Sunday - 359th

My day is filled with scores of Latin words. Well, Latin sounding words. I'm not sure if true Botanical names are actually Latin or if we just give them names that have Latin-like endings.

Epimedium alpinum rubrum

It's a pretty day in a subdued sort of way. Chicks: there are the growing chicks...

 

 

 

We have a calm breakfast...

 

Ad then I sit down to the task at hand.

Symphyotrichum oblongifolium "Raydon's Favorite." Now that's a mouthful, followed by that Raydon twist.

Pyncnanthemum verticillatum var. pilosum or -- hairy mountain mint. The minty stuff is the common name -- way easier to pronounce than the Botanical one which in the first word alone has 13 letters, only 4 of which are vowels, even if you rank the Y as a vowel (according to the rules of grammar -- it is indeed a vowel in that particular word).

Of course, there are, too, the daylilies:

Hemerocallis scratch and sniff, Hemerocallis wild one, hemerocallis smoky mountain autumn.

These are all flowers I ordered for spring planting. I'm being systematic this year: I bought a spiffy notebook (a Clairefontaine, squared) and I wrote in today all that we purchased -- names, light requirements, size, bloom time.

It took forever.

In the next days I'll envision a new bed and I'll disperse the rest among existing flower fields.

 

In the afternoon, a guy called asking if he could take a look at my old car (which is currently for sale on Craigslist). "We're about to have a baby, she's in the hospital, and I desperately need to get my hands on a car that's big enough for the kid..."

We wait. He comes. He drives it. He likes it. "I'll give you $100 to hold it until tomorrow. Let me get to an ATM." He leaves. We wait, but only for a few minutes.

He wont be back. -- this from Ed. But he needs it for his new baby!

You believed him? He comes out to buy the car and he doesn't have $100 with him for a deposit? 

Why wouldn't he just leave and say no thanks?

The guy calls back. "My girlfriend is looking at another car. We'll choose between the two." Wait, I thought she was in the hospital having a baby?

Such is Craigslist. We go out for a hike in our local park. And it is slushy, but very pretty in the predusk light.

And on the drive back, we greet the returning Sandhill cranes. We'd heard them already last week, but this is the first sighting: it's a sure and welcome sign of spring.