{"id":97051,"date":"2021-01-05T13:51:10","date_gmt":"2021-01-05T17:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/?p=97051"},"modified":"2021-01-05T16:28:53","modified_gmt":"2021-01-05T20:28:53","slug":"clippings-january-5-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/?p=97051","title":{"rendered":"clippings January 5, 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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the castor beans are as high as the 8′ back fence<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Happy New Year news: We’re waitlisted for a corgi puppy with an Oregon breeder! The arrangement seems nebulous at best, but it’s the closest we’ve come to envisioning life with another dog since Ein shared his life with us, our Cowboy Beeboppin’ friend, so I count that as progress. We’re already trying out names, and Max is at the top of the list, which works for both Maxine and Maxwell…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Oregon in December, somewhere on Highway 22 to the coast, over a holiday road trip to visit family. Yes, we were lockdown escapees but never relaxed vigilance, never ventured out maskless. My biggest fear was a car accident would lead to hospitalization with no ICU beds available, but once we got out of LA County that fear lessened.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

How is everyone? 2020 was one of those rare great leveler years, where no one escaped unscathed, and yet individual experiences and tolerances varied tremendously — from bereft to bankrupt. And despite a long-standing aversion to sharing too many<\/em> personal details here, 2020 has convinced me that it’s important to make a record of how we all coped. I think Marty and I had it relatively easy with 2020’s isolation, because we needed the quiet to heal, so it didn’t feel like a deprivation. Those of you who have had family in nursing homes and were unable to visit and ease their last months have both our sympathy and heart-sore empathy. The circumstances of a loss like that cut very deep, and it’s taken us a while to process. And then the strangeness of having emergency surgery during a pandemic and seeing firsthand how hospitals are under siege, and this was in May! (TMI warning: weeks after the stitches should have been removed, I had to call and ask the overworked, deeply apologetic staff, Isn’t it time these came out?<\/em> Due to pandemic pandemonium, I was “lost to followup” — face-to-face visits were not easy to arrange even then, in May. A minor quibble considering their life-saving services, and I mention this only to affirm that pushing hospitals to their breaking point is a very bad idea — and currently in LA we’re past the breaking point.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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on the first road trip since 2018, early morning frost was a dazzling sight<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But what I do miss is…conversation. Off-screen, rambling, riffing, free-form, grabbing-a-shoulder-in-emphasis conversation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Aloe capitata var. quartziticola<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Back in Los Angeles, aloes are throwing blooms — including in my garden ‘Moonglow,’ ‘Tangerine,’ ‘Jacob’s Ladder.’ <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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nursery flats discourage raccoons from digging up newly planted lily bulbs under Sonchus palmensis<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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More albuca are on their way via the Huntington’s Winter Wonder Bundle — not that I’m collecting them or anything! Already in the garden is the giant Albuca maxima, photo below, blooming in April, plus these two potted above, Albuca spiralis and namaquensis, back left, foreground right respectively<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Just above Mangave ‘Silver Fox,’ one of five Carex ‘Everillo’ added in amongst bromeliads and succulents under Grevillea ‘Moonlight.’ Peachy rosette is Ursulaea tuitensis, lemon yellow on the right possibly Aechmea blanchetiana — what can I say? I needed some color this winter<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Plantings continue to be tweaked, raccoons continue their nocturnal digging, and daylight slowly lengthens again. Wishing you the most dazzling gardens in 2021 and endlessly rambunctious, face-to-face, side-splitting conversation!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Happy New Year news: We’re waitlisted for a corgi puppy with an Oregon breeder! The arrangement seems nebulous at best, but it’s the closest we’ve come to envisioning life with another dog since Ein shared his life with us, our … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[2281,550],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paNJ2E-pfl","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97051"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=97051"}],"version-history":[{"count":61,"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97051\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97114,"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97051\/revisions\/97114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=97051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=97051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=97051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}