Hodgepodge

[elainegrey]

Entertainment: watching Carrie crawl through the cat door onto the back porch.

Dining:

We had a small veggie plate from the garden on Saturday night. I used several of my tiny onions sauteed in butter, salt, and pepper to season the fresh yellow squash and the parboiled potatoes in the frying pan. The tiny steamed beets were sliced and garnished with a single tiny steamed pea, and then impaled with a tooth pick. And finally there were some stalks of broccolini. It was delicious and delightful.

The potatoes were probably the last of the Vikings, described as having skin with purple with pink streaks, white flesh, waxy & moist. They looked spectacular with their marbled coloring and bright white flesh. Tiny tuber nodules were still on the stalks of the plants, so i reburied the plant. It's been over 90 days and my peanuts are sprouting in containers. I think i'll dig out at least one row of the potatoes: i thought they'd be over and done with by now.

Blooming:

My breadseed poppies, fraught with risk, are blooming. The petals didn't stay on the first flower very long -- i wonder if the dry weather had anything to do with that. (Apparently that's typical.) I'm growing Hungarian blue, and the blue does not seem to refer to the pink-purple petals. I may be more careful next year when i sow them. They do seem well timed to go in with the potatoes, but the potato plants overshadowed many of the poppies. I can space them out better next year. I'm intrigued by the idea of getting a very different coloration - Danish flag is fringed, red & white, and there's a near black selection - and trying my hand at cross pollinating. Mostly, i'm interested in poppyseed paste.

Gladiolas and crepe myrtles are blooming, too. I now know to pick the glads as soon as they bud instead of risking herbivory. I think these are blooming earlier than they did last year: my notes first mention them on the 13th and 15th of June, respectively. The gardenia and butterfly bush seem to be just about the same as last year, although the gardenia doesn't seem as covered with blossoms: the top might have lost some buds in one of the freezes?

I might be getting the hang of the green house. I have an old sheet over the frame to keep the seedlings shaded. I think i lost plants more to heat than any other inexperience.

Critters:

Louisa and Slugger, our Cardinals, have a nest just outside my front room window. She started sitting on the three eggs sometime over Memorial Day weekend. Photos through the screen and the branches don't really show enough of her russet coloring in the shade. Her bright beak stands out, and a few red tail feathers. I've put the whiteboard between me and the window to minimize my motions causing her distress.

Carrie has now gazed upon two deer from our car, as they grazed in the west meadow, and one at the community college walking trail without barking or trying to give chase. Hopefully she will become less vocal in the dark. One night she was barking like there were threatening bears in the woods.

I still go out morning and evenings as i manage to stand and listen. The fireflies have been amazing. One evening, though, i'm pretty sure i was the recipient of indignant noises from ... a deer? One sound was definitely hiss-like, the others ... trilling-snorts? I need to get the photo card back in the game camera so i can know who is coming & going.

Technology:

Computer is still gone, but i'm coping better than i was with it crashing. I've given in and i'm using my work laptop. I'd been blaming the tech woes for frustrations: vide sub for no improvement.

Today power was out from 8 am to just after 2. If my brother hadn't facetime'd me, my laptop battery and the back up power for the wifi would have lasted the duration.

Health:

Brain fog. I dunno. I don't feel as crisp at the keyboard as i'd like to. Elephants might be sapping some energy, but previously i was blaming my tech woes and hormones. To myself, i referred my behavior as "laggard." There's the self judgement. I haven't really explored the emotional landscape of the "i'm too hard on myself" insight (although even that frame might be somewhat judgemental and not compassionate).

I am supposed to be want my ankle to be stronger so i intend to do ankle exercises. I find all the counting - duration, repeats - to be tedious. I asked and Christine has composed for me a sound scape so that i can stretch and release along with tones and beats. This should be an excuse annihilator.

Weekend: Saturday was incredibly delightful. I'm not sure exactly how the day managed to feel like days. It didn't fly by. Sunday was a bit less luxurious, but we did go see Wonder Woman, and found it a very rewarding film by blockbuster standards.