Tuesday, May 10, 2022

updates: garden, toe, art, irony


I went to bed one night in the first week of May and woke up the next morning in August. It's hot and dry with intermittent high dry wind, temps in the low 90s and getting hotter. I spent Saturday and Sunday moving the sprinkler around about every 45 minutes or so.

Saturday was the Garden Club's annual plant sale. They buy some things but most of what's on offer comes from members' own gardens. I haven't belonged to the garden club since 2020 and the onset of covid since at first they did not pause their meetings and made no concessions like mandatory masks at the meetings or spreading the tables out and after the first meeting or two of that year people at the meetings started coming down with the virus. Then I started volunteering at SHARE in 2021, on Saturdays initially but then Thursday mornings when they decided to reopen. Since the garden club meetings are also on Thursday morning that sort of put an end to my membership since my reception at SHARE was exactly the opposite of my experience at the garden club. I didn't go to that many meetings anyway as for the most part I wasn't interested in the speaker or topic (and some would just drone on and on) or because it was too early in the morning and it was a very cliquish group, hard to break in. I was never invited to come join any group at any table when I arrived. Some of them would greet me but that's about all.

Anyway, back to the plant sale which I did donate four or five things to this year. As members we weren't allowed to buy anything until after the sale ended and then we could choose from whatever was left over. My sister Pam is still a member and she called me to get my butt down there as there were a few things she wanted. As I walked out I told Marc the last thing I needed was more plants. So of course I came home with more plants though the prices were very high this year. I got some bearded iris bulbs, surprise lily bulbs (what Mary Moon calls hurricane lilies), a coleus, a chocolate plant, and the couple of things my sister wanted.

So here's what's going on in my gardens. Top to bottom: purple coneflowers, the first Easter lily, yellow daylilies, yarrow, and what I call miniature gladiolas. 


And it looks like my double orange daylilies that did not give me a single bloom last year as a result of the arctic blast that froze the entire state will give me flowers this year as I'm starting to see bloom scapes come up.

Big toe update 19 days after the removal of my toenail: A gigantic blister formed on the inside and bottom of my toe and that was where most of the fluid was seeping from. That's stopped now but the bottom of my toe is still sensitive where the new skin is forming under the old, now dead skin which hasn't peeled off yet. On the top there's some new pink skin where the old has peeled away but basically just the scab on the nail bed and some hard dead skin on the end of my toe.

And I finally sat down to seriously work on the drawing for the coral box. I have a drawing I like, 3 types of coral, 3 colors, and I'm thinking I will do a small sculpture of coral for the top instead of the dead coral I initially considered which will now go in the box. I don't know if I will try to sculpt it or use actual coral skeletons. Probably that. I do have some around here.


I'm not going to update you on this whole abortion banning mess this time but next post I'll have a list of the laws already passed waiting in the wings and the ones being considered as well that go far beyond just limiting or banning abortion is any particular state. I will say this though, peaceful protests have sprung up outside the homes of several of the SC justices and so the Senate yesterday 100% voted to allow government security for the families of the justices. Where was their concern when abortion clinics were being firebombed, when women were accosted and blocked and screamed at that they were baby killers when trying to enter PP or other women's health clinics, when doctors were being threatened and murdered and protesters were outside their homes screaming obscenities
, when candidates withdrew from races because of threats from right wingers to themselves and their families, when Christine Blasey Ford had to move from her home because of death threats?

And from the There Is No Bottom To Irony department, Clarence Thomas feels like he's being bullied.



20 comments:

  1. Ugh, that toe. You deserve a medal!
    We were just debating what to do with the yarrow aka weed that is literally everywhere this year. I think anybody attempting to sell it a plant sale here would get a hard stare but we would definitely pay gold for any of the gorgeous lilies you have.

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  2. I like your current configuration of the coral box and especially using a piece of no longer living coral inside. Coral requiem.
    Will your toenail ever grow back, or has the ship sailed?
    There is no bottom to the abortion mess.

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    1. It's not even about abortion anymore with them going after birth control as well. The toenail will grow back but they say it can take up to a year to completely grow in normally. I like where the coral box is going too. Almost getting excited about it. Still have to figure out the feet.

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  3. Your flowers are so beautiful. I guess they like all that sunshine and hot weather.
    It's so interesting watching your toe heal. I've never seen anything like that. So I do appreciate you keeping us updated.
    Awww... poor Clarence Thomas. What a schmuck. What reality do these people live in? I'm baffled by the whole thing.

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    1. They'd like the hot weather even better if we got some rain.

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  4. I would love to hear Anita Hill's reaction to Clarence Thomas whining about being bullied. What a truly despicable, small-minded, incompetent man he is. He and his wife deserve each other. And the women of America deserve better that the treatment they are receiving from the court now. I hope people can be motivated to vote the Republicans into ignominy; otherwise the future is very bleak. Who can even recognize the United States any more?

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  5. The droughty areas sure are scattered. While in some areas of the hill country I found the soil as hard as their rock, I also saw the biggest spread of rain lilies I've ever seen -- miles and miles of them along the road around Hondo. What a difference an inch can make -- I hope we get our inch(es) soon. I'm sure glad that toe is healing just the way it should. The healing process is like a little miracle -- or a big miracle, if its one of our own body parts that's involved!

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    1. We have some small white rain lilies throughout the shop yard that bloom profusely every spring. I saw a clump of large white rain lilies on the side of the road my street ends at so I dug up some of them. They bloomed last week or so, maybe two weeks when we got a ½" or less of rain. I wish we'd get some real rain though. The toe has certainly been interesting. I want to see what it looks like without the scab.

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  6. Your flowers are so beautiful! Ellen- it's been getting down into the mid fifties here the last few nights! It's insane! And wonderful!
    Clarance Thomas and his wife are a mess and he should get his bullied ass off the court.
    Glad your toe is healing. What a process that's been!

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    1. I can't believe his wife isn't being investigated. I bet Anita Hill has something to say about being bullied.

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  7. Your toe makes me ache! Blood doesn't bother me, as an ER nurse, not much does. But teeth and toes make me ache in sympathy! Love all the flowers, mine are finally starting to come alive. The world as gone crazy. Trump is on all the ads on TV promoting all the crazies. I turn it off at the sound of his voice. A good rule of thumb is not to vote for anyone Trump supports.

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    1. I don't think I would ever move to a red state. Of course, I live in one but we'll see how the next elections comes out. I just do not understand the hold that lunatic has on the republican party.

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  8. I think it's reasonable for the government to provide security for the justices. But Clarence Thomas, please -- cry me a river!

    Too many plants -- a common gardening problem. :)

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    1. Why do they need security? From all reports, things are peaceful. It's the republicans who resort to death threats.

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  9. Gorgeous flowers! I was thinking the same thing about security for SCOTUS. Seems hypocritical (although yes I guess they need security since that new opinion is so unpopular).

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    1. Except as far as all reports go except for those from republicans who are lying about it, the protests have been peaceful so there is no threat to them or their families. Their all for the right to protest unless they are the ones beings protested.

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  10. In the 90s the SC ruled that people demonstrating at the homes of PP workers was protected free speech. How is the current situation different?
    Louisiana is covering itself with glory, writing new laws banning Plan B, and contraception.
    It's a good time to be old.

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    1. And I would not characterize those protests as peaceful unlike the ones at the homes of the justices. Schumer was asked about whether he though protests at the justices homes were right. His reply was something like as long as they are peaceful, that he himself has protesters outside his home several days out of every week.

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  11. Ugh, that toe. You deserve a medal!
    We were just debating what to do with the yarrow aka weed that is literally everywhere this year. I think anybody attempting to sell it a plant sale here would get a hard stare but we would definitely pay gold for any of the gorgeous lilies you have.

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  12. I look forward to seeing your coral box come into being. Your process and artistry are wonderful to follow.

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