the week in review and the Ag Life Youth Fair

It's been a full week though I haven't accomplished much. Monday, of course, was all about the new heart monitor.

3 of 5

Tuesday was movie day and we went to see Avenger's End Game because we are big Marvel Cinematic Universe fans and because the end of the previous movie Infinity Wars left the audience going...wait, what!!!? At the end of this last one two of our heroes died and one might as well have because as rumor has it those actors are totally over playing their characters. This was the end of the story arc that started 11 years ago and included 3 phases and 22 movies.

Wednesday I manicured the tomato plants pinching off the little sprouts that grow from the junction of leaf to stem and taking out some of the leaves that grow so thick so that the flowers can be more easily fertilized and I dug up a bunch of the little purple ground orchids and potted them up for the garden club plant sale that was yesterday.

Thursday I wrote out the tags for all the plant sale items I had and priced them and then in the afternoon I tagged along with my sister and our friend Bobby to the Youth Fair at the Wharton County Fairgrounds. 

The Youth Fair is a livestock show where the school kids in Ag show off their animals they have raised and hopefully come away with the grand champion or runner up. We watched the Senior group (age 14 – 18, 7 0f the 10 participants were girls) lead their cows around the arena while the judge selected the winners. Each participant had three cows to show and let me tell you those are some BIG cows and groomed within an inch of their lives, some really gorgeous animals. 

There were also sheep, goats, pigs, and rabbits but we didn't see any of the judging for those, just wandered around the pens. 

The pigs were a little scary. While we were walking down the aisle a kid came with a bucket of food for one of the pigs and he very quickly undid the chain on the pen, opened the gate just enough for him to slip through and then quickly refastened the chain. The pigs in the pens 2 deep on either side were instantly on their feet riveted on that bucket and would have crashed through the wire had they been able. This pig knew exactly what the purpose of the chain on the gate to it's pen was for and was doing it's best to get it off.

There was also a petting zoo with the usual donkey, calves, deer, goats, and sheep but also exotics...alpacas, a zebra colt,  a kangaroo,  a huge land turtle, a porcupine , and a couple of other things I didn't know the names of.

an art, craft, flower/plant arrangement, and home making skills (baking, canning, sewing) exhibition in all age groups and everyone got a blue ribbon! Just some of the many entries:

I thought this one was particularly clever, if you can't tell what it is, click to bigify

pineapple lamp made out of plastic spoons

There was an Ag Life exhibit, 

              

and of course a carnival!

Friday was my birthday outing with my sister (Pam, her name is Pam) and we went to Galveston to the historic downtown area, the Strand, and had lunch and went in all the shops (I'll do that one in detail in my next post) and we were gone all day.

And yesterday, Saturday, was the plant sale. As members, we aren't allowed to buy anything until 30 minutes before it's over which is at noon but some of us manage to be sneaky enough to get what we want. This year one of the members who has connections donated about 40 or so camellias and I definitely wanted one so a non-member who was there early purchased mine for me. There was only one other thing, a small succulent, that I spirited away before we were allowed to pick what we wanted so I ended up with two succulents, a red yucca, a pot of bulbine (I had this before but it was washed away by the flood), and the camellia because just because I have stuff I still haven't managed to get planted from last weekend's visit to the nursery doesn't mean that I don't want need more. I left a little before noon and I think everything I brought except one small confederate rose had been bought and it might have too.

It was too wet to get anything in the ground Saturday afternoon as we had a thunderstorm with 2 1/2” of rain in the wee hours of Friday night so hopefully it's dried out enough to get some of this stuff in the ground today.

ageing is not for sissies

Tomorrow (Tuesday) is my birthday. I'll be 69, the last year of my 7^th decade. The husband asked me a few weeks ago how I felt about that and my reply was, I don't know. It took me years to come to terms with starting this decade and getting there was what the year of the selfie was all about, 2014 when I took a selfie every Friday and posted it. Tomorrow we're going to the movie to see Avenger's End Game which is 3 hours and 1 minute long! (Marc read an article that identified 10 places during the movie where you could get up and go to the bathroom and not miss anything) but last night my daughter and son came out and took the husband and I out to dinner. No spouses, no grandkids, just our little core family. Been a long time since just the four of us spent time together and it was nice. Did I take a picture? No.

The long term monitor arrived late Friday delivered by UPS. Before they sent it I got a call asking if there was any reason I wouldn't be able to start the monitor right away and I told them no but then that was before it arrived late Friday and I had plans for the weekend. And it was not the wireless two patch electrode system with battery pack and phone that would send out the data. I didn't open the package until about 11 PM when I started feeling guilty about not opening the package when it arrived which had a label on it that said 'open immediately'. It's sort of a miniature version of the bulky 24 hour monitor with 5 electrode patches and wires dangling from my chest to the battery pack/doodad that sends the data out. I was pissed, this is not what I agreed to, and stomped around all weekend...I'm not doing this, having wires dangling from my chest for 3 freaking weeks, and I have to change out the electrode patches every three days. I'm calling the doctor's office first thing Monday and complaining. By this morning I had resigned myself and wired myself up and activated the monitor. It is, after all, a much smaller and way less intrusive set-up. But I still don't like having wires dangling from my chest for three freaking weeks. I guess we'll see how it goes tonight because I couldn't sleep at all with the 24 hour monitor.

maybe this is a gardening blog after all

the front flower bed that I hardly ever post a picture of

I finally got out there with the trimmer Thursday and neatened up the little backyard and then started on the hay grass seeds stalks in the front. I was using the automatic feed electric trimmer as opposed to the new gas trimmer because I'm more used to it and it worked fine for the little backyard but started getting balky in the front because

this is a piece of shit!

It's a Black and Decker that is fairly new, think I bought it two years ago because the old one started spooling out too much string at a time so I thought the part responsible for that was worn out. Turns out, Black and Decker makes a crappy made-in-China product. I had barely got a good start on the front when the spool emptied so I came in to do a search to see why it was doing that and found A. bad reviews about this problem and product and B. a video that showed how to disable the little doohicky that automatically spooled out the string. So that's what I did and finished the front and then came in and wrote my own bad review.

Then I got this email from Black and Decker:

Obviously no one at B&D read it since they seemed so happy to get it.

But it was a nice day out, yesterday too, sunny and dry as in not only no rain but not humid and the Easter lilies have finally started blooming and I cut some to bring in the house Thursday and they have filled the house with their heady fragrance.

As long as the weather keeps up like this no art is getting done.

Yesterday I went around with the shovel and dug up all the pecan and oak trees the squirrels so helpfully planted during the winter and then started in on digging out the rest of the wild mexican petunias which I still did not get all of.

Today my sister and I went to Caldwell's nursery because...plants! I wanted needed more things for the summer since the spring bloomers will have gone by the end of May. I was hoping she had a coral porterweed this time, but no so I came home with five moss rose, another penstemon, a couple of cuphea 'batface' and a couple of gomphrena 'fireworks', a pot of liatris, and three small pots of calibrachoa or million bells, something that is new to me. I bought them to put in the small dish pot that sits on the little boy's head but now that I read the tag, I may only be able to put one in there. So now of course, the age old dilemma of where to plant all this stuff in the ground since where I bought it all for is still full of poppies and larkspur and love-in-a-mist. Ah well, it's a constant work in progress but!!! when I got home I went on-line to see where I could get a coral porterweed and I found a place in Louisiana and it should be here end of next week. Yay! I know exactly where I'm going to plant it.

And speaking of my sister, I don't remember if I've mentioned this before but she writes a good blog, funny and informative. She's relatively new to the blog world and hasn't many readers yet so maybe stop by at Running Naked Screaming Down The Street!  We sometimes write about the same things as we do a lot of stuff together but always from different perspectives.

another follow-up of the heart and the gorgeousness of this time of year

Another follow-up with the cardiac RNP yesterday. I've been on the additional med for 9 days and am still having episodes mostly every day. They are mild as these things go and mostly last only an hour or two but Sunday I had one that lasted about 7 hours and then after it quit it started up again 3 hours later. So, disappointing. Overall, the condition has improved a lot from when I first went in after 3 months or so of one or two mild to severe episodes a day lasting hours but it hasn't stopped completely. The meds are not doing the complete job and she has put me on what she can and is willing to prescribe. There is another med, flecainide, that could be prescribed but as an RNP she doesn't have the authority and I get the impression that she isn't a big fan of it though, as she says, she's been on it herself. Anyway, she wants to put me on a long term monitor (3 weeks) in preparation for referring me to either one of the cardiologists there in the office or a cardiac electrophysiologist, a specialist in diagnosing and treating irregular heartbeats or arrhythmias (and the doctor that would do an ablation if that becomes the only thing that will put an end to it). My choice. I questioned the value of seeing one of the two cardiologists in the office as a possible waste of time since I was happy with the care I was getting from her and “I assume you bounce all this off them anyway” to which she nodded, just to then be referred to the electrophysiologist later who could, if deemed appropriate, put me on the flecainide and her choice would be to 'level up' as the gamers say. So that's the next step. She's getting the go-ahead from my insurance and ordering the long term monitor prior to setting up an appointment with the electrophysiologist so he'll have all the data when I do go see him. And maybe in another 3 or 4 weeks the meds will finish the job and it will all be moot anyway. 

This is really getting tiresome.

Overcast and drippy yesterday, overcast and humid today. The poppies are nearly done now, going to seed. They have been magnificent with their four petals in red, orange-red, deep red, or scarlet, though now and then a variation pops up...

red with smaller multiple petals,

or with striations in the petals

or sort of maroon

or streaky pink with no black spots

or just blotchy.

The little violas and pansies are also nearly done, all leggy with few flowers but the rocket larkspur and love-in-a-mist are in full bloom,

the clasping leaved coneflowers are too

and while I don't have any queen anne's lace in the yard it's in full bloom all around me.

I saw the resident coral snake yesterday about noon laying out in full sight on a cleared area of ground and I wondered if it was dead. Went in to get my camera and by the time I got back out it was moving under the rim of the small pond so, not dead. Everything I read about coral snakes says they are nocturnal and yet here it is at mid-day.

The green frog that's been hanging out on the bromeliad has moved though judging by the sound when it chirrups, it hasn't moved far. I guess it got tired of me taking its picture.

The anoles really like the heron sculpture and most days it has one or two hanging about on it.

There's still work to do outside...use the trimmer to take out the rest of the hay grass seed stalks in the front, trim the little backyard, redo one of the flower beds inside the fence, take out the flower bed around one of the tallow trees along the driveway that has been a constant battle with weeds, fire ants, and fall asters, dig up the rest of the wild petunias but I'm not feeling very energetic today whether from the afib or the weather who knows. It's also a yoga class day so I don't want to get involved in a large endeavor. But then, if I was involved in some endeavor I wouldn't be seeing the two hummingbirds so busy chasing each other off the feeder that neither one of them is getting to eat.

Earth Day

Today is Earth Day and we are ever more closer to extinction, us and every living thing on it, from human activity and any headway we were making has come to a screeching halt in this country as our current government cares nothing for the health of the planet, promotes fossil fuels over renewables and in fact throws road blocks up to renewable energy all so his rich buddies in the fossil fuel industry can get richer. Not satisfied with stifling renewable energy sources, Trump has rescinded EPA standards for clean air and water giving industry the go ahead to dump their toxic waste in our air and waterways and removed this country from the Paris Climate Accords. If ever a species deserved to go extinct, it's us. Unfortunately, we're taking everything else with us. We are currently in the midst of the 6^th planetary mass extinction and it's driven by humans. Our oceans are dying from overfishing and pollution, our soil and fresh water is poisoned with insecticides and herbicides, our insect populations that comprise the underpinnings of a healthy planet are decimated, our food is frankenfood more chemical than natural ingredients or genetically manipulated joining bits from disparate species, our weather is getting more and more extreme while we crack the bones of the earth. I wish I could be optimistic but I fear we are past the point of no return and while some countries are committed and acting to eliminate fossil fuels and waste, most are unwilling or unable to institute the immediate and drastic changes that would be necessary to save us from ourselves, to save everything from ourselves. Woe be to us and well deserved.

Love the Mother. She's the only one we have. Treat her as if your life depends on it because it does.

Past Earth Day posts (yes, been a while since I did an Earth Day post):

2015  - our separation from the natural world is making us sick
2014 -  god forbid we should alter our behavior
2013 -  our food is poison and we wonder where all these health problems come from
2012 - we seem to have forgotten that we are not separate from nature
2011 - the plastic challenge
2010 - we are drowning in trash

sleepless, rain, and an unexpected visit

I've been sleeping very late this past week, too late for my yoga routine in the morning after the first pill of the day and then coffee while I read or write blogs unless I want to have breakfast even later! That's my excuse anyway. In reality, my morning yoga routine only takes 10 – 15 minutes. Wednesday night, though, after I fell asleep reading and then put my book aside and turned off the light the brain sez to me, 'Me, you didn't really think you would just go right back to sleep did you?' I was awake for hours trying to convince myself to sleep. Tried solitaire, tried more reading and bubkis. Did finally start to drift off just as the sleeping dog under the covers somehow sensed the brief flash of lightning from the predicted storm beginning to move through and jumped up throwing off the covers wide eyed ears erect and trembling. When the thunder rolled through and it began to rain the panic panting started and she decided laying under my chin and panting in my face was the safest place to be, that or on my pillow above my head pulling my hair every time she moved restlessly which was constantly. Needless to say, no sleep was got that night. No biggie for the dog who just curled up and slept all morning and early afternoon after the storm passed that brought us almost 2 1/2” of much needed rain and cooler temps.

Still spending my days outside but I'm not getting near as much accomplished. Tuesday I finally got the grass dug out of the back long side of the old garden and edged in bricks, all except for the far end which needed fire ant remediation first. Which I did yesterday there and other places where they insist on being in and next to my flower beds.

I've picked dewberries three times. I only pick every other day. Maybe one more day of a good haul but we'll see. There's a lot on the ditch side of the fence that I can't get to because while I can put on long pants and boots and climb down in there, there is so much poison ivy that I won't attempt it. Probably.

The love-in-a-mist is approaching full bloom and the Cinco de Mayo rose has opened its first blooms.

Another large dead limb covered with lichen fell out of one of the oaks. It reminds me of a coral reef.

We had a visit yesterday from a guy who grew up in this house and his wife. They're here for an annual family reunion and they stay with my neighbor Gary who is his childhood friend as Gary lives in the house he grew up in. I had met Keith last year while walking the dog, he was laying in wait for me in Gary's front yard and we chatted for about half an hour and I invited him to come down and look around if he wanted. He never did but the doorbell rang a little after four yesterday afternoon, a rarity since only strangers come to the front door, and it was him and his wife, Virginia. They're about our age, a few years younger perhaps. And really nice people, it was never weird as we had them in and let them look around and talk about how it was when he lived there as a kid and how it's changed and the memories that came out. The different landscape, the different neighbors, the same neighbors. Now the yard has trees that weren't there and the ones he remembers are gone. And more recently the changes we ourselves made after the flooding from Harvey. Anyway I sent her off with one of the potted up confederate rose volunteers and a bag of seeds from the woodland petal pink and maybe they will survive in Arkansas.