Wordless Wednesday: bamboo is back!

 

Wordless Wednesday: some guys look like they made it, some not

 

More about our time in the national news...

Although the political and financial fallout from our record-setting week continues apace (see the comparisons with older records in the graph above—WOW!) our temperature is back to normal early spring levels, thank goodness.

But I thought you might find it entertaining to see evidence of a couple of our mitigation efforts undertaken during the freeze, which, I might add, were largely successful in keeping our pipes from bursting. Our major mitigation effort involved putting a small portable heater under the house, aimed at the pipes supplying the only faucet that ever stopped working for us. After a while under this heat treatment, happily, the water returned. But it involved my having to get under the house to turn the heater on; the resident of our house who normally would undertake this chore has developed a rather severe case of claustrophobia in his old age and couldn't even think about doing this, but for me it was a piece of cake. Here I am venturing down behind the refrigerator

You also have to realize that the windows and doors in our almost-90-year-old-house were never designed to keep these kinds  of temperatures out. Walking past a door to the outside that we hardly ever use, I was struck by the coldness seeping in around the edges. So I improvised this ridiculous-looking insulation...

It did seem to slow the flow of cold air somewhat!

The north-facing windows in the house are particularly drafty when the wind comes from that direction...like in a historical cold snap. Here's what one of them looked like on the inside, as I awoke on the coldest morning:

Fortunately, we had some melting during the days, even when, according to the chart above, we didn't quite get above freezing. That made for some cool icicle displays...

Now that things are sort of back to normal, what is currently most eye-catching is the widespread damage done to ornamental plants in yards around my neighborhood. I can't help but think that some of this stuff isn't going to come back. This is our front yard:

On my walk yesterday I even saw a hedge of freeze-damaged bamboo; I thought that stuff could withstand anything!

Our nandina, whose berries were so cutely encased in ice before, are showing some signs of damage. But I hope they can recover...

The cruelest aspect of all, however, is that no matter how dead everything else looks, this pesky, sticky stuff (see the bright, cheerful green below) seems to have thrived on the chill. I know I've learned what this is called before, but can't remember it. It goes wild in the yard about this time of year and is very irritating to gloveless gardeners' hands. I was so hoping it would be knocked out by the freeze...oh, well, maybe the roaches were?

Wordless Wednesday: Jack Frost

 

Wordless Wednesday: Frosty!

 

The pretty parts of our hellish week

Looking up our street Monday morning

Yes, we had a week like none ever in my lifetime here in [usually] balmy San Antonio. Today, however, it's 70 degrees out and all the snow and ice is gone. Wild, huh? 

We hear that almost everybody has their power back (now that they don't really need it to keep from freezing) as well as their water. So the whole nightmare is beginning to seem somewhat unreal; especially since we're among the lucky ones that have no busted pipes to inconvenience us.

It seems especially as I look out the window today and then at my computer screen where I've assembled some of the favorite pictures I took of the most unusual scenes. I'll go into more detail later, but for now, enjoy the beauty of things-usually-never-covered-in-snow-now-covered-in-it...

I love tree limbs with snow, they look even more beautiful than usual

thick white on our palmetto and hosta,
both of which came through the deep freeze just fine

grass peeping through on Tuesday, after a little melting

our nandina berries in their own little sacs:
re-frozen meltwater from the roof

Looking back

I know I haven't written a new blog in ages, but I do have something of a good excuse.

I've had the subject of today's post in mind since we took this short hike on Christmas day. But by putting it off during that next week, I unwittingly consigned it to an early February submission. Just a bit over a week after the hike, Henry and I both tested positive for covid. We were very, very fortunate (especially for old people) to have relatively mild cases. But the anxiety that the positive test kicks into high gear, coupled with a rather annoying persistence of fatigue, has made thinking about something as productive as blogging well nigh impossible for the past several weeks.

But although I'm not completely back to "normal" I do finally feel up to sharing our Christmas Mission Reach stroll with you.

We started off at Confluence Park, which has been completed since our last visit. (In fact, the long length of time since we'd seen this section of the river was our main impetus for heading there on this lovely Christmas afternoon: we knew the whole area would look much different than the last time we'd seen it.)

As you can see above, the park's pavilion is quite impressive, with broad steps leading down to the walk along the river. And our wonderful river is always worth re-visiting. Here's a panoramic view looking upstream...

Notice the watercraft chute that provides a fun and easy way to traverse that little rapid. When spring is a bit more advanced, we'll have to return to the Mission Reach with our boats! (See pix from a previous paddling outing here.)

There's always an abundance of waterfowl on display since the river has been de-channelized, and there are a couple of handsome fellows in this picture, but unfortunately my little camera doesn't have the kind of lens that would make them easily visible. I mainly took this shot because I was taken with the human-made geometric visual interest. The bridge that takes you over this drainage gives you quite a nice vantage point to admire these features. They're no doubt functional, but I rather just like the way they look...

And I always like the reflections of sun on water...and both were in abundance on this day:

I hope my energy will continue to return so that I can get out and about and find more sights to share with you as 2021 progresses.