Naked Lady Outside Our Door

We just can’t have this!  The neighborhood is going to … let’s just say “H”!!!!  I guess we are just going to have leave pretty soon…nothing we can do about it.  Arny and Sandy say that her name is Belladonna, ‘Bell’ for short.

Even the dogs are mesmerized by it.  If you look close, you can see the reflection of “Bell” in the window….if you dare to look.

There she is….Belladonna Lily, aka, Naked Lady.  She “pops out” [pun attended] every year around now…along with a few of her friends.

The Amaryllis belladonna is a native of South Africa.  When we arrived a few months ago, they looked like any other lily plant, but without flowers.  The green plant died off a few weeks ago, and about a week ago the flower stem popped up out of the ground, and today the first flower bloomed.  They are known as a “Naked Lady” because there is just the stem with the flower on the top.

Here it is a few days ago, and you can see another stem coming out of the ground next to it.  It sure is an interesting flower/plant.

As for Bubba and Skruffy….they don’t care about the “Naked Lady Plant”, they were just waiting for the drapes to open showing the sign that Arny and Sandy were up.  It was Friday morning, and Sandy only works Monday through Thursday during the summer.  Although they are up well before 5 am when she works, on the weekend she gets to sleep in some….this day was one of those days.

    

One thing these pups do care about is beef bones.  Last night Marcia and I went to Claim Jumper, and I ordered a combo plate which included two big beef ribs.  To say they were happy when we got home is a understatement.  

Today this dog shows up. Hard to tell it is the same dog chewing on that bone above..but it is Bubba, fresh off a new hairdo. 

On Monday I ordered this Andis 2-Speed Pet Clipper with No.10 Blade.  The Andis clippers we already owned is fine for Skruffy, but Bubba’s hair is so thick.  The new clippers came in Friday, and I braved the 100+ temps today to give Bubba a long overdue hair cut.  I love these new clippers….went right through his hair with ease. 

July Rain & Both Chairs Are In

The chart above shows the average rainfall that Sacramento receives each month.  As you can see, July typically has no rain, while June and August have very little.  So we were all surprised with the “little” rain that we received Sunday morning through Monday morning.  Well, there was rain, it amounted to .02 of an inch….still, rain in July in Sacramento, it just doesn’t happen very often.  The forecast is a 50% chance of more rain over the next few days...we will see.

  

Now in Arkansas, where I lived for over 22 years, and in Florida, where I have lived for over 2 years, it rains every month.  But both are very hot and muggy during the summer….here in Sacramento area it is just hot, but cools down just about every month due to what they now call the “Delta Breeze”.  

Now when I was a kid and into my early 30’s I don’t recall ever hearing the term “Delta Breeze”.  Kind of like the “polar vortex” it is one of those “Weather Terms” to draw interest to, what else, the weather.  A look in Wikipedia and you see that the Polar Vortex has been known since the mid-1800’s.  The term Delta Breeze is not even in there under its own heading.  Now I know that there was a cool breeze just about every summer night when I was younger…and they called it various things such as “Sea Breeze”, “Breeze from the Pacific”, etc. etc.   Don’t know when everyone took up the term “Delta Breeze”, but it is a term you hear every summer night on every nightly weather report.

Getting the couch out was a small chore….of course, Arny helped, or I helped Arny would be the better way to say it.  With his tools and expertise, we had it out in an hour, and put back together again in about 15 minutes.  After we got it back together again we moved it just a small ways, and we were both surprised how heavy it was.  The chairs made it through the door without a problem.  Of course, one thing we “RVers” like about La-Z-Boy recliners is that the backs come off making them easy to fit through motorhome, 5th wheel and trailer doors.

We both have these slick TV style laptop trays, which also double for an eating table.  Yes, there is a large table we could put up, but it is not as friendly as these movable trays are.  And the trays fold up quick for travel…we just lay them along the side of the bed or on the bed .  The other good thing is that we will be able to store some stuff back behind the chairs, which will be a nice feature.

Skruffy just wants to know where Bubba and Mom are going to sit??????