Bud Break and Delicate Flowers

Postings have been thin on the ground around here, mostly because we’ve been slaves to the weather. Just when it seemed we were nearing 40 days and 40 nights of torrential rain, we moved into overdrive on all our San Francisco projects. Because, when and if Spring ever came, we’d already be behind up in Sonoma. Best to clear the decks now for the rush to come.

By the way, when I say we’ve been having rain, I mean serious rain. Even John the Baptist hasn’t been able to work in the monsoons we’ve been having — and John will brave anything. Needless to say, I’ve been doing no Spring planting at Flying Terrier Farms.

Finally we donned foul weather gear and spent a miserable Sunday slogging around the place checking on all the flood control systems and the vines. The terriers and I planned to stay on up here through the week as the weather service said we’d get five days of sunshine before the next big storm blew in for a week. (Andy was unable to attend due to an important business trip ski trip planned in the French Alps!) But when the weather service said we’d get a break, they really gave us a break.

We went from dressing like this...

...and nearly losing terriers in rapids...

...and at waterfalls like this...

To THIS on Monday!

Not only did we get sunshine, but the temperature went shooting up until today when some reports say it hit 92. Even as the sun went down, the temperatures were still well into the 60s, which is unusual even at the height of summer. So it’s been a hive of activity around here, certainly on the human front as I’ve been rushing to get as much Spring planting done as possible. And, since I can actually open the barn doors and don’t need to huddle inside by the woodstove, well, why not do a thorough Spring cleaning there as well? Might as well tackle as much as possible as some weather reports have another series of storms set to blow in by this weekend.

John the Baptist reappeared and began rushing his crews through all the Spring maintenance and planting. Perhaps in the spirit of Spring and the emerging wildflowers, John has even made a bold and unexpected move. As he describes it, he’s broken the Testosterone Barrier by bringing on a two-gal team to handle some of the regular plant maintenance.

Meet Amber and Andrea. John calls them "The A Team".

They may look decorative, but they aren’t any delicate flowers. They were handling shovels and pick axes right along-side the guys!

So I’ll end by showing you some actual delicate flowers since we are right on the cusp of a massive wildflower bloom here:

This one is called, suprisingly enough, Five Spot.

I've forgotten the name of this one already. But it's purple.

This may be our first Mule Ear flower of the Spring.

And speaking of rare blooms, how about this one?

It's a George in a Bush!

We thought he was gone forever, but Little Oscar’s beloved George W. Bush chew toy has been found. I suspect the County road crews found him floating down the creek and thoughtfully stuck him up in a chemise bush for us.

So, with the clouds parted, we've all found our silver lining.