The tulips were a Valentine day present for Nancy from Chris. The reason for the picture is to show the miraculous recovery. They came in a dry box along with the vase and instructions for handling that included cutting a piece off each stem while under warm, running water. And there were several packages of powder to be added to the vase. We untied the bands around the bunches, placed them in the vase and noticed immediately that they were in sad shape. All drooped over so the blossoms were actually touching the table. Nancy called Chris and told him how beautiful they were and decided not to mention the droop problem. By 10 PM last night, one lone white guy in the middle was perked up and I’m trying to figure a way to prop them up to take a picture so they would look alive. Overnight the powder worked it’s magic and they were all standing up nice and perky. So I got the picture I wanted without faking it. That powder must have been tulip viagra.
But I have another plant problem and no magic powder. The weather forecasters are guessing a hard freeze Friday night and Saturday morning. The last forecast was wrong but this one looks more serious. And for us this time it’s a big deal since the grapefruit trees have broken out in new foliage and blossoms. I can deal with losing the tangerines; I can deal with losing the guavas; in fact I can deal with losing damn near anything that’s not tough enough to make it but …………… not the grapefruit. A threatened freeze last year wasn’t a big deal because the trees were small enough that I could cover them and save the greyhound crop. Now they’re too tall to cover. I guess I could break out the generator and get an electric heater but that seems a bit over the top – doesn’t it???? A bonfire is out of the question.
On the health front – Nancy is fully recovered from a bout of food poisoning that started last Thursday night about 10 PM and didn’t really back off until Monday. Nice weekend for her. Tonight is Brian’s Barbecue night, the scene of last Thursday’s dinner so I’m wondering if Nancy will order the ribs again. There were three of us that all ate the same thing and she was the only casualty so maybe it was from the calzone she had at lunch. If it was the ribs, it came on a bad night – all the ribs you can eat night. There were giant rib platters flying out of the kitchen. We just had a small luncheon portion so I’m thinking that it would be unlikely that Nancy scored the one and only bad rib among the thousands being served if in fact it was the ribs. So I’ll be watching closely before I order to see if the ribs platters are sailing out of the kitchen or if there’s a switch to pulled pork sandwiches. Or if we’re the only customers.
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