Too bad the lady’s dead

I’m actually quite upset over this, voicing this to my neighbor in language not fit to post here.  She laughed because sometimes I surprise her, but we can and do talk about all issues.  I’m going to miss that when I move.

Most of you reading this will probably say, “Big deal.  It’s only a plant.”  But to me it is a big deal because this is the oldest plant I had.  I’ll give you a brief history of this lady’s tragic life.

I rescued her from the garbage room right after I moved to California in 1979.  She was small then and I’d have to dig through a ton of old pictures to find a photo, so I borrowed one from the net for this shot.

Elephants Foot

Believe me the box of old photos I have is one of those large dish packs that’s about twenty by twenty and three feet high.  I don’t have time for digging in there right now.  This was all before they invented the digital camera.  One day when I have spare time on my hands, I want to scan most of those pics into my computer.  However, there are so many I don’t know if I’ll ever have that much free time.

We lived in a condominium complex back then.  Our neighbor had thrown the plant in the garbage room wanting it to go out with the trash because she was tired of taking care of it.  She laughed when she saw it sitting on our patio.  “I wondered who would rescue that plant,” she said.

As time went on, we bought a house, moved, and repotted the plant.  It grew, obviously happy with its placement in the yard under some trees.  The root ball (body) increased from about six inches in diameter to about twenty-four inches in diameter.  Eventually it grew too tall, so we had to move it out a tad because it was touching the tree branches.  We repotted the lady several times over the twenty-five years we lived there.

When it came time to leave and move to the desert location we now occupy, I couldn’t leave her behind.  She towered over my head by then, obviously in love with California as much as I was.  The lady was specimen quality.  Everyone commented on her beauty.  So I loaded her, and other plants I wouldn’t leave behind, onto a trailer and a friend drove them to our new home.

Well the first catastrophe happened when the wind snapped her off about halfway down.  This occurred on the drive when she was on the trailer.  Poor girl.  I still have this top portion and intend to use it in an art project someday.

 This is the lady to the right of the door (in happier times a few years ago).  This was after she broke off twice and before the top froze causing her to sprout in other places.

The first winter we were here, she was caught up in the wind again, snapping her green bladed fronds off, leaving her about three feet high.  I felt terrible, but she wanted to live and started to sprout in funny places then.  At this time, I realized she was a lady, but a headless one now.  See the picture below.

 Elephants Foot - See her arms?

I’ve done my best with protecting her over the years.  In the desert where the weather is harsh and brutal, I kept her in the shade of the patio and close to the house.  I watered her good in the warm months and I always wrapped her well every winter.  In the spring, I trimmed off the old, dry fronds and new ones always sprouted – until this year.

But I wanted her to live.  I continued to water, talk to her, and didn’t give up all summer.  However, now it’s the end of August and there’s not one little sprouted green blade anywhere on her body.  I’m going to have to announce defeat this time and resign myself to the fact that she’s gone and has lost the battle with the elements.  That’s what I was spouting off to my neighbor about.  We had such a horrible winter with record-breaking temperatures and snow.

This is the poor lady after last years winter

 As goofy as this sounds, I feel like giving her a burial and not just hurling her over the back wall into the desert, or putting her in the can at the curb.  She’s been with me too many years for that kind of disposal.

I don’t want to live in a place where I have to cover plants and worry about their welfare ever again.  I’m done with that and I can’t wait to get the heck out of here.

Tara, the Hero Cat

By now, many of you have probably already seen this.  However, being the cat lover I am, I had to share.  This is amazing because this cat is so much smaller than the dog it’s taking on.  What would we do without our brave felines?  This is super cat to the rescue to save that little boy.  I’m sure the dog would have kept biting him.  He tried to pull the kid away until the cat intervened.

Click here to view the video from You Tube

This cat reminds me very much of the first cat I had as an adult.  Max was an attack cat always ready to protect me, bless his heart.  He was ready to go after anyone at the door unless I called him off.

Max

A Lizard in the Fireplace

This was the biggest event at my house today.  I didn’t get a lot accomplished toward the moving project because going after the lizard took quite some time.

Somehow, cats always know everything that’s going on in the house, even if we think they’re fast asleep.

 My baby Koki

This morning, Koki alerted us to the little rascal because she was pawing on the glass trying to get at it.  She loves the lizards.  My husband looks at it and tells me its dead, tucked in behind the glass.  I didn’t think so because I was dusting in that room yesterday and I would have noticed it.

Lizard from our photos

 This little fella was about half-grown.  I wish I’d gotten a picture, but of course, there was no time for that.  The picture posted here I got from our photos of past years, but it was this type of lizard.  We have lots of them around here in the summer.

After some debate on how to accomplish the task, whether it’s a rescue operation or something for the burial ground out back, we decided to take the fireplace apart.  At first, I tried to reach it with a paper towel as my husband tilted the glass out.  This didn’t work, as it wasn’t far enough out for me to reach the lizard, even with my skinny arm.  So I got the yardstick and we discovered that it was very much alive – only playing possum.  It runs under the fake logs in there as soon as I touch it.

So we started dismantling the fireplace, setting the pieces aside on the tile floor.  Once we got the logs out the lizard scrambled through a small hole in the side that I assume is the way he got in.  Or he could still be in there, between the rocks that circle the fireplace and the outside wall.  I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough.  For now, he’s still in there as far as I know.

Once he vanished, we set out to clean up all the parts that were dusty and that you can’t get to once the fireplace is intact.  After that, we had to figure out how to put everything back the way it came out.  This wasn’t as easy as taking it apart.  I think everything is that way, don’t you?

I wonder why this guy is even out of bed.  Why isn’t he hibernating, as the lizards do in the winter here?  It makes me think he’s hiding out in there this winter.  If that’s the case, I’m sure he’ll find his way out because he’s probably been in and out a dozen times already.

By the time this project was all done, it was too late to go back and tackle my sewing/craft room, which is what I had in mind when I got out of bed today.

Well there’s always tomorrow.

An Accident that Turned out Okay

  Hummingbird - Sunni's Photo's

We have large windows on the back of our house. From them, we can look out at the patio and the desert landscape beyond. Since we’ve lived here, many birds have hit the windows. Some of them fly off and others aren’t so lucky. The windows are low E and double pane because it is very hot here in the summers. We need all the help with the heat that we can get. We do have roller shades, but the windows are reflective and it looks like the desert to the birds, reflecting the scene behind out house.

Hummingbird - Sunni's Photo's

A couple of days ago, two hummingbirds were playing chasing each other as they darted back and forth, landing on the feeder and then the trees. They were having a gay time when they both hit the window. As always, we hated to see that happen. Usually other birds hit the windows. I always wonder if I’ll have to dig another grave. It takes the birds a bit to come around. They sit there awhile until they steady themselves and get oriented again. I’m sure they’re wondering what just happened to them.

Hummingbird - Sunni's Photo's

We both went outside after one of the hummingbirds flew off. The other was lying there askew, so my husband picked it up. After another couple of minutes, it started to wiggle a bit and then sat up. I ran and got the camera to get these shots. We both touched it and it was so soft. It sat staring at us the whole time. My husband says, “It’ll probably poop on my hand.” I just laughed, glad that it was okay as it wiggled a bit more and gradually made its way to his fingertips. A couple minutes later, it flew off to the bird feeder where it sat awhile before flying into the desert.

Hummingbird - Sunni's Photo's

I wanted to share this story. The only other time we’ve been that close to one of the hummers is when we rescued one that was stuck in an open house we visited years ago. Someone left the front door open and it flew in and to the big window where we found it. It didn’t know how to get out. My husband grabbed it by the beak. The little thing was wearing itself out from flapping its wings so hard to fly away, so it wasn’t that hard to grab. We let it go at the front door, glad that we came by because it probably would have died in there.