(no subject)

[elainegrey]

Elephants and my own blues have affected this week. I'm feeling mentally dull: the new-ish camera somehow just doesn't work with me in a way that makes sense. It's like the settings change with the phase of the moon or something. Anyhow, that makes me feel dull. And generally, i don't feel sharp.

I've a suspicion that if i was taking my antihistamine regularly it would help. So, there's that.

Work is OK. My boss and i had our review meeting that we'd forgotten -- oy, i forgot to do the acknowledgement, done -- and no surprises. I am eased that he's not harping on my communication anymore. If he wants to take credit for coaching me, fine, but the removal of significant amounts of stress has done most of the work. I can take comfort in being valued. I have an edge of bitterness about the title "architect" but i also have choices i could make to address it. Not right now.

I spent time pondering blogging last night. I certainly don't want or need something that replaces my community here. (I can barely ... i don't keep up as much as i wish here.) With respect to the architect comment above, i wouldn't mind having to learn a bit more python/css/html5. Prototyping skills wouldn't hurt me.

Today's distractions:

Sumac, what species would be best for both the edible fruit (as spice and extract) and for landscaping.

Sprouts, what seeds should i get for my long unused sprouter?

MUCH reflection on a future website. For $15 you can have a font made for you, and then turn it into a webfont!

And we finished Amazon's The Night Manager. Wonderfully intense and textured and delicious. Hugh Laurie's villain is insidiously smooth. And a pregnant heroine! Angela Burr for the win.

Comments

[randomdreams]

I didn't know sumac was particularly edible. I'd be interested in hearing what you think of what you end up getting.

Sumac notes

[elainegrey]

This article only compares taste between European sumac and staghorn: http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2013/09/sparkling-sumac-soda-recipe.html Serious Eats has more sumac articles that focus on use as a spice.

https://www.amerinursery.com/growing/resilient-rhus/ describes an test done in Longwood Gardens around aesthetics. They describe how R aromatica can be used as a ground cover, and the pictures here lead me to believe it would be attractive in a native situation despite the "messy"assessments. It's a bit similar to poison ivy though. I wonder if it can out compete. I wonder if i've killed it thinking it was poison ivy. Sigh.

Staghorn sounds glorious, between the flavor and the appearance, but grows to 30'. Smooth or common sumac is lower growing. So, i'm leaning on seeds for R. glabra first.

You do know it looks distressingly like Ailanthus?

Re: Sumac notes

[randomdreams]

Stupid Alianthus. Presumably it doesn't smell like Alianthus, and its leaf pattern looks different to me, maybe.
But it does totally sound invasive, although maybe I could plant it up against the invasive ToH and let them fight. I tried that with a couple of other things and the ToH totally won.

Re: Sumac notes

[elainegrey]

I suspect there's enough competition & predation here to fight back in a naturalized landscape. Sweet gum (liquidambar), sassafras, and sumac are all locally native, sucker driven participants in succession from clearing to forest here. (Long leaf pines don't need suckers: they just reseed like mad.) I think sweetgum probably wins: i've more clonal patches of that and only occasional sassafras seedlings. I'm at the point where any sweetgum i can get the loppers around is coming down.

Anyhow, i'm hoping the sumac might fight some of the autumn olive. I picked some fruit/seeds from the side of the road yesterday. I'll see if i can stratify over the winter.