Late To The Covid Party

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'Comtesse de Provence' 

After dreaming up a title for this post, I realized the title is something of takeoff of Late To The Garden Party, which is a great garden blog.  Be sure to visit it, if you haven't already.   

I was late to the Covid party, having come down with it for the first time in mid-October.  Somehow I'd missed it until now.  I was just about to get re-vaccinated for the ninth(?) time when I became ill, likely with variant XFG, aka 'Stratus' or 'Frankenstein'.  

Unfortunately I passed the virus on to Beloved before we realized what I had.  He's mostly recovered but it was harder on him. 

 I felt awful with the usual symptoms for about 36 hours, and after that, just really really tired for the next two, maybe three weeks.  Really tired.  Zero energy.  No gardening.  No nothing.   

Well, almost nothing.   Walking teenage boy dog terror Harry as much as I could manage.  

 Harry decided to tear up a few things and yank the rug around one morning:

 A young dog making an anxious transition to a new pack and home needs a lot of exercise.   I had a couple of training sessions with the guy who trained Boris and Natasha, one session BC (before the Covid hit) and one since.  They helped.   

Natasha, on the other hand, was satisfied just showing off the results of her bath.  She'll be 14 years old this month.  

Pretty gorgeous for an old lady!

 I've been back to gardening the past week or so.  Lots of chopping back of Salvias, Cupheas, Lavenders, and various other plants.  Pulling and dumping failed Dahlias.  I took off the top of the Callistemon 'Slim's near the back gate:

Filled a bin:
Hard to tell I took off over 6': 

Tall hedges are tough.  They need to be tall enough to hide what you want to hide, but short enough and narrow enough to trim in a safe manner.  I'm having trouble with the "short enough" part.  

One plant purchase:  a Farfugium japonicum 'Areomaculatum' for a small shady corner on the patio.  I went looking for a fern for this area, but the Farfugium beckoned.  I planted it as soon as I got home.    

Around the garden, 'The Prince':

The wonderful nearly 1.5" of rain we got in early October brought several more Yucca 'Bright Star' into flower:
The rain woke up the Aeoniums from summer dormancy: 
The rain may have also spurred flowers from Barleria obtusa, a seedling now grown to a substantial 2'x2', from, as it happens, Late To The Garden Party.

Lovely! 

A modest chance of rain showers late next week.  That would be lovely, too: 

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