Sunday, February 21, 2010. Pruning Day. It's a lovely, very cool day. Winter shows no sign of easing, as each morning continues to greet us with temperatures in the thirties. But the sun is shining and the wisteria pods are popping. They all seem to do this at the same time. As the pods dry, their structure creates tension which causes the two halves to snap apart suddenly, hurling the seeds as much as forty feet away. Amazing plant.
I'm glad it caught my attention, because it's time for me to go out there and prune the thing down. It has grown enormous since I planted it in 1991, and must be cut back before it covers the house. The best time for this is now, before the flower buds form. The main reason for having a wisteria is for the purple flowers that arrive. . . well, actually, usually this would be the time of year when we'd usually see the first of them. But the winter has delayed the display.
While I had the shears out, I went around the Cool Water Ranch and cut back some of the other trees. Having done so, I will not have to duck for branches when I mow. That will leave my attention free to avoid getting stuck in the very soft ground. It hasn't rained in a few days, but everywhere you walk the ground squishes. I suspect we'll have a bumper crop of crawfish chimneys as soon as it warms up a little.
Neither Mary Leigh nor I had an actual meal today. I ate the rest of the sirloin strip from our overfeed at Keith Young's last night at some point in the afternoon. Mary Ann thought we might go out when she arrived home at around seven, but nobody could work up the energy. Besides, Mary Ann came home with a bag of chips and a few quarts of salsa from the Rio Grande. Mary Leigh worships this stuff. Rio Grande--a chain that's unrepresented in these parts--was her favorite restaurant when the girls lived in Bethesda for a year after the hurricane. She sat on the sofa tonight and put away a great deal of salsa while watching the incomprehensible Olympic curling competition. It's interesting that the female competitors are wearing jewelry and makeup.
