Many of the standard plants that have been sold for years down here have been failing because of the extended cold that we are now experiencing, as well as the increase in rain year round. We have even had years without acorns because the cycle for the oaks have been interrupted.

Given the lack of water, it seemed incumbent upon me to replace the most water-thirsty parts of my landscaping with something that could tolerate long periods without water. Actually, there wasn’t anything planted in that flower bed when I moved in. I put the ice plants there with the vague idea they wouldn’t need a lot of care and were perennials so I wouldn’t need to be digging in the flower bed all the time. I guess I was right.

Ice plants were the ground cover of choice for the freeways in San Diego, but I never saw them flower. They might be a different variety.

Prickly pear is about the only succulent that survives around here, even then, only in almost pure sand.

I can imagine the irrigation being a hassle, but you do what you have to.

Be happy Esther doesn’t take over your bed when you go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. That has happened to me a couple of times lately with Property and Excise.

The flowers like it though…

Regarding the saline irrigation, the real problem is that it’s time consuming and annoying compared to popping a Zyrtec. So I prefer not to do it unless I have to do it. But it’s now what I do before resorting to Sudafed.

We’re having crazy things like a 35°F temp shift within a calendar day, and yes, it was forecast to freeze here yesterday (?) but the 3-day history from NWS shows it did not. As with your rain, Bryan, it might as well have frozen here, for how cold it felt subjectively.

Oh, and having been invited up to my easy chair once in the middle of last night, Esther has now commandeered the chair for her own exclusive use… sweet cat until you try to displace her from a warm chair!

I’ll try the saline, which I haven’t done in a very long time – it can’t hurt.

I look at the long range forecasts, Hipparchia, and it really looks like we are shifting back to the normal temps for at least the next week after this clears out. Previously we have been shifting between warm and cold for three days at a time. I think Excise’s allergies are worse than mine. I just wish he would stop sneezing on my screen.

The azaleas are budding and the robins are being annoying, so Spring is arriving.

and when the cats aren’t all huddled up into a mass of cat-warmth to fight off the cold, they’re all sneezing at the pollen. sometime they’re all piled up on top of me, alternately kneading me with their sharp little claws or sneezing on me. and I’ve found a remedy for my sneezing – you can’t sneeze when there’s 50 or 100 pounds of cat piled on top of you. 😈

actually, I’ve found the saline nose and sinus rinsing to be better than drugs, but only if I do it every day, preferably at least twice a day.