by 
Easter granddaughters & Jill
April 24
Friday night’s symphony performance included the performance of Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in C major, Op. 26 by 16-year-old Asian chick Harmony Zhu. Seems ol’ Harmony has been performing since she was 8 and, not only is she a world-class pianist, but she is also the world chess champion in her age group. She was lively, to say the least, and I was afraid she was going to fall backwards off the piano bench the way she was bouncing around. Thankfully, she managed not to and delivered an entertaining performance. After Harmony had done her thing and the intermission, conductor George Jackson, contender for the full-time gig of Amarillo Symphony music director, led the orchestra through Elgar’s Enigma Variations. A number of those are easily recognizable since they are often used in movies and stuff. To my tin ear, it was well done, one of the more entertaining after intermission performances. I didn’t even get drowsy.
It blew all to be damned Thursday and Friday and Friday evening there was enough rain to mix with the dust and warm the hearts of carwash owners all over town. There was .04 inches in the gauge Saturday morning. Didn’t inhibit symphony night but let Kari out close to the entrance just to be safe.
April 21
Yesterday I attended an Ogallala Commons playa field day. This one was in Tulia. Ogallala Commons , along with Playa Lake Joint Venture and Texas Parks and Wildlife through their land management program are dedicated to preserving working playas and restoring those that have been altered, where possible. The goal here is to educate the public about the importance of playas in aquifer recharge. About 90% of the water used on the High Plains comes from aquifers, predominantly the Ogallala Aquifer. According to the information the speakers gave us the recharge rate for the Ogallala Aquifer is enough for people but not enough for agriculture. The emphasis by the Ogallala Commons, et al, is to preserve healthy playas to delay running out of water. A landowner with one or more playas on his property can contact the organizations and get help restoring his playas if they need it.
The Ogallala Aquifer extends from the Dakotas down to the south High Plains and Texas has the most playas, although many have been modified, which reduces or eliminates their ability to recharge the acquifer. Many of the playas have been modfied, either by digging a pit to catch water for livestock, or by simply farming through the playa. Often, the pit can be filled in with the dirt that came out of it and TPW pays the landowner so much per acre to restore a playa as well covering the cost of the restoration in return for a 10-year easement on the property. That is, the landowner agrees not to modify or disturb the playa for ten years.
Besides filling in pits and removing berms that inhibit rainwater runoff from reaching the playa, the TPW program also encourages a native grass margin around the playa. This helps to remove sediment and pollutants from the runoff. The use of native grass permits more runoff to the playa as opposed to foreign species, which grow much thicker than the natives. One of the speakers is a biologist and he talked about the problems native upland birds have in dealing with the exotic grasses. Seems chicks can’t get through the grass and predators can hide in it more easily, the better to prey on the chicks.
April 18
Spring advances apace here on SA. Some fruit trees are still in bloom while others have bloomed and leafed out. So far, we have managed to dodge any hard freezes. There is still time, but it gets less likely the fruit trees will get whacked with each passing day. It would be ironic that, in the middle of drought, we get a good fruit crop. Maybe we will even get some for ourselves before the critters get it all.
Last year the daffodils and tulips really showed out, but not this year. There are a few around but nothing like last year. The liriopes on the other hand are showing out, more so than they have any time in the past that I remember. There are weeds that need my attention but nothing like the last few years. If I get them sprayed, maybe they will be less of a problem in wetter years. Looks like the Siberian elms are going to have a crop of seeds. They weren’t too bad last year, but they seem to alternate between lots of seeds one year and not so many the next, then back to lots and so forth. After last year I guess we are due a heavy seeding year.
Much of my time is spent watering. Even though it hasn’t gotten hot yet, it has been windy, and some trees are reaching their limit. I’m having to come up with new ideas to get water to them. The nice snow in March was helpful but that moisture has just about faded away.