elainegrey

Good news: No emergency medical visit for 7 days! Carrie's been to the vet twice after coming home. Healing well.  We're getting better at bandaging the open wounds. Carrie is off fentanyl, so she's gotten better this weekend at getting out of the muzzle and pulling the pads out of the bandage. So, i need to up my skills at wrapping.  I do wonder how long we need to keep bandaging. Two open wounds are each about a square inch, another is about four square inches. I think it will take a while.

 Sister in law D thinks she will be a widow in a week. Saturday morning i sent B a close up of an  elderflower cyme, all snowy petals wet from the rain with prominent creamy stamens. Later, checking the rain gauge, i saw that the white cala lily had bloomed and the flowers lay on the ground. I picked the two, dislodging the tiniest of snails, and then added a few lizard tail (Saururus cernuus) and an orange hummingbird mint (Agastache Poquito Orange) to make this morning's bouquet.  Elderberries are just beginning to ripen.

Other good news: i'd bought a bottle to deliver very targeted drops of herbicide to noxious plants (wild briers that have multiplied around the fig tree and on the other berm, honeysuckle twining on fences and out of control, trees on the septic field, poison ivy) and could not find it. I finally ordered a replacement, months after it should have been in use. And then i found it. And i was able to cancel the order in time. Yay.

Sequentially:

I left work early on Friday. ADHD rejection sensitivity probably is amplifying feelings about a meeting. I was just too emotional and so very very tired.  After an afternoon of reading, a visit with my Dad, and more reading, we watched the documentary about Ocean's Gate, the Titan submarine ... hubris, and the guy who ran Ocean's Gate sounds just like the exec director who is involved in my distressed feelings.

I did get a good bit done in the yard on Saturday, flame weeding while it was wet. Moved woodchips a short way to mulch an area at the end of the sidewalk that has been annoying to mow. Then i planted some annuals (coleus and lantana), some Trimezia gracilis ... babies? propagules? , and transplanted a chrysanthemum that survived the winter and has started blooming.   The lemongrass is in real soil for the first time in years, and i hope it multiplies. Finally, the native plants i bought are all in the new heavily mulched bed around the front yard apple tree.

Christine's been telling her siblings that "Carrie is avenged." I found a coiled copperhead in the woodchip pile when working yesterday, and killed it. I don't feel good about it but i would do it again.  There are brush piles in the woods and that's for them. But this was a little too close.

I then went on to have an ocular migraine and then a bad headache. Today has been less outside. I picked sochan and mint, spending time thinking about where i was putting my hands. I've got several Talenti gelato containers full of blanched sochan in the freezer, mint and bee balm on the dehydrator, and elderberry flowers hanging by the water heater. I imagine gifts of mint-elderflower tea.

I also made whipped cream cheese with the lavender syrup and pulverized dehydrated mulberries from last year. Very purple, not over sweet, and only mildly flavored.

I haven't seen the hawk this past week, and wonder if the smelly snake repellents have repelled the hawk. Instead, i've seen a rabbit almost every morning.

  I am avoiding feelings and reading and reading and reading. It;s been a fight not to go to the book and finish this.

B's surgery was sort of OK except the new pump "was drawing a lot of volume," so his sternum was left open and he's been left under anesthesia. Christine's sister seems as OK as possible from Christine's report. She went to yoga which, seems a wise way of handling things, and she and B's daughter been able to visit with B. B's sister and son had been radio silent at last report.

Aurora last night! Barely naked eye visible but they screamed red on the camera, between long exposure and sensitivity, i guess. This morning i took a photo of the northern sky and it was dark, proving to me that it wasn't the camera just making stuff up. I am sitting out side now, despite the crisp air, apologizing to thje plants i haven't brought in yet. Huh, a whiff of musk just floated through

I continued to use the internet to spy on family in Florida, with the happiest discovery Volusia county's road closures. Found J & P's address well clear of any mess. Heard from J & J who hadn't lost power. Heard from J & P's daughter T who would tell us if there was any issue. B looks pretty clear of power outages. My dad's step sister remains a worry, but we aren't close. I only met her when going down to take care of my grandmother. (Moments of bitterness with my mother and how she monopolized family, and no guilt for all the times i swatted my dad's head. The man needs a clue.)

I'm  tolerating all the symptom management, although there's still some morning nausea -- probably because i am not taking sudafed or the inhaled decongestant over night. I don't know why the medical notes say that we discussed what would happen if i stopped the inhaled decongestant. The instructions warn against stopping without discussing with your doctor, the prescription says, "as needed". I'm trying not to consult Dr Google or some random AI about this.

I also have mixed feelings about Duck Duck Go's AI integration: it did find an answer for me ... it might have led me to the Volusia county map, even. But how can we really afford this? Were we willing to pay reference librarians?

The animal rescue hasn't posted any news about the Red Breasted Grosbeak we sent them. I am hoping it's because when they finally took a look at the bird it was fine and flew off. I didn't give it a personal going over after scooping it up from the hall where it was chirping like some squeeky toy.

Happy solstice! I plan to take Friday next week off to observe the change in season and get my hair done (roots touch up, probably, although maybe some fun color?)

The early June family visits are over; next big family thing is my mom's internment in Arlington National Cemetery in early August.

Christine's brother in law B has been in and out of hospital since last mentioned. Christine brought them dinner at home on Tuesday night. Wednesday at 2 am they were back in the hospital. Their state is a worry.

I've been in that procrastinate and make self miserable until last minute when then one works late just before the deadline mode. More of that today, i guess. Having a label (ADHD) helps just a little. I know there's also insecurity wound in there too. Joy.

Squirrels do a remarkable amount of crashing in the treetops to get to the mulberry tree and feast. I cannot imagine that they are harvesting the low branches i can reach unaided. I presume the reduction in harvest is that they shake the tree and the berries fall. Black berries are coming to the end and the blue berries are getting started, but plenty of pale unripe mulberries hang where i inspect and test one or two for ripeness. The mulberry tree also has webworms, which i trust will become targets for birds with many mouths to feed.

The meadow camera caught a doe with fawn last night - hurrah!  I've been fiddling with the other cam in a new location on the driveway trying for a balance that would get a vehicle pulling far enough that we could pick up a vehicle pulling in far enough to throw a many pierced squashed Natural Light beer can in the woods or take the rainbow or gubernatorial "yard" sign, but not get every single car. I need to tweak something - it got Christine coming and going to the grocery but not my amble down and back. The beer can is JUST WEIRD. Our verge receives a fairly steady  Natural Light can toss. Not quite every day but a can or two a week. There's plenty of litter that happens: i assume when we put the "Black lives matter" sign nu it was more that we gave a target for tossing the litter than anything else. When the "Black lives matter" sign crumbled from the weather, we replaced it with a gubernatorial candidate sign and a text-too-small-to-read-with-rainbow-trim sign. That sign was gone within a week. Two weeks? It was quick. It's been replaced by a bold rainbow flag sign and we have a back up in the house.

Christine was agitated about protecting the sign, i had more of a shrug attitude about it. But early this week i found a beer can in the woods where i cannot imagine it arriving via the usual toss out the window of moving vehicle. And it had LOTS OF HOLES. I've gotten different opinions on BBs, birdshot, or just someone poking holes in it. Subsequent investigation seems to indicate the holes all are bent in -- no exit wounds. If it was meant to be a message, it's really a poorly constructed one  (sign stolen, shot, and returned is a message, this -- isn't that). It is littering, and it could simply be someone pulling off the road into a driveway with a dark house in the distance at night, drinking a beer, and then taking out aggression on the can while, i dunno, making a phone call? And then chunking the open but empty container because NC has an open container law that would make the empty can in the vehicle an offense.

I've always figured we were one beer can's distance from some job site, and the sign just makes a nice target for tossing the can out of the vehicle.

I suppose delivery drivers and guests would appreciate a little more light on the driveway but i like dark skies.

health

EEEEEEEE. The cicada are here. I love the genus name, magicicada. I'm trying to focus on the magic part and not dwell on the OMG bugs part. Also i am participating in cicada safari and wondering how many is too many entries in iNaturalist

I am better from the cold, still on alert for coughing. Just fought off a cough with a cough drop -- i would love smaller drops.

I spent yesterday afternoon pickling onion scapes. Basically, one 12 jar for every hour... and a 3/4 quart jar filled. I water-bath processed the 12 oz jars and 5 of the 6 took. Christine offered encouragement that i would have "passed the class." I find myself worrying about air caught in the scapes. I want to give these as Yule gifts, although i'll be gifting the jar that didn't seal to my sister in law when i see her today (if she'll take it). For once i'd like to finish something without feeling the critical judgements from myself. I also underestimated how quick the whole thing would be, so there's that. Let's see, yay:

• i got scapes "in time" as they are opening up
• i noticed the black aphid infestation so i can treat it today with diatomaceous earth (also need to dust around the strawberry plot).
• i now know how to use my old stockpot with the basket from the instant pot as a water bath canner. (Will need two more racks  and then could do 15 4 oz jelly jars)
• i've written up my notes about the pickling brine in my kitchen notebook so presumably can use again.

I have to remember that fussing with food takes time, and with experience, improvement.

Other things:

• I did have enough just-ripe strawberries that Christine cut them up and sugared them in the morning for a lovely topping for an angel food cake in the evening. Very decadent. First fruit of the year. I suspect that it's going to be a bounty year. So many mulberries. Blueberries look great. Apples! And possibly a breba crop of figs.
• Christine is composing music for my eclipse video.
• After being cranky about my nexdock's track pad i remembered it's a touch screen - -and that worked brilliantly. The deer are hanging out in the meadow and compiling all the images into a video is fussy work (and i really don't know if its meaningful? but data collection -- what if i want to figure out if i can identify the deer, what if...) Anyhow, better! preservation, health

Rabbit sign: full resolution image after link for exploring.
That's a rare tulip poplar leaf that has color instead of just looking black and shrunken.

GARDEN CRAFT 50-ft x 2.3-ft Gray Steel Welded Wire Garden Welded Wire Rolled Fencing