It was getting late in the Patch, and some major spells were being cast on me from deep within the amaranth.  Horsetail reeds make for excellent wands it appears, though my eldest hobbit insists she got hers from Diagon alley.

Expelliarmus!

Some of these spells take an immense amount of concentration it appears. Now will you please get that reed out of my face!

This budding wizard just wanted to talk to me about Christmas and Santa and ask a thousand questions about why Muggles celebrate this holiday, and how Santa gets into houses and the global logistics of accomplishing such a gift-giving feat, all in one night?  These discussions tend to last quite some time.

What a fine horsetail wand.

Come early Christmas morning, and it was early, our wizards were glad they had Muggle parents.  Hands tore through wrapping paper as fast as their small fingers could find the ends of the tape. Santa had devoured the home-made “Santa” cookies we had left out for him, and had washed them down with some milk…

…we wanted to leave out a nip of whiskey for him but it was decided, (not by the Muggles,) that he would prefer milk.

This “Happy Van” was a total hit…a van filled with small candies…he was in hog’s happy heaven with two of his most favorite things in the whole wide world!

Going back to the amaranth, it was time for our annual harvest of the seeds, though the seeds were not nearly so abundant as last year, but nevertheless we got quite a few. The seeds also were reluctant to separate from their husks, I think they were less developed due to the earlier frosts we have had this year. Clearly some form of incantation was being muttered by this wizard in an attempt to make the seedpods magically shed their seeds into the bowls.

It was good to give the nimble fingers a break from tearing at wrapping paper!  The clouds of dust that arose from these buckets smelled like the barnyards where I used to play as a kid, it is amazing how a smell can teleport you back to a specific place. It was all-hands on in the patch, and I knew my “everything but the kitchen sink” rain water collection “system” would come in useful for more than collecting water.

Talking of serious rainwater collection endeavors, this has to be one of the big ones…

http://dracogardens.blogspot.com/2009/12/last-tank-is-in.html

Amaranth harvest.

I also cut down My Papyrus “toupees” today.  I could no longer convince myself that they still carried any “Winter  form”.  No, they now looked like a seriously bad episode of the Muppets, or perhaps…

Oh yes, this one will be going into the “Looks Like…” page!

These cattails are also in the process of popping.

Millions of tiny seeds will shortly be catching the ESP thermals. Climb in here for a good nights sleep.

At least a better night’s rest than you would have here.

My largest sotol. I am about to get shredded once again by this beast, still, it has to be done.  The lower branches are once again laying flat against the ground, skewering the odd ghost plant (like they care, they are already ghosts).

Huh uhuh huh.

Like my agaves, I try to trim up these plants as high as I can, at least so that the bottom leaves are not resting on the ground. It is a personal preference, but I think it looks better and creates less of a jumble of plants at ground level.  It also makes weeding a little less painful, I have to weed a lot more regularly than I trim these plants up after all.

Here is the Patch all cut back for the winter…store all that energy roots!  You can see the frost damage on the top of my Mexican lime tree on the right.  It feels good to have all the scraggly amaranths pulled out.

The top third of my lime tree has taken a good beating, but it will quickly recover in the spring.

There are still a couple of butterflies moving ever-so-slowly around, so slow in fact, it made them an easy catch.

Battered and torn are they .

And still the Gerbera daisies continue to send out new blooms.

Inspirational wintry image of the week…

Moonlight is a German company that makes these glowing garden orbs. The polyethylene spheres have been around in Europe for a while and they’re making their way to the United States via a new company called Moonlight USA. I think an icy-blue version would be appropriate for our warmer Texas nights, but you will not find one in the Patch…I need the space for more plants!

Stay Tuned for:

“2010”

All material © 2009 for eastsidepatch. Unauthorized
intergalactic reproduction strictly prohibited, and
punishable by  late  (and extremely unpleasant)
14th century planet Earth techniques.