the weekend

I accomplished two things Saturday. Two months after Big Mama made her last and successful break for the wild life, the pond pump quit working. These dudes cost around $80 and I wasn’t springing for another one for a pond full of minnows. Minnows survive in puddles fer cryin’ out loud so I’m not worried about them and besides now they get their fill of mosquito larvae. Good job fishies. So Saturday, six months after Big Mama’s big prison break I finally dismantled the pond filter and cleaned it out for the last time, for the time being anyway, left it all out to dry in the sun and then put it away in the barn.

The other thing I did was use the hedge clippers to cut down all the gone by and dead red salvias between the long day lily bed and the fence sections between my property and the Wicked Bitch of the West’s property, which her son finally did come out and mow last week. Do I have a before picture? Who are we kidding, it’s me, of course not. I could take a picture of the pile I accumulated or the now clear stretch of ground but, eh, boring. So trust me, it’s a big improvement and I can now walk back there. I came in hot and sweaty and sat under the fan nekkid until I was dry enough and cool enough to put some clothes back on. And then of course I was useless the rest of the day.

I did manage to work on my skirt a little bit. Took me two tries and the use of the seam ripper to get the pocket back in correctly and then I sewed the side seam. Now I’m ready to gather it and sew on the waist band, run the elastic and be finished.

I had planned for Sunday to be a lazy day, not work outside, not get hot and sweaty, make progress on the book I’m reading, work on my skirt but my grandson Mikey called yesterday, he was over at the shop. He had come by on Saturday to talk to me about renting space in the shop to do some side work on cars. We struck a deal and he showed up Sunday to start cleaning out, moving the stuff in the bay he will use. So he and a friend not only moved everything out of that bay but they moved stuff around in the big bay getting it more organized, more organized, but it’s still a mess in there. So I spent a good deal of time in the shop trying to make decisions about what to throw out and where to put things getting hot and sweaty anyway. I did manage to gather and pin the waistband on my skirt later.

The orange cosmos are in full bloom, 

been seeing a few butterflies…a queen, a few fritillaries, a sulfur, and some long tails but mostly they won’t cooperate for pictures.

One more picture, the night blooming cereus, the whole plant (you can see some of the spent blooms dangling). It’s huge and very hard to get it moved into the garage for the winter. I’m probably going to have to prune it back some before it’s time to move it this year.

miscellania

It’s baby anole time. I’ve seen a few, one this morning, but they are so skittish when newly hatched that it’s impossible to get a picture of the tiny things. I’ve been seeing quite a few fritillaries in the yard on the zinnias and when I emptied the kitchen scraps onto the compost pile Friday I set the container on the table outside before I rinsed it out while I picked up more fallen dead limbs and branches. When I went to retrieve it to rinse it out there were three fritillaries on it so I left it for later.

I mentioned my tomatoes were blooming again which is unusual at this point. Even if they do bloom they won’t set fruit when the daytime temperatures get above 85˚ or nighttime temperatures are above 75˚ which brings tomato production to a screeching halt during our summers. Nevertheless, one plant has 7 new little tomatoes on it.

I was pretty productive yesterday. Vacuumed every room in the house except for the living/dining combination which I’ll get to today, and used my little leaf blower to clear the barn of leaves, short of moving everything away from the walls, and the concrete apron where we park the cars (most of our driveway is gravel), and the deck. The batteries seem to be holding up so I don’t know what the glitch was the last time I tried to use it.

For all the Trump campaign has been boasting about getting a bazillion dollars donated after Trump’s conviction, they seem to be a little desperate. I had 8 emails from the Trump campaign this morning in my suspect file, from which I get a report every day so I can winnow out any that are legit, either begging for money or hawking Trump’s merchandise. I thought I had blocked that domain already though apparently not or else it’s a new one. Anyway, it’s blocked now. To be honest, the democrats can be just as bad at soliciting donations which is why I no longer sign petitions or answer the surveys they send via the text app or email because if you do then guess what happens next.

Prisms all over the walls and ceiling of the room where my crystals hang in the window this morning as the sun pierced through a hole in the foliage. 

butterfly, flowers, and the appointment

I took the kitchen scraps out to the compost pile last Sunday and there were about a dozen fritillaries feeding on the watermelon rinds dumped the day before. They all flew up and this little one landed on my finger. I didn’t have my camera/phone on me so I walked back to the house and back outside all the while this one stayed on my finger. It seemed reluctant to leave but flew away when I blew on it after I took the picture.

And my tomatoes are blooming. What’s up with that? They’re not supposed to bloom when it gets this hot. Guess I’ll wait and see if they set fruit.

Yesterday was the appointment with the neurosurgeon and while I was trying to stay calm on the drive in and while waiting and then again in the room, my blood pressure was high when she took it, was it always this high she asked, depends on my anxiety level. Don’t be anxious she said, changed cuffs and took it again, still high but lower. Then the NP came in and took my history and family history, asked about any sudden deaths in my family. Yes, my father died of a massive stroke after surviving one and my sister just this last November, ischemic stroke with brain bleed, looking for a genetic history of aneurysm I guess. She questioned the ischemic part of my sister’s diagnosis, that ischemic stroke didn’t cause brain bleeds and also my father’s saying that stroke didn’t cause sudden death. So there’s a big question mark there as neither were autopsied. The neurologist in the ER when my sister died said it was an ischemic stroke and while it wasn’t usual, it could be accompanied by brain bleed if the artery became weak and friable from the blockage. So who knows. I did look it up when I got home and found several reliable sources that said bleeding in the brain after an ischemic stroke could happen. Then she tested me finger to nose, following her fingers with my eyes not my head, how many fingers in my peripheral vision, that sort of thing. She answered most the questions I had written down to my satisfaction, a couple she deferred to asking the doctor.

The doctor came in and I liked him immediately, friendly and casual. He showed me a picture of the basilar artery in my brain and the bulge that was previously diagnosed as a fusiform aneurysm, I think from the MRI, which was gray and fuzzy. He pointed out the shape which seemed to have a point and that there was a very faint line coming off of it that could be a branching off to the right from the artery like the one on the other side branching off to the left which was still blurry but more visible. Then he showed me a picture of (not my brain) the arteries as seen from a cerebral angiogram which was black, sharp, and clear. He told me there was a 25% chance it was not an aneurysm and if it is, not necessarily the difficult to repair fusiform type, could be the bubble type, hard to determine from that image. I asked him if it was fusiform (meaning an oval shaped bulge in the artery, not a bubble off to one side) could it be repaired. He said yes and gave me two methods, one of which was cutting a piece out of my skull and performing brain surgery (I’ve forgotten what the other method was, maybe a stent) but it would have to be much bigger and dangerous before he would consider that. If it turns out it is the fusiform kind then controlling my blood pressure and regular imaging would be the treatment since it is high blood pressure that causes aneurysms to enlarge and blow. I suppose if it’s the bubble type that could still be the treatment plan, that or repair. I’ll know what I’m facing after the angiogram.

So the cerebral angiogram has been scheduled for July 9th. I’ll have to go in several days before to get bloodwork done and blood pressure taken, will have to be there for the procedure at 5:30 AM. I’ll be awake he said, given some sedative that will cause me to sleep if I relax into it, it’s a quick procedure, half hour max, shouldn’t feel a thing, maybe a little prick when they go into the artery in my groin. And it’s possible the electrophysiologist will do the Watchman procedure after the angiogram in which case I’ll be staying overnight in the hospital.

My double purple althea (rose of sharon).

ditch work, butchered tree, pho, and flowers

The plan was to get up early yesterday morning and get out there with the trimmer and do the ditch. Best laid plans and all that. I didn’t wake up, deep in dreams, until my pill alarm went off at 8:30. So it was after 11 before I got out there and oh yay, I needed gas for the trimmer. One more delay but I finally got going about noon. Did the longest half and started on the other half when the second tank of gas ran out and I was done. Two full tanks of gas in a row is about all I’m good for. Today I got out there a little after 11 and finished the other side and then since there was still plenty of gas in the trimmer I went around the edges of the flower beds and around the trees in the big back yard and omg why won’t this thing run dry! Finally, hot and sweaty, I came in a little before noon. I figure it takes about 45 minutes to use up a full tank of gas. It took a good 25 minutes under the fan on high before I cooled off enough to take a shower before we went out for lunch.

We found out there is a Vietnamese restaurant in Eagle Lake, a very small town, less than 3500 residents about 26 miles away so we decided to try it as we both like Vietnamese food and haven’t been to one since we moved out here where barbecue and Mexican food are about your only choices. There is a new Italian restaurant (the previous one closed) but we haven’t been there as Italian food isn’t high on our list. Anyway, the Vietnamese place is primarily a pho and fried rice menu with some beef and chicken dishes and the typical appetizers. I’ve had pho - basically a big bowl of broth filled with asian noodles and meat or shrimp with a side plate of bean sprouts, cilantro, and other green herbs that you add to your taste - once before and wasn’t all that wowed but I thought I’d try it again. It was decent but still not wowed so I doubt I’ll ever order pho again.

Friday it appeared the people who bought the house across the street were having the live oak in the front yard taken down, a mature gorgeous maybe even 70 year old tree. The previous residents would have a crew come in every year and do good tree work, trimming back the branches that were growing over the roof but keeping the shape of the canopy. The crew that showed up yesterday were cutting off/out whole limbs. It’s a shame and a sin and just downright heartbreaking and I imagine their electric bill is going to double at the very least. Why would anyone cut down a glorious shade tree when our summers here are climbing to triple digits for months. This is what it looked like this morning after they cut on that tree all day yesterday. 

OK, so I guess they aren’t cutting down the whole tree. The crew came back today to cut a little more out but mostly just cut up the stuff still on the ground from yesterday and hauled it all away. They seem to be gone for good but they butchered the fuck out of that tree, cutting any hope that even the tiniest branch had of maybe growing towards the roof, completely denuded bluntly cut limbs sticking out. Why they didn’t just take those naked limbs off completely I have no idea.

In the yard…the amaryllis are almost done but the byzantine gladioli are starting up.

I had three or four poppies come up this year, one of which was the multi frilly petaled one that looks like a pom-pom.

A shot of the back flower bed with tomatoes, squash, and potatoes in front; confederate rose, poppies, crinum lilies  and banana trees getting bigger behind that; and behind that clasping leaved coneflowers coming into bloom and waning evening primrose.

A nice clump of love-in-a-mist over at the other house.

There was a queen butterfly on the german verbena but the camera wouldn’t focus on it but I did get this good pic of a fritillary.

she's back, she as in me

Success! Actually, it was really easy. When the mini was first set up Greg made me create a password to get past the start-up screen for security purposes (as if it isn’t just Marc and I here but OK) and when I would be through for the day I would just put the mini to sleep. Monday, the power flickered off and on and the mini shut down. Alright, no problem, I restarted and typed in the password. Nope, typed it in again and still nope. Tried my Apple ID password and still nope. Nope nope nope. Well, fuck. Got hold of Greg and he walked me through changing my password, restart, type in the new password…nope. So then we tried a number of things all of which were unsuccessful and then the cable went out and I lost internet access and the mini went to sleep until this morning when our schedules aligned again. So restart again, type in the original password again and no, typed it in again and no (the point being to get the response after three wrong tries to change the password) but the third time I decided to type in the new password from Monday expecting it to be rejected as it had been on Monday and, whoa! It worked. Apparently it had to sit on it for a while or who knows, maybe it was because the cable was out and we didn't realize it yet, but I’m back in.

It was actually kind of nice, I didn’t really think about it. Did my yoga routine in the mornings, finally packed up all those glass jewels and clear lenses I promised my friend in Colorado months ago, got some weeding done in the yard, cut back a lot of dead stuff, moved some of the plants out of the house and garage.

Tuesday was my annual check-up…blood sugar 3 points over the high; A1c .2 over the high so edging into pre diabetes which runs in my family but she said it would have to get significantly worse before she would recommend medication; cholesterol about 50 points over the high so not so bad and same as it always is so I’ve always refused medication in the past. Key word, in the past, but now things have changed. My father died of a massive stroke when he was the age I am now, my mother died in her mid 70s from cumulative damage from TIAs, and now my older by three years sister has died of a massive stroke. So what’s that mean for me, I asked. That you are at risk of having a stroke. Even though I take a blood thinner? Yes, even though. She recommended lowering my cholesterol, what did I want to do. I do not want to have a stroke. OK, she says and sent a new prescription in for the med.

Today was Groundhog Day and for the first time in what seems like decades the little critter did not see its shadow and so spring is just around the corner. I believe it. It got up to 73˚ today with a mostly blue sky and I saw my first crane fly today. Fitting I suppose since it's my personal harbinger of spring. Now the wind has picked up and it’s mostly overcast with storm clouds, supposed to rain tomorrow. 

I’d been collecting these photos of the few butterflies I saw this fall just before and after my sister died but there were always other things to blog about so here they are finally, taken in November and December.

monarch

swallowtail

a tattered red admiral

fritillary

hairstreak

And the 10 petal anemone and redbud tree mentioned in my last post.

excellent results, more shop and garage work, local life

Well, aren't we happy about the results of the elections yesterday. It wasn't a clean sweep for Democrats but they did extremely well. Americans are weary of and rejecting the extremism and downright meanness of MAGA and the Republican party but according to Marjorie Taylor Green, republicans lost because they weren't extreme enough and republicans are too nice...talk about a disconnect from reality. Now democrats need to build on this momentum for the 2024 elections.

Instead of devoting whole posts to the political malfeasance of the group trying to force minority rule I think I'm going to just insert things as I come across them into ordinary posts. Unless of course I'm particularly inspired. So we'll see how that goes and here's today's item:

Trump and his MAGAts go on about how Biden is destroying this country and yet House republicans have introduced “a bill to cut more than 64% from [the budget for] Amtrak, as well as other significant parts of the country’s passenger rail system. Most of the cuts would come from the heavily traveled northeast corridor, which carries about 800,000 people a day and serves the region that produces about 20% of the country’s gross domestic product...In contrast, President Biden today announced $16.4 billion in railroad investment from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law in the northeast corridor. It will rebuild century-old tunnels and bridges and upgrade tracks, power systems, signals, stations, and other infrastructure, enabling higher speeds on the route and cutting delays.” - from Heather Cox Richardson's newsletter Nov. 6. So once again republicans show how little they care about our infrastructure and the lives of ordinary Americans by devastating the budget for a system that people depend on to get where they need to go safely. They also voted to reduce the Transportation Secretary's pay to $1.

I'll probably put the political item at the bottom in future but I wanted to lead with the election results.

Last weekend I spent more time over at the shop adding to the trash pile and salvaging two metal shelving units that had been in the back storage area against the outside wall where the roof leaks and so they were very dirty and rusty. I sprayed them with Ospho to arrest the rusting and then used all my various leftover cans of spray paint to repaint them. Once I got all four (had already moved two) away from the wall I could access the crates and containers of all the clear textured glass from small pieces

to nearly full sheets plus some colored glass, bevels of all shapes and sizes, and all the glass jewels and lenses leftover from our commission architectural carved glass business. The jewels and lenses will go to a friend in Colorado but all the rest I posted on FB free for the taking. Two women showed up on Monday and between the two of them they hauled everything away plus the big crate and the ball mill and a box of craft use cookie cutters. Woo hoo!

Yesterday I cleared and rearranged the garage to accommodate bringing the plumerias and other tender potted plants in for the winter. Believe me when I tell you all that clear space was filled with recycling, a lawnmower, trimmer, leaf blower, chain saw, heavy extension cord and other boxes of miscellanea.

Seen in the yard...the pink trumpet flower shrubby viney thing has outdone itself this late summer/fall despite the horrid heat and drought of summer.

The mist flower is blooming and slowly spreading.

I happened to notice the pink penta had been chewed to within an inch of its life and further investigation exposed this, the caterpillar of a tersa sphinx moth.

Rummaging through a viney leafy ground cover for fallen pecans I uncovered this beautiful southern leopard frog. It sat motionless...if I don't move she can't see me. Usually this guy leaps away before I even get sight of it.

The monarchs are starting to migrate through.

I saw very few butterflies this summer and so far the mass migration of over 20 different butterflies has not made an appearance like it did last year.

And Cat, totally owning the place.

odds, ends, and a thug tug

Let me start out by saying if you don't follow Jeff Tiedrich on Post or Twitter (if you are still on Twitter) or his webpage, you are missing out on one astute clever dude. He makes me laugh all the time with his reports and opinions on the political scene. Here's a link to his post today, Andy Warhol's Garbage. 

I did my home yoga routine this morning for the first time since I injured my knee two weeks ago and boy could I tell even though I went to all three classes last week. There were only two asanas that I felt any kind of twinge in my right knee and one that I thought I wouldn't be able to do I did with no complaint. I can sit in verasana (Japanese style with my legs folded under me) but I still can't kneel directly on the knee.

The sun decided to celebrate Pride this morning (well, every morning really).

I spent yesterday putting up all the tomatoes taking up space in the fridge. I divided them up and made a smaller batch of tomato sauce and the others I skinned and cut up and stewed and it all went in vacuum sealed bags in the freezer. Before I sealed up the stewed tomatoes I drained a lot of the liquid off as they were too watery and froze that in an ice cube tray to add into soups and stews and anything else that needs a little liquid. 

I've been seeing butterflies...frittilaries, swallowtails, crescents, a satyr comma, sulfurs, skippers mostly on the zinnias though I don't know what this one is. It looks like a long tail except no long tail.

It's the time of year for baby anoles to start hatching. While I was deadheading the zinnias this morning I saw this tiny one. Can't have been out of its egg for very long.

The last time I belonged to the garden club here was pre-covid so probably 2019. I'm no longer a member because I started volunteering at SHARE and the meeting falls on the same day I volunteer (there's other reasons too). Anyway, members would bring plants to share and one meeting there was a box of miscellaneous bulbs. I took about half a dozen and put them in pots. Eventually some of them bloomed and I had a jonquil and a yellow surprise lily but the bulb I knew was a crinum did not. The first arctic vortex killed off the smaller bulbs and I planted the crinum in the ground. It has grown and multiplied but not bloomed until now. The biggest bulb is sending up a bloom stalk and the flowers peeking out are pink. That makes me happy since that same arctic vortex killed off my pink ones that were in a pot. I was afraid it was going to be red (which I have and love) or white spider lily (which I also have and love).

The Mexican bird of paradise likes this heat and has started blooming.

------------

Interesting little thug tug of war went on in Russia yesterday. Prigozhin resisted Putin demands that the Wagner Group sign a loyalty pledge to Russia Putin and join the Russian forces. Prigozhin says bite me. Putin says do it or else. Pregozhin says, OK, pay me. Putin's forces fire on Prigozhin's forces. Prigozhin takes Rostov to cheers and says, I'll see you in Moscow. Almost there and Prigozhin calls off the march to Moscow on the pretense of not wanting to spill Russian blood after coming to an agreement with Belarus' president Lukashinko. Prigoshin gets to scurry off to Belarus, Putin 'promises' amnesty for him and the soldiers who took part in the mutiny and the Wagner group fighters will sign a contract with Russia's Minister of Defense bringing them under Putin's control. I have some advice for Prigozhin...stay on the ground floor at all times and get a food taster.

snippets of life around here

Happy Halloween! I did a post in 2010 on the kids' Halloween costumes spanning 10 years, almost all of which I made, so if you want to see their choices, go here.

More butterflies out there Sunday on that clear blue sky warming day. Not nearly the quantity but nearly the same variation as last week, mostly fritillaries, monarchs, 

and long tails but also pipevine swallowtails, a giant swallowtail, a very tattered buckeye, a gray hairstreak, a great purple hairstreak that flashed iridescent blue in flight (first time to see this one),

cloudless sulfurs, skippers, a julia, definitely a queen, and one or two others, maybe a different long tail and a silvery skipper neither of which I could get a good picture of or the queen or the giant swallowtail. And bees, lots of bees including this different one, also not a very good picture as it moved just as I tapped the button.

Speaking of bees, these tiny things were all over the sword leaf blooms and while they look like bees they are actually hover flies.

This caterpillar was crawling across the mat outside the garage door. I have no idea what it is but it was over 3” long. The closest I've come to identifying it is an imperial moth caterpillar.

Moving on from butterflies to a succulent bloom about an inch in diameter.

The confederate roses are almost done.

Cat wants to be part of the puppy pile but Minnie is wary. That lump to Cat's left is Minnie under the blanket. Cat has curled up touching us both. All is well until Minnie realizes that it is Cat up next to her.

Moving on from the natural world to the unnatural world, WTF are they thinking? Do clothing designers just hate women? A dress at the Evil Empire. What you can't really tell is that the neckline has a ruffled collar and the bottom 12” of this shapeless sack is a ruffle.

I have a new pair of yoga pants that is black with turquoise insets but no top to wear with them so while I was there I thought I would look to see if they had some kind of matching top so I could be chic and fashionable and I found this on the clearance rack, cost me all of $2.

Spied at SHARE, a donation from the Evil Empire (yes I have to give them credit for donating the stuff not fresh enough to sell instead of just throwing it away), a salad kit, see how nice and green the picture is,

flip it over and see what it really looks like.