Monday Oscillations (garden, household, depression)

The Japanese beetle (Popillia japonica) is devouring the yard. They seem very attracted to the chestnuts, roses, and apples — common with last year. But they’re also on the borage flowers and fig leaves, which seems uncommon. I don’t remember seeing them on dahlias last year, but possibly because other things ate the dahlias first. I am looking forward to eating some dahlia flowers and to see about having dahlia tubers this fall. The ones i have aren’t known to be particularly tasty; I’m trialing cheap seed-grown test plants before investing in double digit priced tubers for propagation. Last winter was so mild, i can’t really conclude anything about the survival of the tubers in ground.

My mood is variable with the down-strokes attracting more attention. Somehow, the process around rearranging furniture is triggering something. I know that when we moved in there was some distress as we “roughed it” on the floor: perhaps there’s some small trigger there. The little self critical thoughts come through. I grew up with my mother’s interior decorating which was quite harmonious and attractive. Christine really doesn’t see the problem with tacking a pretty eyeglass cleaning cloth up on the wall in a random spot, still in its cellophane bag. I struggle between the inner echo of my mother, the drifts of natural disorder, the challenge of finding solutions that please me visually and economically.