more of the clown show and thought provoking reading

The crepe myrtles all over town are in full bloom. These are along the side of the barn.

I don’t know how many of you follow Jeff Tiedrich but if you want to laugh while crying and shaking your head in total dismay about the incompetence posing as the US government, really, read his Tuesday report of Trump and his not peace deal between Israel and Iran.  

I wrote the above yesterday. Today Trump gave a press conference at NATO. When asked why he hadn’t been able to end the war in Ukraine he responded that it is “more difficult than people would have any idea”. No Donny, it is more difficult than YOU had any idea. Everyone else with half a brain cell is well aware that peace in Ukraine isn’t possible because Putin has no intention of giving up until he absorbs all of Ukraine and Ukraine is just as determined to remain Ukraine. 

The ceasefire between Iran and Israel seems to be holding though, for now, but not because of Trump's all caps ’truths’ on his echo chamber but because Qatar negotiated. Despite Trump’s continued claim to the contrary of all evidence, Iran’s nuclear program was not destroyed and only set back by a few months or at most perhaps a couple of years, none of their nuclear material was lost, and it seems likely that the Iranians also moved whatever equipment they could. But Trump got to feel like a big bad ass and he will never admit that his strike was ever anything but a total success. If I was Iran I’d be lying my ass off claiming that the facilities were destroyed, because for Trump it’s not really about the result but the optics. Besides, he knows he's right because he said at the press conference that two Iranians went down there and took a look and then called him to say, yep, you did it, totally destroyed.

More rain Tuesday afternoon, another 2” on top of the almost 9” from the week before last and might get more today (we did). At least it’s giving us some respite from the heat since our highs for the next few days will only be in the 80s. Tuesday was also my semi-annual teeth cleaning and the practice has a new hygienist. My previous hygienist was a Trump supporter and while it didn’t leak out every time it did once in a while. She did a competent enough job even if she tended to rat me out to the dentist because I wouldn’t follow all her recommendations, like getting one of those water jet things, so I’m really glad she has moved to a different practice. This new young woman gave me good marks for keeping my teeth clean, said she didn’t have to do very much.

I might have mentioned I led the yoga class last Wednesday. Abby has been having some hip pain for about a year now and it finally got bad enough to go to the doctor. Turns out she has a tear in her hip and she will probably need surgery but before that the protocol is to do some kind of injection to deal with the pain. So she had the injection but it hadn’t kicked in yet and it turns out after she researched the diagnosis that some of the yoga asanas we do helped but others aggravated it so she’s going to have to modify what she can include in the class. Anyway, Monday she was still having significant pain so I led the class again. It’s possible I might be doing that more often depending on how the treatment for her hip goes.

I know I mentioned I get a daily newsletter from Nautilus that gives links to some fascinating reading on "thought provoking science stories" and while I’m not a paid subscriber which you have to be to get access to the all articles they do provide one free link in every newsletter. One recent newsletter was about the nature of consciousness and the free article was Is Matter Conscious? by Hedda Hassel Morch published March 31 2017, and yes, very thought provoking reading. It seems that consciousness is not the result of our brain activity but rather that the brain is the mechanism that our consciousness uses in the material world to navigate it and thereby not limited to humans as we like to think. It brings to mind the concept of cosmic consciousness and a small publication I read years ago published by the Theosophical Society titled The Consciousness Of The Atom which proposes that everything is conscious albeit in varying degrees and an excerpt from an article by Evan Thompson published on the psychology today blog that thinking isn’t generated by the brain, it just facilitates it, that Barbara Rogers posted on her blog Inner Workings.

The other free article in an issue devoted to intelligence is titled Another Path to Intelligence by James Bridle published August 17, 2022 focused on cephalopods whose brains and bodies are nothing like ours and yet are highly intelligent. Octopi particularly are fascinating. Their brains are not centralized like ours but extend through their bodies and into their limbs with their arms having the ability to act as independent minds. They demonstrate their intelligence whenever we humans try to keep them captive or study them as illustrated with anecdotes of their successful escape attempts, their ability to manipulate our environment, that they can recognize individual human faces. Their behavior in captivity and in the wild has shown that they learn, remember, know, think, consider, and act based on their intelligence. Clearly, “The tree of evolution bears many fruits and many flowers, and intelligence, rather than being found only in the highest branches, has in fact flowered everywhere.“.

sore muscles, rainbow, and other miscellania

I was really feeling achy for a couple of days, a little discomfort in my chest and back, and so Tuesday morning I called the doctor’s office and spoke with the nurse just to make sure that this was either normal or something to be concerned about or just from lack of any exercise for months which I had been used to doing. She spoke with the doctor, should not be experiencing any discomfort from the procedure, did I try any pain relief and if it continued to call back and they would schedule a stress test. So I took ibuprofen during the day which helped and by the evening felt fine so I decided it was option #3 and did a slow and modified version of my yoga routine before bed. I slept all night, waking only once to go to the bathroom and felt fine the next day. The discomfort has not returned but by end of the day Wednesday my arms and other parts of my body were so sore! Regardless, I did my routine again Wednesday night before bed and went to class last night. Just three days in a row of yoga and I already feel better, still have sore muscles after a long period of disuse but even that makes me feel better.

We’ve been getting rain nearly every day since Monday for which I’m glad because we really needed it, a little over 2 1/2” so far this week. It’s been much less hot if not exactly cooler but that is about to change as we are getting a first real cool front this weekend and will have lows in the 60s all next week, highs in the 80s. It was drizzling/sprinkling a little when I left yoga class last night and saw this on the way home. At first I stopped and pulled into a side street and took a picture through my windshield afraid it would fade before I got home, but it was still there when I turned into my street so I stopped again and got out and took this picture over the cotton field. It was a double rainbow, the one on top very faint but you can see it in the upper right corner. The color bands don’t really show up that well in my picture but they were very evident looking at it.

I haven’t worked much on my new drawing. The ink came and I got my print. Here’s my progress so far on one leaf which still needs a lot of work.

I guess I’m going to get out there today and load up the truck again even though I haven’t taken the accumulated metal to the recyclers yet. I’m more interested in getting rid of two more piles of broken tree debris. I took these pictures yesterday of one of the ‘legs’ holding up the hanging limb on one of the trees.

And last, walking around the yard earlier yesterday I spied this tiny just hatched anole.

just more grunt work in the yard and the peacock

clasping leaved coneflowers, the last of the spring wildflowers along with the queen anne’s lace, taking over from the spent evening primrose, at the back of the big backyard

Remember when I wrote on the 13th that I used the trimmer to cut the ditch in front of the shop yard that just 3 1/2 weeks prior my neighbor cut to the ground and had regrown about a foot? This is what it looked like Tuesday only 11 days later…at least four times the coverage and just as tall. I swear those grassy weeds grow 2” every day.

I got down in there Monday with the pump sprayer and doused those broad leafed weeds that send up the big stalks because they didn’t seem to be dying from being poisoned the first time after I cut the ditch and there were at least twice as many new ones.

My intention was to get down in there again yesterday and cut it while we are still having this cooler weather but once again I need gas for the trimmer and besides that I woke up with a stiff neck on the left side and an aching left shoulder and then I forgot Marc had an errand in the city so no ditch yesterday and it also turned out the cooler weather was already gone. Instead I hauled the full garden cart of broken downed branches from the storms over to the burn pile and then filled it up again, raked all the small sticks and leaves to the low spot on the west side of the house that Jade had brushed off the roof for me last time she was here, 

swept the concrete apron in front of the garage and barn while Marc was gone with the car, did some weeding, intended to dig the hole to sink the pot of one of the plumerias in its summer spot but too many fire ants which I then doused with diatomaceous earth. Fuckers (next day they still aren’t dead even though it says right on the bag it kills ants). 

Nothing much else to tell. Started setting up the sprinkler Monday and Tuesday because no rain in the forecast though that’s changed. Doesn’t mean we’ll get any. And the AC got repaired Monday after which we turned it off because we didn’t need it. Went to yoga last night and when Abby hadn’t shown up 5 minutes past class time I stepped up and led the class. Abby usually texts me when she can’t make it but it turned out she had just completely forgot preoccupied with some personal stuff. 

Lots of pictures piling up so maybe a photo dump next time. Til then here’s the local wandering peacock. He's looking much better than the last time I saw him so I guess he was molting back then.

my week

It’s raining this morning, still raining I should say as it started sometime last night. It’s a slow steady rain but constant and is bringing in three more nights of cold weather, one in the low 30s so I have to decide if I want to bring the stuff back in that I already moved outside. I was surprised to notice I haven’t posted since Monday when Jade came over with a bag of mending and alterations she wanted done. One of the projects, as she calls them, was to tie die a mustard yellow dress she had bought because while she didn’t care for the color she liked the little sun image in black on the front. So that was the first thing she did while I worked on removing the band at the bottom of a sweatshirt. She sent me this picture Tuesday morning after she unwrapped it and before she washed it.

She went to yoga with me that night and it was the biggest group in years, relatively speaking, 10 participants. All but one of the regulars and semi-regulars showed up plus two new women and Jade. Tuesday we finished up some of the mending/alterations and then she left in the afternoon heading back to Austin. And so since it was my night to cook I fixed one of the HelloFresh meals delivered last Saturday, Marc fixed another Wednesday night. Both were very good but even so still a little too pricey. I’ll fix the last tonight and then it’s back to planning my own meals.

Wednesday was a beautiful day and I managed to get out and start turning the soil and weeding to get ready for planting the spring garden and zinnias but now with this rain it will be a few days before it’s dry enough to do more. And then it was time for lunch, walk the dog, feed the half wild kittens, get ready for yoga and just as I was about to walk out the door Abby called at the last minute asking me if I would lead the class as she was tied up at the bowling alley, of which she is the manager, with some sort of training on the new equipment. So I did that.

Thursday we had a full complement of volunteers plus the elders at SHARE and were steadily busy with about 30 food orders, mostly the larger families. I took a picture of one of the four large bins of home goods we got from the regional food bank last week so you could see what I was talking about.

This is some of the stuff in those bins. Clients only get to choose something from here once a year.

Not much has started blooming yet besides the 10 petal anemone and my little dwarf redbud tree (this is the most it has ever bloomed). 

The one over at the shop is still just bare branches but the maple tree is blooming. I saw an ash tree starting to put out it's spring green yesterday while walking the dog. The chinese fringe flower trees are thinking about blooming producing a few clusters and the first of these little lilies whose name I can never remember that will blanket the yard soon but that’s about it. 

Coming back from feeding the wildlings I was chatting with my neighbor Gary who has recently been adopted by/adopted a big orange male tabby who roams the street. I’ve caught him over behind Pam’s house twice now. Gary’s thinking about getting him fixed so he will not roam so much. We both commented on how many stray cats there are around here lately. there’s always been a couple slinking around but several more now. There’s an orange and white male that a neighbor feeds but he stays outside, Gary’s orange tabby who just showed up in his yard one day, a black short hair that is completely wild, a gray and white male that I think fathered Momcat’s kittens (this is the kitten I call handsome boy),

Momcat of course, a black long hair cat that Gary mentioned which I had not seen until I walked to the back of the yard and Minnie had treed it,

and this big gray male (who also could be who fathered the kittens) hunkered down under the deck. Cat is not pleased.

I have no idea if they are all strays or belong to people in the area. So, yeah, that’s been my week.

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.

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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.

aging, grackles, and fire ants

 

The pecan trees are blooming. I've told all three of my trees to stop fooling around and I expect some pecans this year.

We had a small burial Saturday evening. Grandgirl Autumn's hedgehog Penelope, Autumn's companion for the last three or four years, reached the end of her life span and died last week. Autumn asked if she could bury her here and so we did, next to where my Emma kitty is buried.

I had my hair pulled back in a ponytail because it has gotten so long it's always in my face and I hate having hair in my face obscuring my vision and getting in the way and just being a general nuisance when Autumn remarked on how white it was at my temple. When did that happen, she asked. It's been happening for a while, just not very noticeable with my hair down. At nearly 73, my hair is still predominantly brown but the gray has been steadily creeping in, especially this last year. I may be in for a shock myself when I get my summer cut.

This morning I've got the back door open listening to the birds chirp and twitter and the woodpecker out there who has found a nice sounding board as he tries to attract a mate. The wind chimes are singing in the slight breeze. I can see the bird bath from where I sit and right now there's a male cardinal getting a drink. Cat is crouched under the yellow ginger thinking she's going to get a squirrel if one comes for the peanuts I threw out.

And what is up with the grackles this year? Usually they swoop in in a big flock, forage for a couple of days, and then swoop off to annoy another neighborhood two or three times a year. Not so this year. There are two or three scouts that are plaguing me and my sister over our bird feeders. I'm having to chase them off constantly as they are big and loud and greedy and bully the other birds and eat all the seed and if I don't chase them off, next thing you know they've sent out the word and there's a dozen or more. I am not feeding grackles.

Sunday I spent the day killing fire ants. I forget how many times I filled the 5 gallon bucket, at least four, maybe five, probably five. I treated 22 fire ant mounds, an unusually high number, from a few small start ups to mostly humongous incubators and still missed at least three. After breakfast I mixed up two more 5 gallon buckets going back over the mounds at the edges of my flower beds and retreating the survivors trying to salvage eggs and regroup. Didn't get the mounds I missed because I used all the orange oil before I got to them. The stuff is expensive, about $30 for a quart, but it usually goes a little further than this year. I've probably got about 50 fire ant bites on my feet for my trouble.

As generally happens, I wrote the above yesterday and then ran out of time to post before it was time to walk the dog and go to yoga. I led the class last night and probably will Wednesday because Abby texted me a picture of the shingles she broke out with in and around her black eye that her son accidentally gave her with his elbow last week.

Some pics around the yard...

Isn't this the prettiest little viola?

The byzantium gladiolas are starting to bloom

as are the clasping leaved coneflowers.

A volunteer squash in the compost pile which I think is probably an acorn squash.

blue skies, rain of a different sort, and other changes

Three days in a row of sunny skies so of course they predicted rain for last night and today. If it rained last night it was very light, either that or a really heavy dew this morning. It's completely overcast, warm, and humid. Yesterday I used my little leaf blower to clear out the barn and clear the little patio outside the back door of all the leaves covering it, and by little I mean 9' wide by 6' deep where I laid down concrete squares. This morning it looked like this.

The big tallow in the little backyard did a major leaf drop last night and they are still drifting down. That cold spell triggered something because the maple, ginkgoes, and pecans are also raining leaves today. So it is raining, just a different kind.

Sunday I worked on two tasks, cleaning out the gutter across the front of the house over the deck 

and worked on clearing more vines. The gutter across the deck is problematic. It's not draining completely to the downspout at the end so water sits in the gutter and drips through a seam that is not sealed completely leaving a big wet spot on the deck which if left undealt with will eventually rot the wood in that spot. And during this hard rain while the rest of the gutter across the front of the house was doing its job, the section over the deck was pouring over like a waterfall. When I got the ladder out and took the screens off I found that it was full of dirt, so I cleaned that all out which is when I realized that it wasn't draining to the downspout. So now the end has to be lowered a bit so gravity can do its job. I do need to clean out the rest of the gutter to the other end but I need a taller ladder for that.

Here's my progress Sunday on the vines. I got the other short side of sheet metal out, spread out some of the mound of dirt on the right, and cleared all the vines up to the edge of the large metal raised bed.

before

after

My yoga class on Mondays and Wednesdays is coming to an end I think. Abby has been teaching for 10 years and she's more than a little burnt out coupled with she's been going through some rough personal stuff this year. There were no classes the last two weeks due to weather and the holiday and she was only going to hold class last night if I was going to come. Attendance has been low for months now and I told her there was no reason to hold the class just for me. I suggested she take the month off and reconsider after New Years. So that's where it stands now. Fortunately for the month of December, one of the attendees decided to get certified through her job in the school district, some program they offered, and is holding yoga class on Tuesday evenings and Thursday mornings. I won't go to the morning class as I go in the evening at Hesed House and also this way Abby can be in a class instead of leading it which she sorely needs at this point.

Here's my little winter garden. I thought I planted four cauliflower and five broccoli plants. I know the four are cauliflower because I bought those at the feed store. The broccoli my neighbor gave me and some cabbage that he had grown from seed. I thought I planted just the broccoli but judging by the shape of the leaves I think what I have is two broccoli and three cabbage. Time will tell I guess.

bonfire, rain, and bodily explosions

Correction on my previous post...Murdoch does not own the Washington Post, I meant the New York Post.

It's Saturday and it was raining when I woke up, not hard but a steady light rain. The weather prognosticators say it's going to rain all day and so far, yes, and that's fine as long as it's this same steady light rain. Of course I'm pretty sure that means no Farmers Market this morning and last week, while it wasn't raining it was cold and windy and wet. I did not venture out so I don't know if anyone bothered to set up or not. I wouldn't have.

Yesterday I torched the burn pile, had quite the bonfire going there for a few minutes while it consumed all the dry monster rose bush prunings and the mass of vines that I've cleared so far and whatever else had accrued before I piled those thing on top. Then I worked on the vines for about 40 minutes before I went in for lunch.

Moving further backward in time, Thursday at SHARE was busy, the most people ever since I've been volunteering there. We filled 42 food requests, mostly medium to large families. The little waiting to be interviewed area up front was packed when I got there at 9, which is when we open, and stayed packed until about 12:30 (we close at 1 PM). We were short one of the volunteers that do the interviewing so one of the guys that work in the back got pressed into service, I've been demoted, he told me. (We like our little niches in the back.)

Speaking of SHARE, it has become my first go to if I'm looking for a specific article of clothing as they have better quality than the thrift stores and...free. This summer I got two pairs of capris, one jeans and the other a lightweight cotton with lots of pockets and this fall a really nice blue long sleeve cotton shirt from L. L. Bean and when I told Jan I was looking for a lightweight jacket of sorts (she was still bringing the winter clothes out and putting away the summer clothes) she brought over five or six items...no, no, no, oh hell no, yes, no, no. The 'yes' is a buttery soft tailored suede like (but washable!) jacket. I love it.

And Thursday night is yoga at Hesed House here. One of the things about yoga is that some of the asanas and movements put pressure on your intestines that cause you to do something we try not to do in public. Like fart. And so, much to my chagrin, during one of the core strengthening exercises, I did. Now, it's not the first time I have farted during a yoga class but they've been barely audible little things. Not this time, no no, it was a sudden loud explosion and fortunately it was quick. I knew I had a fart building up but how do you stand up and excuse yourself for a minute in the middle of class while you go outside to release it. I was trying to have the proper muscles clamped down so it would release slowly, quietly but no such luck.

Ah well, no one laughed. Out loud anyway.

what's going on, mostly nothing

I have been such a slug the last two weeks since I finished the box and got it packed up and sent off. Other than my usual chores, I've done nothing but be lazy and read. I did get a little weeding done but no further artwork, model making or watercolor. Started the watering cycle again as we're back to no rain.

My old keyboard refuses to type 'a's unless I am consciously pressing the key. I'm reaching for it with my pinky, I press it down but then after typing a sentence I have to go back and insert the 'a's. Also, I'm spelling a word in my head as I type but my fingers get confused and add letters or transpose letters or I misspell a word I've never had trouble with. What the fuck? It gets even worse if the dog is in my lap as she likes to rest her head on my arm. Makes it difficult to type with a dog head on your arm. Just now, I typed 'with' in the previous sentence as 'whith' and no dog head weighing down my arm.

I tried two new recipes last weekend. Friday night, a curry chicken sauteed with onions, ginger, garlic, salt and pepper (the curry powder went on the raw chicken before it went in the pan) and simmered in coconut milk til it thickened with cashews on top and basmati rice with lime juice, baby spinach, and cilantro. It was really good and really easy once I managed to clean all the fat off and cut up the boneless skinless chicken thighs into bite sized pieces. But, no picture. The other recipe was a frittata for Sunday brunch; eggs, milk, onion, red bell pepper, baby spinach, salt and pepper, feta cheese; vegetables sauteed, add in the beaten eggs and milk, stir to mix in the vegetables and then bake til done. I thought at the time that it called for a lot of salt and didn't use quite as much as it called for and even so it was so salty. Half the amount it called for would have been plenty.

Tuesday night I fixed one of my favorite salads with naan for dinner. I'd been pausing on it for a couple of weeks when I flip though my recipes so I've been wanting it for a while...mixed baby greens, celery, dried cranberries, granny smith apple slices, mandarin orange sections, pecans, and orrecchiette pasta. Also no picture.

Saw this little shield spider web out by the driveway with the sun hitting it just right.

Also these two surprise lilies, what Mary Moon calls hurricane lilies, popped up. There's a few of these bulbs scattered around the property but they don't all bloom every year. I think the most I've gotten at one time is four.

I broke a small piece of this althea (rose of Sharon) off a shrub at an estate sale and got my sister to root it for me (she's more successful at that then I am) and it's grown to about 3' tall in the pot it's in and has been blooming very prettily.

Abby texted Monday afternoon that she wouldn't be able to make it to yoga class that night so I led. We had a new attendee. I told her at the end that I hoped she enjoyed the class, that I was tougher than Abby, Mauri pipes up, yeah she is, and that she's lucky I didn't do the vinyasa that includes the splits (joking), Mauri pipes up, but she will, and that I hoped she comes back which she said she would (and she did yesterday). They don't usually, if they're unlucky enough to draw me for their first class. It's not that I'm a taskmaster, I start out slow with breathing and stretching, move into beginner then intermediate and then some advanced poses with fewer, if any, rest poses in between so everyone gets challenged and I go the whole 45 minutes. Abby tends to accommodate new people with an easier shorter class. But then, they don't always come back after Abby either. Or they'll come a few times and then we don't see them again.

Here it is the Autumnal Equinox and we are still having temperatures in the mid 90s. This has been such a long hot summer and we have all had enough!