busy day and bone health

*I'm keeping this up for a while to make sure everyone who checks in now and then sees it. I assume those who already get email notices will continue to get them up until July when the 'follow by email' stops functioning. I've reinstalled the blogger 'follow me' widget.

I did manage to download the subscriber list with over 1,000 spam 'subscribers' all from outlook.com and all within a couple of months after I first put the widget on my sidebar. I ended up with 23 legit subscribers. So, starting in July, my intention is to email links to the group when I publish a new post. If you are in this group but do not wish to continue receiving notices of new posts, just reply with 'remove'.

Still can't figure out why my pictures won't open full size when you click on them. Most my images are 10” in the longest dimension, sometimes 12”, sometimes 8”. There must be a setting somewhere but I can't find it. I usually drag my images from the desktop to the post body but this time I'll use the 'add image' function to see if that makes a difference.

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Thursday was a busy day. Spent my morning at SHARE, then after lunch I used the trimmer to cut the ditch in front of Pam's house (two gas tanks worth of time) including the large patch of poison ivy (that I've poisoned TWICE) that had started growing and while I was wearing a hat, sunglasses, long pants, and boots, I did have on a short sleeved shirt so when I finished that I peeled off the long pants full of poison ivy juice and jumped in the car (yes, I did put on other pants) and went to the feed store for the poison ivy soap they sell and another container of brush/stump killer to treat the poison ivy with again when it puts on more new growth. Then I scrubbed the exposed skin on my arms and neck with the soap and so far so good.

Next was walking the dog, then washing the dishes of which I only got the plates done because I was also fixing the roasted cauliflower recipe that Ms Moon sent me (and it is really good). I figured I would have time to wash the utensils during one of the two 15 minute roasting times but alas that did not happen. I had asked my sister to pick me up a small jar of green olives when she went to the store which she did saying it was the only small jar they had and I didn't realize they weren't pitted until the cauliflower was in the oven and I was ready to make the dressing. With chopped up green olives. Turns out you can't just pit a green olive like you can a cherry. I had to pare as much of the olive off the seed as I could until I had 1/3 cup. So there went my utensil washing time. Also, the recipe called for pancetta or bacon, no pancetta, I'll just use bacon but it wasn't until I was making it that I realized they must have meant canadian bacon because I was supposed to cut it up into 1/8” cubes. No way was I going to cut up four slices of raw bacon into 1/8” cubes so I fried it and crumbled it and just sprinkled it on after the cauliflower had finished roasting.

If you're not interested in my bone health you can skip the next paragraph.

Yesterday I had a follow up appointment with my primary care doc to discuss the results of my bone scan. They scan two areas, the femur and the lumbar spine and there are two scores for each, the T score which is a healthy woman of childbearing age and the Z score which is the average norm for post-menopausal women. Women tend to lose bone density as the estrogen levels decline. My previous scan was five years ago so in five years, my femur went from a Tscore of -2.2 to -2.6 and a Zscore of -0.6 to -0.9 so a slight decrease. The lumbar spine went from a Tscore of -2.5 to -3.1 and a Zscore of -0.5 to -1.0 so a larger decrease in bone density there. Five years ago my chance of a bone fracture was 12.5% within 10 years. My doc calculated my current risk of fracture with the new data and that has increased to 13.something% now. Still pretty good odds. She didn't recommend the medication because she knows I won't take it (heinous side effects and not that effective) and because of my general health and activity levels. She did recommend exercises to strengthen core muscles (which I do some already) to help protect my lumbar spine. I really like my doctor, she's an osteopath so open to proactive health measures like diet and exercise and supplements as opposed insisting on meds for every condition though she will prescribe them if/when needed.

It rained off and on all day yesterday which we really needed and I spent the rest of the day doing nothing including not washing the utensils.

Since I need an image or two to test the whole embiggin thing here's a picture of my sister, brother and me taken the night before he left. Pam is the oldest, then me (on the left), the rebellious middle child, then John, the baby. Not a great picture of me but whatcha gonna do?

And this of two carpenter bees on the rocket larkspur.

Edit: yay! The images embiggin!

 

chilly nights and spring flowers

*I'm keeping this up for a while to make sure everyone who checks in now and then sees it. I've gone ahead and removed the 'follow by email' function since it's going to be dysfunctional starting in July. I assume those who already get email notices will continue to get them up until then. I've reinstalled the blogger 'follow me' function. I initially took it down because my follower count stayed stagnant for years. Once again, if you do follow by email you will have to be more pro-active to see my posts either through bookmarking or getting a blogger account (no blog required) and follow that way but you will still have to go to it instead of it coming to you. One person suggested that readers use Feedly. I don't know anything about it but you might check it out. And I'm supposed to be able to download the subscriber list. If that happens I can create a group and email the notification of a new post myself so I'll look into that.

Before I get on with the post, can anyone tell me why, when I click on an image in my blog and the window opens with all the pictures as icons across the bottom, my image shows up small instead of the full size image it is. When I click on images in other blogs to 'embiggin', they open full size. There must be a setting somewhere but I can't find it.

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Our brother John left for home early Friday morning. The weekend continued to be overcast and chilly with the sun finally starting to come out Monday. Yesterday it was completely clear and warm. I did some weeding around the day lilies Monday and finally got the 7 little banana trees planted after I dug them up to reclaim the border of the flower bed which I still have not reconstructed. Over the weekend I planted another bunch of zinnia sprouts but I don't have high hopes for their survival. I don't know why they never took off.

Another survivor, the purple orchid tree finally put out new growth from the roots. I'm sure that's the last of the survivors. I'm giving the hibiscus, bougainvillea, star of india, and the desert rose trumpet flower bush 10 more days but they are dead. And another surprise fatality, the rain tree at the back of the property died. I'm actually not sad about that as it was not a pretty shaped tree in that it is crowded by an oak and wild grape vines are constantly invading it and every damn seed pod it dropped produced trees. I'm tired of pulling up rain trees everywhere. And while the big tallow tree in the little backyard came out fully, the two small ones along the drive are mostly dead from about halfway up. My neighbor's small tallows have done the same.

Spring keeps getting interrupted here what with the arctic freeze and the near week of overcast and chilly weather last week and the cool nights this week so far. The larkspur and the love-in-a-mist are just now starting to bloom, way behind schedule but other things have come and gone. I worked out in the yard all day yesterday, finally decided to put the porterweed in the ground so I did. Then I fertilized the azaleas and roses, weeded the front flower bed. My friend Debbie came by with a small volunteer Texas mountain laurel tree from her big one and I got it potted so I can baby it til it gets over the shock of being dug up. Meanwhile I'll figure out where to plant it. Then I went around looking for the poison ivy and pecan trees I had spotted but damn if I could find them again.

More pictures of blooming things...

some things really liked that frigid week like the pink roses all over town, I've never seen them bloom this profusely.

And the pink climbing rose as well.

The canopy overhead was full of roses.

The mock dogwood also seemed to like it.

The poppies continue to be brilliant.

And the indigofera is outdoing itself this year.

It's third spring, the columbine finally decided to bloom.

The maroon japanese iris are also plentiful but that may be because they have multiplied.

The yellow angel trumpet is unbelievable. There are 17 open flowers in this picture. I've had two in the ground (both now dead) but neither ever got this big or bloomed this much as this one in the pot. The minute I stepped out yesterday evening the scent was so strong I could smell them on the other side of the house.

Ten flowers in this picture.

Most of this is still blooming but the pink roses and mock dogwood have gone by.

another day trip

*Minor changes to the blog layout. I've gone ahead and removed the 'follow by email' function since it's going to be dysfunctional starting in July, no sense in more people signing on that way for just two months or so. I assume those who already get email notices will continue to get them up until then. And I've reinstalled the blogger 'follow me' function. I initially took it down because my follower count stayed stagnant for years and it was depressing to look at. Once again, if you do follow by email you will have to be more proactive to see my posts either through bookmarking or getting a blogger account (no blog required) and follow that way but you will still have to go to it instead of it coming to you.

Our trip to Washington-On-The-Brazos was on Monday. Tuesday besides going to the grocery store and taking the recycling, I worked over at the shop yard cutting up all the dead branches to a more manageable size from the huge yellow bells, purple orchid tree, and the morning glory bush that I pruned off last Sunday hauling it to the burn pile. Wednesday we had planned to go to Galveston for the day but John, our brother who is a very handy guy, got started on a project for Pam at her house replacing the faucet in her sink with a dragon faucet. 

What should have been a simple switch out took one and a half days, two trips to Lowe's, three trips to El Campo, one trip to Tractor Supply, and an order from Amazon and lots of muttering and stomping around. While that was going on, I planted another batch of my zinnia sprouts which may or may not survive.

So we went to Galveston, a two hour drive away, on Thursday instead. Galveston has a touristy historical district called The Strand full of grand old restored buildings,

bars and restaurants, and touristy and other shops. We walked down to one end, had lunch, and walked back on the other side going into this shop or that  where we saw more questionable sodas and clone serum among other things.

Did they really expect to sell clothespins for $1 a piece?

Seed pod nativities,

if only.

We thought these were hilarious back in the far corner of a christmas shop.

Flavored salt and wild beast jerky

    

and jewelry for what ails you (the full list had about 40 items on it).

Part of a big mural on the side of one building.

Then we drove down the seawall and eventually parked and walked down the stairs to the beach. It was overcast and chilly and windy so we didn't tarry long.

About 4:30 we headed back home and were about halfway when Pam's car emitted a soft little whistle. What was that, I asked. Don't know she says, no warning lights on the dash. A few minutes later, another sort of a thunk and a whizz and the battery light came on and the power steering failed. John took over driving Pam's Honda Pilot and we managed another half hour before the automatic transmission started thunking and clunking and jerking so we pulled into a gas station about a half hour from home. John lifted the hood, well, there's the problem, the serpentine belt is gone. The belt that causes all sorts of things to work, like the alternator and the power steering. Called AAA and a tow truck would be forthcoming. Meanwhile I called Marc to come pick John and I up since only one person could ride in the tow truck. He arrived and we waited till the tow truck arrived which was about 20 minutes after that, it was our own Poor Farms wrecker service in Wharton and since he knew where to take the car Pam rode back with us.

So, as they say, all's well that ends well. Pam talked to the mechanic Friday morning and it seems a bolt broke off which caused the loss of the serpentine belt. 

no politics, no covid, just mostly flowers

Foggy this morning which dissipated into enormous white puffy clouds in the blue sky. I ventured out about 9:30 and I could not believe how humid it was/is. When I came in I checked the weather app...96% humidity. At 11:30 it's 75%. This is why I tell people I live in the Gulf Coast. It's also why I have no patience with people who complain about the humidity when it's in the 50 and less percentile. It'd be nice if we got some rain out of this but we probably won't.

I did remember to set an alarm (thanks for the reminders) and the night blooming cereus did open last night. This is what it looked like at 9 PM.

And at 11 PM.

I've taken better pictures of these flowers when I had a flashlight to illuminate them indirectly instead of having to use the flash on my phone camera. These flowers are so delicate. This one must have been close to 7” in diameter outside petal tip to outside petal tip. And so sweetly scented. Can you imagine how gorgeous this plant and how fragrant the air was when it had a dozen blooms open at one time? Sorry I missed that.

The yellow trumpet flowers have been blooming as well but because they freeze down to the ground every year the plants are small and scraggly and my stingy pink one, which is really a good size because I managed to protect it last winter is finally putting on one flower and even it has some damage to it so no picture. There are three of these pink plants I see regularly on my travels around town and all three are covered with blooms. Mine gives me one at a time. If I'm lucky.

The firespike is putting out it's flowers.

The confederate rose (not a rose but a mallow) seems to be recovering from it's deformity, parts of them anyway. I'm getting some fully formed flowers.

The shrub that opens white is 12' tall. I kid you not, I measured it. The other one is just as tall. Here's what passes for a flower from one of the skinny pointy buds.

I mentioned that a few of the love-in-a-mist are sprouting way too early and a few poppies too but I have bluebonnet plants in the yard that are big enough to bloom. They shouldn't even have sprouted yet.

Remember my redbud tree in a pot that I thought might be dying? The new growth it sprouted at the bottom has continued to grow and the branch and twig tips on two of the three main limbs are all sprouting tiny leaves so I think I only lost one main limb.

The toad lilies are blooming though sparsely. I wasn't as good about fertilizing this year.

Steve Reed of Shadows and Light informed me of a problem with commenting on my blog due to the fact that it took forever to load. I had noticed that it was loading very slowly this month while other blogs I looked at loaded quickly but I didn't know about the commenting problem. Anyway, I went to the help button and quite a few people were having this same problem with slow loading. Thanks to several of the answers already received it turned out to be a problem with a Linkwithin widget using HTML that was no longer supported. That widget was the one that selected 3 older posts at random and added links to them at the bottom of any new post and it quit working when I switched my comment format to the one I have now but it didn't start causing problems until new Blogger was de rigueur. So, thanks Steve. I deleted the widget and now my blog loads quickly.

winter does not give way gracefully

I woke up yesterday morning to discover that the sidebar on my blog had mysteriously migrated to the bottom of my post. WTF Blogger? When I looked at my layout on the Dashboard, everything was in its proper place so I have no idea what was happening. Back to the blog I clicked on the 'edit' pencil, changed nothing, refreshed the page and voila, everything is back in its place.

I also woke up yesterday morning to winter, again...cold, overcast, and due to be wet with drizzle all day. Another delay in getting my raised beds ready for the spring garden. I got the small white one finished Monday and all the surface weeds and a little more than half of digging out the johnson grass in the small metal one, which is already falling apart, the 2x4s that the metal walls are nailed to having rotted away.

It was so dreary out there the dog didn't even want to go out. Me either. I had several options for indoor activity...sit on the couch under a blanket and read, sew the patch pockets on my skirt, play around with the modeling glass. I could fill the big drowned feather mold that's been sitting here since December but to do that I would have to clear off the folding table the sewing machine is set up on.

I opted for sewing on the pockets, which is now accomplished and the sewing machine and paraphernalia is put away, and then snuggled on the couch with a blanket, the dog, and book the rest of the day.

This morning was my follow-up appointment with the cardiac RNP. Episodes are down by half or more, no side effects from the meds so far, feeling good but then I never really felt bad. She didn't increase the beta blocker dose, fearing it would lower my pulse rate which was at 62. So, stick with the status quo, let my body continue to acclimate to the drugs and come back in a month, call if I get concerned. And thanks to everyone who commented about dealing with, living with afib. It helped.

It cleared up outside during my appointment and it turned into an unexpected pretty day. Coldish in the shade and wind. I got out there and worked on the raised beds, once again my last opportunity before the next three days which are supposed to be overcast and wet though not quite so cold. I got the small metal bed finished except for one corner where the fire ants moved in so  I gave them the 'treatment' and started getting the surface weeds out of the big metal bed and then it was time to walk the dog and get ready for yoga. 

I do like to dig. I like to smell the dirt, I like to crumble it through my fingers. I like the satisfaction of seeing a bed devoid of weeds ready to plant (though these aren't quite there yet).

Still being mobbed by goldfinches which I thought would have migrated through long ago. I'm having to fill the teacup and the bird feeder every other day or so. Lots of little volunteer sunflowers underneath.

I'll just close here with some spring porn...