Saturday, April 13, 2019

not gardening, not politics, not art


Overcast and windy, humid but pleasant temps in the mid to high 70s, predicting a thunderstorm for this afternoon and I hope we do get some rain, otherwise I'll have to water this evening. I woke up at 5 AM this morning and, with the window in the bedroom open, it smelled like rain but no, it wasn't. I've lost track of how many days in a row I've been working outside with a few days off mixed in. Today would be a good day except for the wind which gets tiresome after a while but I'm just not feeling it today. I walked around earlier enjoying the beauty and I have two new areas ready for some plants and a rosemary that needs to be put in the ground, plants in pots that need to be moved to their summer positions, bricks and mortar blocks scattered around that need to be consolidated in piles for easy access later, more hay grass seed spikes to cut down across the front (my main activity yesterday) but none of it has spurred me to action. I guess I'm having another rest day today.

the whole chinese fringe flower tree

I saw my resident coral snake Thursday early evening as I was clearing out some grass and weeds from an area next to the house. I only saw it as it moved away being the shy creature it is. It moved further into the recesses of the flower bed with the pansies, poppies, and larkspur by the fence. Later, I disturbed it again when I went to water my miniature stunted red bud tree in a pot at the far end of the old garden bed which is now filled with love-in-a-mist at that end. It moved further in getting away from the showering water.


There's a cardinal building a nest in the mock dogwood. Three days ago it was a very loose jumble of small twigs.


So, this wasn't going to be about gardening or the yard but I don't have much else to write about unless I want to rant about the thug of a mob boss who occupies the Oval Office, when he deigns to work at all, when he's not vacationing at one of his properties or putting on one of his rallies or attending a fundraiser, who has told his Homeland Security guy to just go ahead and break the law and he will pardon him and who has posted a very dangerous hack job of a 9/11 video against a muslim Congresswoman prompting death threats against her and her family by his supporters while he cozies up to the Saudis, Putin has now declared that the US is no longer leader of the free world, that no one trusts us and it's time for another country to step up (can't imagine who he has in mind) while Trump trashes every consumer and public protection that exists all while the GOP stands silent and refuses to reign him in and you know that were it a Democrat president doing these things they would be screaming holy hell. But that shit just raises my blood pressure and makes my afib go nuts.

I am starting to think about making art again. I find my mind wandering that way now and then. Not enough to actually get engaged with it yet but I do have a new piece forming in my mind. Perhaps tomorrow. Or not. I'm on the last book (#8) of the Outlander series, a little more than halfway and I would really like to be done with it.

We'll see.





21 comments:

  1. Yes. Take a rest day. It will make ME feel better.
    I have three grandchildren here and am wondering if I'm going to make it until tomorrow.

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  2. Saturday's pretty over. Hope you did it.

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  3. That looks like a big honking coral snake.

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    1. yep, fully adult, at least 20" which is what they say is adult size but it looked bigger with all it's curves and such.

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  4. You are so far ahead with spring than we are in PA. Spring plants and all the fruit trees started to bloom here this week and it is a glorious sight to see. It almost made me want to get up and do something. I am not calling it rest, but rather observation.

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  5. That snake is impressive. And scary! I first thought it was a fancy garden hose.
    So did you have any rain or, better still, a thunder storm?

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    1. while a coral snake is way more toxic than a copperhead they are far less scary to me considering I've been bitten by a copperhead. and coral snakes have little bitty mouths, little fangs, and are exceedingly shy and will always move away instead of strike. bites from a coral snake are almost always because someone picked one up so I just let them be. copperheads I'll kill if it is close to the house. and no, no rain, no thunderstorm but it got even windier.

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  6. What a beautiful snake! Just enjoy it from a distance. :)

    I know what you mean about lack of motivation. We have a lot of projects we could be doing in the yard but it's little by little every day. Which is fine, I suppose. Sometimes you just have to pause and enjoy what's growing, right?

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  7. I'm wondering if you have the wind we had last night and today. If so, I'm pretty sure you're not out in the yard. It's starting to lay here now, but it's been honking right along at about 25-30 mph. I made soup yesterday, and today it's all computer amusement.

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    1. it was so windy yesterday and only increased towards the end of the day and still a bit windy this morning. it's settled down now but the ground is littered with twigs and leaves and small to medium branches.

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  8. I’ve been having several rest (reading) days, and why not. On the other hand, gardening is the best tool to lighten the spirit and get the endorphins moving. I understand your fury about the moron in the WH, my fury is all directed at the morons and chancers who are threatening the well-being of my adopted country. But that only makes me ill so it’s better I lose myself in a book or the garden. Even conversations with friends are not always advisable now, they inevitably end up in raving and ranting.

    Have a good time outdoors or in the studio.

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  9. Cardinals don't live here in Oregon, but we do have two kinds of hummingbirds, one of which lives here near round.

    I admire you for your willingness to coexist with a Coral Snake.

    What is it like to oppose Trump in what I assume to be Trump Country?

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    1. re the coral snake, see my reply to Sabine and Out On The Prairie. re living in rural Texas, I don't talk politics with my neighbors or people I have come to think of as friends or potential friends because support for Trump is a deal killer. though several of my neighbors have surprised me in their loathing of Trump. Texas isn't as red as it seems, was Democratic in my earlier lifetime and is leaning that way again. it's definitely getting purple but they still have an edge on us.

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    2. I suppose you're familiar with the expression, "Red and yellow; kill a fellow. Red and black; friend of Jack." Actually, I didn't need to see what you said to others about coral snakes, because I knew that if you could name them, you knew they were poisonous, and that you chose to live with them. I would too, at this point, but it wasn't always so. In Mississippi, I lived 100 miles from the Coast, which was a bit out of their range, but we had rattlers, moccasins, and copperheads, and while none of those are as poisonous as coral snakes, the first two, at least, were more aggressive, and I think if I lived around them again, those I would surely kill.

      I've lived in the Willamette Valley since 1986, and I've yet to see a poisonous snake, although my wife, Peggy, saw a rattler one day, rattlers being Oregon's only poisonous snakes.

      I now live in a very liberal area, and I was so eager to escape Deep South politics and religiosity, that, when I moved here, I imagined the liberals wore halos, but, noooo, they can be almost as asinine as any Trump supporter. I saw almost, because I think that to do worse than support Trump, one would have to go fult-tilt in the direction of Hitler.

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    3. if coral snakes were aggressive I probably wouldn't be so calm about it. I will kill a copperhead if I see it close to the house having been bit by one simply because I stepped too near it one evening at dusk. didn't see it until after it struck me. but I don't knee jerk kill snakes as they keep the vermin down and are a sign of a healthy ecosystem.

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  10. aren't those snakes poisonous?Big one

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    1. oh yes, on a par with a mamba but very shy and will always move away rather than strike, little bitty mouth, little bitty fangs and nearly all bites are because someone was foolish enough to pick one up. this one is an adult, about 20". I think it lives under the house and I see it nearly every year. it doesn't worry me and I don't like to kill things just because I can.

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  11. Did you love the entire Outlander series? I have been contemplating it.

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    1. I have enjoyed it but it gets tedious at times and every book, there are 8, is 800 - 1000 pages. this last book they are in their very late 50s to 60 and she still writes them as if they are in their mid 30s. and some of the stuff Claire, the outlander, does with her 20th century knowledge in the 18th century is far fetched at best. and if the author writes 'so and so made a small Scottish noise in his throat' one more time I'm going to scream. and I totally pass over the wild and detailed sex they have. perhaps if I haven't been reading them straight through with only a small break for something short and light I might be more enthusiastic. I don't want to discourage you because every book has engaged me, some more than others, if you are interested but it's been a long slog and I'll be glad to be done.

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I opened my big mouth, now it's your turn.