Wednesday, June 16, 2021

several days of brief forays in the yard and evil and despicable men


It is just too hot to be outside.

We got an unexpected 3/4" of rain Monday. I left shortly after it stopped to go to the post office and the streets were steaming. Literally. What else did I do Monday, I did the grocery shopping, I went to yoga. The grocery store has taken down it's 'masks required' banner and the employees were all mask free as were about half the customers. I still wore mine though and probably will for awhile with the more contagious and more virulent Delta variant of covid showing up in the US.

Speaking of covid, research is confirming that it was here long before it 'officially' arrived. We're pretty sure that's what my sister had in December 2019 amid reports of people being diagnosed with an unknown coronavirus with all the symptoms of covid as far back as October/November 2019. One of the blogs I read is Interim Arrangements written by Sabine who is connected to the scientific community in Germany and she translated an article by a German virologist who has been involved in covid research from the beginning. In this article he address its possible/probable origin (and no not in a lab) and also the concept of 'herd immunity' which he says does not apply to the human population. Bottom line is the only way you will get immunity to covid is through vaccination or surviving the virus and that if you don't get vaccinated you will eventually get covid. The problem with surviving the virus is that survival comes with serious other health issues later so get vaccinated. Anyway, here's a link to her post with the article.

I've only been keeping a cursory eye on the political machinations of the Republicans Party of Insurrection, you know, keeping my blood pressure down, but they are still being completely who they are. Locally, in Texas, ERCOT, who is in charge of our unregulated power grid, is asking people to conserve electricity during this heatwave...set your thermostat to 78, don't use your oven, turn off lights...because not only did it fail with extreme cold weather, it will likely fail with extreme hot weather. So is our governor concerned about that and doing something, anything, to fix the problems with our independent power grid? No, his big concern is the non-existent crisis at the border. If Biden won't continue building Trump's wall, then he will build it in Texas and he is asking Texans to pony up with the cash to do it. Nationally, McConnell has proclaimed bipartisanship dead and is still saying out loud and in public that his only focus is obstruction of any and all Biden's policies and if republicans get control of the Senate in 2022 and a seat on the Supreme court comes up in 2024 he will not allow Biden to appoint a judge even though he pushed through Barrett during the 2020 election and he probably wouldn't allow Biden to appoint a judge if a seat became available in 2023. And the #3 Senate republican Barrasso has vowed to make Biden a half term president. I take that to mean if they get control of the House and the Senate in 2022, they will impeach and convict Biden regardless of the fact there have been no impeachable offenses committed by Biden. So as usual, republicans have no intention of governing and no intention of letting the democrats govern no matter what Americans want.

Back to the fun stuff. Tuesday I took the recycling to the containers, took some of the orange cosmos over to friend, went to Walmart  the Evil Empire (which also has removed it's 'masks required' notice) because HEB didn't have two things I needed, took my youngest grandgirl to get her first vaccination shot, and we got another unexpected rain, almost 2” Tuesday night.

Did I mention I'm not getting any day lily blooms? Few and far between so that's disappointing. But other things are being beautiful out there. After those two weeks of rain every step scares up a baby toad or two, from 1/2" to 3/4".

This is the third attempt of these wasps to build a nest in that particular spot on the succulent. I spray them away with the hose and then remove the nest.

My datura (jimsonweed) in the pot bloomed. It is also called moonflower because they bloom at dusk and close up in the morning.

This plumeria has started blooming. It has 10 bloom stalks. I put it in a bigger pot this spring and fertilized it but it's a dependable bloomer anyway. I had one I finally put in the ground when I still lived in the city because it had gotten too big for me to bring in. We were going through a spell of no real winter (but it didn't get as hot as now) and it grew into a small tree that bloomed profusely all summer, survived at least 5 years in the ground, and then we had the snow and winter in the 20s for two weeks that killed it. I knew it would not survive so I made many cuttings and this is one of them. In fact all the ones like this that I have are from that one tree.

Expect a few more pictures of the red crinum lilies while they're blooming.

I know you can't see them but there are baby wrens in this birdhouse. I saw one of the parents enter and could hear the cheeping babies...feed me!

And this morning there were 6 whistling ducks in one of the pecan trees. I had seen them several times before further down the street flying into a neighbor's tree when I walk the dog but this is the first time we've seen them in our trees.

So cool, and yes they were whistling little tunes, not a quack to be heard. 



23 comments:

  1. HeeHee ~ I'm home at the computer precisely because it's too hot to work right now. I'll go back out around 4. I love those whistling ducks! I found some parents and babies last weekend at Brazoria. I managed some photos that I'll post. The parents were herding FOURTEEN babies around! Whenever I see jimsonweed, I think of Georgia O'Keeffe. Her paintings of them were my introduction to the plant -- I saw the paintings long before I ever saw it actually growing. It's a beautiful flower, and I love the shape of the bud.

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    1. same with me re her paintings and the plant. I can't remember where I got the first one. it generally will reseed but I only ever get one or two plants. I have two this year, one in the ground, one in the pot.

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  2. Oh my gosh, I've never heard or seen whistling ducks. They are so doggone cute! I've never seen a duck in a tree before and your photos of them are amazing. Thank you for posting them.

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  3. In addition to all of his other stupidity, your governor is encouraging bitcoin miners to move to Texas. Bitcoin mining (and I don't know what exactly it is) involves much computing equipment and much much power. I saw a thing on TV awhile back ago about some people that had moved some bitcoin servers in to a small town, and they sucked up all their power. So yes, encourage conservation and freedom from regulation and invite in the people who will be very heavy power users. Ack.

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    1. More on the bitcoin here: https://news.bitcoin.com/chinese-firm-invests-25-million-cryptocurrency-mining-data-center-texas/

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    2. well, of course! the more money grubbing republicans the better as far as he's concerned. come set up in Texas, we'll let you screw over the common folk as much as you want! we're getting closer to turning the state blue, at least some part of it. can't wait to get rid of Abbott.

      I don't entirely get bitcoin either. seems like fake money to me. and what can you do with it? can't take it to the grocery store, can't pay your utilities with it. kinda like the stock market, not real til you cash out.

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  4. What a wonderful post, especially the whistling ducks which I now have to learn about. Never heard of them before.
    I grew moonflowers one year, incredible scent, and the first evening they unfurled and opened, I heard a pop! My excitement was up there. Even after my neighbor commented that her grandmother grew them best over the septic tank...

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    1. there's another moonflower, a member of the morning glory family, also opens at night and closes in the morning.

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  5. There are so many flowers I would never ever know about if you didn't grow them and photograph them. Would not have thought of Texas as a gardener's paradise before reading your blog. Of course, you do have to work hard in your garden.

    Your photos of the Whistling Ducks prompted me to find out more about them. Sweet that they came to visit you.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PMt9sNLFCM

    How is your turtle doing?

    I won't hold my breath but it is good to hear from you that Texas is closer to turning into a blue state.

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    1. Big Mama is fine, chasing the goldfish around when they try to snatch a tidbit of food that she considers hers. Texas was blue and our own AG stated that if he hadn't put the kibosh on mail in voting it would have gone for Biden.

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  6. I love that you have Whistling Ducks there. That is the coolest thing, and that they were perched in your tree. Your flowers are so beautiful. I always appreciate seeing what's growing there. I have no words about the Party of Insurrection, except that they truly scare me all the way to my bones. Ugh.

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  7. Whistling ducks, new to me. The jimsonweed bloom is lovely.

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  8. Cute baby toads! I've heard of whistling ducks but I'm not sure I've ever seen them. I think your jimsonweed is a slightly different species from the one I've seen here, which is Datura stramonium -- it has jagged-edged leaves, whereas yours are smooth. Interesting!

    I just can't stand to think about the Republicans.

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    1. I looked it up and you are right. mine is datura inoxia.

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  9. I've never even heard of whistling ducks. How do they stay on a limb with webbed feet? I don't understand!
    I used to grow a morning-glory like vine we called Moon flowers because they were white and only opened at night. Different from the datura.
    Ellen- you are staying busy. And you're right- it's too hot to work outside. I can only do it in little bits and pieces.
    As to the Republicans- well, I think Democracy is done. It's just not even Democracy anymore.
    I'm still wearing a mask in public places too. I remember that post of Sabine's saying that we'll all either be vaccinated or get Covid eventually. These are not cheerful times.

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    1. they have claws on their toes. so says my sister. I've had both, the datura and the morning glory version. in fact I had some two old moonflower seeds that I managed to get some to sprout this spring but once in the ground they damped off. If I remember I'll try again next year. and I'm afraid I agree with you. this country is done, our democracy is a joke and I'm not sure we can pull it out. it all hinges on 2022. if republicans take both the house and senate, that's it. we're toast.

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  10. I am captivated by the whistling ducks - such an interesting color. Your flowers are beautiful so you must be doing something right.
    Politics is depressing but the republicans cannot take control in 2022. Voters must rally to prevent that and I hope people turn out to vote blue.

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  11. In the back of my mind I keep wondering if the respiratory infection I had in March of 2019 wasn't COVID. I suffered a silent heart attack and that brought on my breathing difficulty, which I am still struggling with today. Will have to go back and read that article... scary stuff.

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  12. Plumerias are just such beauties, we are not half as successful with ours, maybe because we know them as frangipani. I love the visiting ducks A LOT.

    The thought that people living with so much sunlight beating on every roof are facing power cuts makes me weep. Solar power is free and the sun shines every day. All you need is a couple of panels on the roof, any roof, or in a corner of your garden, and a basic converter in the house. We get all of our house electricity, incl. hot water and fans, and feed some surplus to the grid, from May to September with a basic 12 sqm on the south facing roof.

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  13. Just a thought re the article on covid: not everybody who gets ill with it will have a serious or longtime outcome. There is plenty of data that many have a mild(ish) course and also that those with long covid will recover.
    People at risk, however, are those aged 65+ and anybody at any age with a precondition, whether they are aware of it or not. Also, kids who do get long covid have the additional risk of getting seriously ill with - as found in most cases to date - vascular involvement during growth and this can have lifelong consequences.

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  14. Those ducks made me laugh - reminded me of the vultures from the Jungle Book. Ha! I used to have the album from the musical :)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om4mKHCn0jA

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  15. My daughter traveled to Mexico the September before covid for a bachelorette party with her cousin and her cousin's "bride squad." There were 10 of them, and 8 of the 10 were extremely ill when they returned stateside, with what they then thought were particularly virulent cases of the flu. I have often wondered if they all might have contracted covid during their travel. Everyone says it was too early, but I'm not convinced.

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