); he found battle with rolls of wrapping paper to be most invigorating.  Here he is planning the next assault.

Good morning, and We're All In This Together.  Welcome to Saturday Morning Garden Blogging.

That was some storm system, huh?  Especially as it hit almost every part of the country — a shared experience.  Here in Colorado we missed most of the snow (we got a few inches), but we were hit with a week of extreme cold.

On Wednesday I was either a very good, or very bad, mother.  Our official low was /-17°.  I didn't have to go work.  Da Boys did have school — riding public transportation, each with one transfer.  The buses tend to run slow during bad weather and, during extreme cold, are usually over-crowded and may skip stops if the bus is full.

I thought about driving Elder Son to school, and having the Mister take Younger Son.  But there was no way in hell I was voluntarily going out in cold like that.  Especially as they had only a half-day of school.

So I kept them at home, calling them in "too damned cold to go to school".

Good morning, and whaddaya mean it's December already?  Welcome to Saturday Morning Garden Blogging.

After our unseasonably warm Thanksgiving, Denver went into December with ccccold!  On Tuesday night cold front rolled in, and Tuesday's low and Wednesday's high were the same: 21°.  Thursday, the high was 17°, and lows have dipped below zero.

The cold abated a bit yesterday, getting above freezing... but we're getting slammed again tomorrow, with a it of snow and highs in the teens predicted.  Cold weather is forecast to continue through at least mid-week.

But Monday when I came home from work I was momentarily confused at the crocus blooming in the front beds.  I'd forgotten that I'd finally managed to slam the fall-blooming crocus into the ground earlier in November and, despite the delayed planting, they bloomed.

Last week I posted Annals of Anality: Knitting Lyra, about my discovery of the lace knitting^* patterns of Herbert Niebling and my plan to knit one of his most infamous patterns, Lyra.

I've passed the first hurdle, so here's an update, along with some of the tricks I've learned over the years.

^*Speaking of anality, did you know there is a technical difference between "lace knitting" and "knit lace"?  In "lace knitting", every-other row or round is knit plain: a pattern or chart will only have odd (or even) numbered rows.  In "knit lace", every row is a pattern row.

Good morning, and may you have had a storied Thanksgiving.  Welcome to Saturday Morning Garden Blogging.

Denver (and Pueblo) had spectacular weather for Thanksgiving.  Temperatures have been in the upper 60s — or higher — for the last several days: yesterday at the weather station nearest our house, the thermometer hit 75°. It doesn't matter for record keeping purposes, as our "official" weather (69° yesterday) is read at Denver International Airport, 30 miles away from Denver, and under a different weather pattern.

A cold front rolls in today and temperatures will drop into the 40s and 50s — the normal range.

The orchid was grown by my mother-in-law: she says she doesn't do anything to get hers to bloom.  Just buys cheap plants at the grocery store, plops them in her west-facing window, and waters them.

On my user page, the "bio" section reads: she of many interests and little time.

True, dat.  I'm interested in lots and lots of things; one reason I never went back to school to get a law degree is that I decided that I didn't want so much of my time taken up by a "career".

Because I am interested in so many things, my pursuit of those interests tends to rotate.  I'll spend months or years totally immersed in one type of activity or another, only to put it aside for months or years as other of my interests occupy my time, then have my interest piqued again by some new input into an old pursuit, and return.

So it goes.  And such has happened.

I saw a magazine on ebay, and discovered the artistry of Herbert Niebling.

Good morning, and now comes the dark time.  Welcome to Saturday Morning Garden Blogging.

We had a really nice warm-up here in Denver, after the 10" or so of snow dropped last weekend.  By Tuesday we'd gotten to the 50s, and yesterday the high was 58°.

Today is forecast to be just as warm, although a bit of a cool down is on the menu — nothing drastic, just going down into the more normal 40s.  Luckily no weather excitement is predicted for Thanksgiving when we make the annual trek down to Pueblo to the Mister's family.

But we're now in that time of year when it's light late and dark early.  These two months from late November to late January, when the sun doesn't rise until 7:00 and sets before 5:00; when Arctic Blasts keeping temperatures hovering around 0° (or lower) for day; are so very hard for a gardener.

But Zasu enjoys sitting in what sunshine we get — I'd like to put a plant where she's sitting, but the pooties won't tolerate the plants getting all the good spots!

Good morning, and it's a miracle!  Welcome to Saturday Morning Garden Blogging.

Well, actually a couple of miracles.

First, I managed to get every single fucking spring bulb into the ground!  Denver had a string of lovely days, with highs creeping into the 70s on Wednesday and Thursday.  Starting last weekend, I took my trusty drills and bulb augers out to the front yard, and started drilling holes and plugging them with bulbs.  On Wednesday I put in a big push, and, after mowing the lawn, spent the time between the morning warm-up and the afternoon cool-down putting hundreds (yes, that's right, hundreds of beauties out.  By day's end, everything but a few dozen crocuses for the back lawn patch were planted.

The second miracle?  As I was planting daffodils in front of the front porch, I discovered that somewhere, very late in the season, the passionflower vine I thought was gone had undergone resurrection.  And I also discovered a volunteer passionflower.

Good morning, and where does the time go?  Welcome to Saturday Morning Garden Blogging.

Denver recovered rapidly from the snow dump of a week ago: by Halloween evening the snow was gone from the southern exposures and the path was clear for massive numbers of trick-or-treaters to clomp up our front steps, ignore the doorbell and pound on the door.

For the past few days we've been hovering at near record highs at the airport: 77° on Thursday and 75° on Friday.  In Denver proper we were several degrees warmer.  Overnight lows have likewise been warm, not even descending to the 40s.

Today and tomorrow will be a touch cooler, but still lovely fall days — and the warmth earlier this week dried out the soil enough such that I'll be able to get at least some of the spring bulbs into the ground.  I think I'll concentrate on those really pricey bulbs from Old House Gardens first.

Good morning, and the battle is joined.  Welcome to Saturday Morning Garden Blogging.

Nature, apparently, has joined in the War on Halloween and Expansion of Christmas in Denver this week.  It's bad enough that at the grocery store candy canes and Halloween candy were on display side-by-side, but a foot and a half of snow, falling over two days, was a little much.

The slower-than-usual rate of the snowfall (inches per hour over far fewer hours is more typical for these major dumps) meant that we didn't have problems with power outages caused by heavy snow accumulating on still-leaved trees, as frequently happens when Denver has heavy October snows.

I'm not sure, however, how my new daphne bush fared: between the natural snowfall, the snow falling off the lilac bush above it, and Da Boys dumping shoveled snow on top of it, it was well buried and what is peeping out from the pile looks well squished.  We'll see in a day or two how many broken branches there are.

(Photo from Regretsy)

Good morning, and I didn't take any photos this week.  Welcome to Saturday Morning Garden Blogging.

Once again this week, our weather has bobbed around all over to hell and back.  On Sunday the high was 84° — my gardening was interrupted, however, as the Polish Princess and I checked out a treadle sewing machine (it's my Christmas present for her).

On Wednesday it only got to 37°, with clouds and a constant drizzle of rain/snow mix, so no gardening that day.

Today is forecast to be in the mid 60s; however I'll have little opportunity to finish digging the dahlias and glads as I'm going to a baby shower this afternoon: johne, head of the Colorado Chocolate Fountain Caucus (and Denver's Drinking Liberally chapter) and his lovely wife Julie are expecting their first baby.

Good morning, and we will now return to our regularly scheduled programming.  Welcome to Saturday Morning Garden Blogging.

Last weekend's cold snap was one for the record books: two record lows (17° and 18°) and a record low maximum temperature (26°).

On the books it looks like we were out of it on Wednesday when the recorded high temperature was 69°.  Unfortunately it didn't feel like 69°, as we had persistent cloud cover and fog (fog!  In Denver!) for most of the day.  Man, I really hate high humidity.

It felt much warmer yesterday, with no clouds and no fog and the high at only 65°.

And this weekend will be perfect for assessing the damage: today will be sunny and in the upper 60s, and Sunday we may break another record on the other end of the spectrum: the forecast is for a high of 82° and the record high for October 18 is 84°.

Guess I'll find out if my dahlia tubers, tuberose bulbs and begonia rhizomes froze, or if they can be collected and stored for next year.

I was sitting at my desk at work early Tuesday morning when the phone rang.

It was about 7:00 a.m. — the time when the Mister is getting Younger Son out the door to catch the bus to school.

The Mister was annoyed.  "Do you know where Ian’s wallet is?  It has his bus pass in it and he’s freaking out".

There not being a lot I could do to locate a missing wallet from my office in downtown Denver, I offered the obvious: "did you check the pants he wore to school yesterday?"

"Yes — he was wearing the green camouflage pants, right?"

"No... remember, he changed into those pants after he spilled something on his gray pants.  Did you check the gray pants?"

"And where the hell are they!?!"

"Well, either by the washing machine or by the shower — one of the two places he always puts his clothes after he takes them off"

When I got home Tuesday evening, the wallet was still missing.  So I started, but only started, to search — it was in the first and last place I tried: in plain view, sitting on Younger Son’s desk, in front of his computer monitor.

Good morning, and brrrrrr.  Welcome to Saturday Morning Garden Blogging.

Denver's weather has yo-yoed this week; highs have ranged from the 60s to the 30s, official lows going into the high 20s — in Denver proper, we've had frost on car windows, but until this morning, no killing frost.

But overnight, our first Arctic Express arrived, and this weekend promises to be cccold.  When I got up this morning it was 19° and the forecast high may not break freezing.

It's an El Niño year — weird stuff can happen.  Don't know if we'll have an October blizzard as we did in the El Niño year of 1997 — but it could happen.

This is really early for a blast of Arctic air — which means (thank gawd) that we won't be dipping into sub-zero temperatures.  Yet.

But, in anticipation of the freeze, yesterday afternoon I went out and cut all the catnip (the catnip went wild with our wet summer weather), and now the pooties are having a high ol' time crawling over, under, around and through The Big Rock Catnip Mountain.

Good morning, and the frost is on the vines.  Welcome to Saturday Morning Garden Blogging.

Denver had its official first frost early Friday morning — about a week earlier than average.  At the airport the official low was measured at 26°; in my neighborhood it barely froze — but 32° was enough to freeze the top layer of squash and cucumber vines.  The tomatoes weren't damaged at all, nor were the nicotiana or other tender annuals.

October in Denver is like a box of chocolates: you never know what you're going to get, and can whipsaw between heat and cold with great rapidity.  Blizzards can happen — as can highs in the 80s.  Sometimes big snowfalls follow on the heels of balmy weather: on 10/2/69 it was 85°, on 10/3/69 and 10/4/69 it snowed 15".  On October 15, 1984 the "Bronco's blizzard" occurred: the nation watched on Monday Night Football as 4" of snow coated the field by game's end — the total snowfall was over a foot, and the ski resorts rejoiced.

Good morning, and rumors of our wintry weather have been greatly exaggerated.  Welcome to Saturday Morning Garden Blogging.

It has been a bizarre weather week here in Denver; even more bizarre is turning on the teevee and seeing reportage of an alleged snowfall.

It did not snow in Denver.  It snowed somewhere to the east, west and south — at least, flakes fell from the sky and some of it stuck to the ground temporarily.

Yes, it's been cool, cloudy and rainy all week.  Yes, we've had rain every day since last Sunday (really strange for September).  Yes, lows dipped down into the upper 30s — in anticipation I hauled all my tropical plants in for the cold season (and the brugmansia is very unhappy about it).

But that's a far cry from the Denver snowstorm showing on the national news: the pictures were from the foothills, 20 miles west and 1,000 feet higher than Denver.  Hereabouts, when it comes to weather, three things matter: altitude, altitude and altitude.