wyld_dandelyon | Entries tagged with garden

I've been under the weather. This time I managed to get Bronchitis just from the end of the winter heating season (unless a friend with a congestive heart condition was actually sick, and not just coughing because of the heart condition). But I think this was coming on earlier, and the med regime my former allergist suggested was keeping my lungs and sinuses a lot clearer than in the past, but not enough for my body to clear out the infection.

Well, I came to this conclusion Friday, with (among other things) singing at the Eurofilk showing me I was unusually short of breath for singing; I already had an appointment with my newish primary doc who I really like on Monday, and when I tried to call the allergist last month to set up an appointment, there was no answer or answering machine on his number, or on the alternate number I found on Google. I did find an article about him listing him as 81 years old, and I'm not sure how long ago that was written, so I'm assuming he died or retired. So, I waited out the weekend and got tireder and tireder, and shorter and shorter of breath.

Happily, she was willing to prescribe antibiotics and steroids (if I'd gotten antibiotics on Friday, that might have been enough), unhappily, when they figured out that the only way they could give me the meds the doc thought most appropriate that didn't have corn in it (kids' liquid, again), it turned out that the pharmacy couldn't fill it until today. It was too late to try to talk the doc into prescribing something different, as the clinic was closed.

So today I woke up way too early, and was NOT falling asleep again (my body does insist on waking when I really need meds, which freaked out my RN mother when I was first sick enough to always be awake when she came in to wake me up to take them). This was handy in that I was able to deal with a bank overdraft for my grown-up kid (she's still using the account I got her when she went to Denmark in 4th grade so I could easily transfer money to her if there was an unexpected need, so, being awake I saw the text notification) (Her birthday is later this month, so an early birthday gift was perfectly reasonable).

And then I had food and called the pharmacy, because I WANTED those meds before the rest of the day's errands, which included getting My Angel to her PT appointment, mailing a thing (in a post office, since there seems to be no more drop-off boxes outside our regular post office any more--WTF, government?--and going to pick up meds at a different pharmacy too.

The strip mall the post office was in had one of the closing JoAnne Fabrics, which had almost no fabric left, and not much of anything else either. I did find some things to buy, including two substantially marked down big bags designed to hold a sewing machine and sewing stuff, but which I plan to use one of for author stuff (books, display, etc.) on the assumption that I'll do signings at cons again, and the other for acrylic paints, brushes, and the like since my current bag and plastic bin plan isn't working out as well as I'd like, and because having that stuff on wheels will be very convenient.

I also got some beads, wire, a thimble and multitool, sewing machine needles, an ironing pad to put on a table, some tape, a couple of pillow forms for planned gifting, and, surprisingly, a basket of tumbled stones to put in the fishtank. Sadly, the heavy-duty dolly they had pictured in the front as available had already been sold. I looked at the jewelry making stuff, thought about the heavy duty crimper and some of those beads, but I haven't been making jewelry lately and can use the hemostats I use for holding autoharp strings to crimp things, so I left those behind. I did also get some very discounted project boards, so if we decide to go to one or more protests, we can take signs.

And I took photos of our daffodils in the middle of all that.

I am cheered by all the photos of protests I'm seeing, and by how badly Elon's car company is doing. It gives me hope. Keep contacting your elected officials, we've got to wear them down until they stand up to our very cruel and foolish leader.

Now I am going to hit post and go watch Rachel show all those pictures of the signs again, and do Duolinguo, so I don't miss a day, and fall in bed. Maybe I'll manage to post Daffodil pics tomorrow.

Current Mood: busy!
Current Location: here, there, elsewhere
Current Music: probably not today

The arch into my garden, with shiny sun and butterfly art, seen from inside the garden. Also very noticeable in the picture is my blue car.

Here is the arch I worked on yesterday. I do have a couple more shinies to attach to it, and after having some of my tomatoes stolen last year, I want to construct an equally rustic looking door so it won't be easy for thieves to enter.

Today I woke up late, got My Angel off to her brand new dentist appointment to glue the temporary crown back on, had some food, fed the outdoor cats, and got the mail. And then instead of going outside to garden, I picked up my phone. My call was in response to a letter saying if I didn't register to get a bill online I'd be charged a $1.99 monthly fee. I object to this in principle, but I'm doing enough "fighting city hall" due to the person in the white house, I don't have spoons for crap like this. But I also don't have spare money for stupid fees, and I was, indeed, already set up to view and pay my bills online, and had been long before they sent that letter.

So I called, listened to the robot waste my time telling me all about my balance and recent payment and how much more I could charge, told it no I didn't want to ask to increase my credit limit, and finally was allowed to start the unnecessarily confusing decision tree to try to get to talk to a human being. Eventually I figured out that the magic words at this facility were not "person" "human" "operator" or "agent", typing "0" was ignored. No, I needed to ask for customer service and listen to the robot tell me about long wait times and really, it can help me with most things. Did I want to hear about my current balance and recent payments or pay a bill or change my address or... Eventually it let me through, and someone picked up immediately.

I spent way too long talking to the guy who answered before he got off his mental butt and actually looked to see why I got the letter instead of just repeating that he could see I'd paid online so I wouldn't be charged that fee. But then why did they send the letter? (repeat, rinse, repeat...) I said ok, and asked his name, saying I was documenting the call in case I was charged that fee. Finally he said that they didn't have my email and so they couldn't notify me when a statement was ready and that's probably why I got the letter.

He offered to put it in for me. Sure. I spelled my email address slowly, because it includes my first name, and asked him to read it back to me. It was wrong--he left out one of the Rs. I told him it was wrong, he had left one of the Rs out, and spelled it again, slower, and had him repeat it back to me again. He assured me he had it right and with obvious annoyance repeated what he'd said before. Wrong again. It took two more iterations before he could repeat it back to me correctly. As soon as I said I didn't need help with anything else, he hung up really fast. If he had paid attention in the first place, he wouldn't have took up so much of my time, so he gets no sympathy from me.

Then I took the important piece of mail for someone else I'd just received with me and drove to the post office my mail delivery person works out of instead of the one closest to me. I mailed the two pieces of mail I hadn't been able to stick a stamp on last night (the clip board with return address stickers and stamps is not where it's supposed to be) and talked to a very nice and sympathetic supervisor. She nodded when I noted that mail delivery was not as good as it was before 45 appointed DeJoy, and said that she was hoping things would get better now that he resigned. DeJoy resigned? Really? I'd have been ecstatic to get that news this time last year. Of course, now 45 is 47 and working even harder to dismantle the government, so I'm not holding my breath.

The same arch from a different angle, with no trees behind it. Not as pretty a picture, though.

The same arch from a different angle, with no trees behind it. Not as pretty a picture, though.

Finally, after I got home, we pulled some of the old support poles out of the fence and replaced all but one. (That one had become non-functional last summer when it had bean plants twining around it, so I added new support then, but left the broken wood where it was to protect the bean plants.) I dug some of last year's leaves into the ground while My Angel picked up trash that had blown into the yard, then I worked on removing dead bean and morning glory vines while My Angel planted about six feet worth of peas. I want more planted, but it was getting cold and we went inside to work on dinner.

As expected, I did not get anything but peas in the ground, but we're not expecting rain until Friday, so tomorrow we should be more peas and some other stuff into the ground too. Assuming, of course, that there are no more time-wasting diversions.

You know, the pictures look so much more bleak than it feels to be outside in the garden with sun on my skin! Give the garden time, it will look prettier soon.

Current Mood: annoyed
Current Location: Not just the garden, sadly
Current Music: please

So, I was looking at some of Facebook's short videos, and in between parkour and dancing and ADHD stuff there was a recipe for salad dressing made from carrots and celery and onion and fresh ginger (and oil and stuff), and I thought, "that sounds good--but I have no fresh ginger." Too bad, I thought, because there's some lettuce in the fridge that should be eaten and I'm tired of boring salad.

And then my mind bounced from that to what I do have a lot of this year, which is fresh peppermint in my garden, and the need to cut some of it short where it leapt across the path and is quite close to the cucumbers. And so I googled dressing made from fresh mint--and I found a recipe. Not one that tempted me, really, since it's a Dijon mustard-based recipe, and I am not a mustard fan. But still, it gave me a template to improvise from, at least sort of.

So I went out into the tail end of the thunderstorm to cut some of that mint in the dark, came in, pulled the leaves off the stems and tossed them into a two-cup measure until it was about half-full. More than the recipe I'd found called for, but that's ok. I added three cloves of garlic (instead of one), minced fine, and about a third of an onion rough-chopped. The recipe called for a half-cup of lemon juice; I had no lemons, and the bottle of lemon juice in the fridge had only a tablespoon or so, but that went in.

Then I paused to consider. The recipe called for olive oil or avocado oil, and while I have oil, I'm not much of a fan of oil-based dressings (to the point where I sometimes used to make dressing with just herbs and red wine vinegar; those days are gone since I can't trust red wine-based things to be gluten free). Anyway, I remembered I had a container of Oui lemon yogurt. That would add more lemon and not be oil. Bonus, it has probiotics because it's yogurt, and I try to do a lot of those after every need for antibiotics. So I tossed that in and didn't add the honey the recipe suggested because Oui is a very sweet yogurt.

And all of it went into the food processor! I tasted; it was good but really strong and thicker than I wanted. I stared at the fridge and took out the jar of slightly pickled cucumbers I'd made by tossing in slices of not-ripe-enough-to-my-taste cucumber into a jar of the liquid that I'd eaten the dill pickles out of a couple of days ago. I tossed in about half of the cucumber from the jar (and a couple tiny bits of dill that were stuck to the slices) and whirred it around until the whirring was smooth again, and tasted again. I may decide to alter the recipe some more, after I've had it on several salads and the newness has worn off, but I decided that for today it was just fine.

Then I got the tail end of a head of lettuce and half a huge tomato, and ate some not-boring salad.

Current Mood: satisfied
Current Location: home and garden

When we moved into this house, there was a line of what had been hedge, sandwiched between rusty fence segments, around most of the yard. Weed trees had seeded into this area, and we spent many days removing the fence segments, the old hedge, and plating roses. By the front walk, there was a line of hedge between two snowball spirea, where the segments of old rusty fencing were particularly resistant to being removed. But now that space is open.

We have talked about moving those two snowball spirea to the other side of the yard since we moved in; I'm not sure it will be feasible to do that, but in any case we have some lilac sprouts from the back yard to move, and those will be a lot prettier than the hedge ever was (even imagining it in its prime, before it had weeds and unwanted trees and rusty fencing as a part of the line).

We haven't cleared away all the brush from those hedge plants yet, or decided if we want to keep the ancient evergreen tree in that corner of the yard (which was topped long before we moved in), but I still smile every time I look at it. Slow progress is, as my sister Dragon says, still progress, but actually seeing something I've planned and worked toward for more than two decades (on and off, when I had energy and health and a lack of things that had more immediate urgency) actually, finally, happen, well, it feels good.

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Location: home
Current Music: yes, please (looking at you, Muse)

I feel like I spent the last week mostly asleep. At least I'm done with the antibiotics and can go back to eating dairy when I want to. The arm is no longer swollen and the tooth marks seem to be healing, though there is red skin where I was using a bandaid to cover the worst tooth mark, and an extra scab where a bandaid pulled off at least one layer of skin. I hate that my skin reacts so badly to all the glues they use to hold protective things to my skin! I took a photo of a penny on my arm this morning so I can track whether the redness starts to grow again as the antibiotic leaves my system. That's much less crazy-making than badly-drawn marker outlines!!!

At least weeding is a low-energy/nearly no-focus activity for me. The garden is growing. I've had peas, herbs (lots of peppermint this year), one small cucumber, and one small tomato so far. Lots and lots of mulberries! We have other plants too: purple pole bean, some Italian pepper varieties, squash, pumpkin, broccoli, and some purple cabbage that overwintered. One of the cabbage plants sprouted tall and flowered and has set seeds; I should do an internet search to see when to gather those. The pictures on the tags for those plants showed neat little cabbage heads, which is not at all how they're growing; the leaves aren't what I'm used to in the waldorf salad variant I make, but they're ok, especially mixed half-and-half with store-bought cabbage.

But I want more tomatoes and cucumbers! Not just little bitty green ones to look at as they grow on the plants, but ripe ones to eat. Ah, but patience is a virtue, right? (I still say I have no patience, I just pretend. And when there is no one here to pretend to, I don't even have that. It's work to pretend, after all, and even when I pretend, I am not fooled by my acting, nor am I distracted by the person I'm (not) interacting with.)

The weather has been very zig-zag--a day or two when I'm cold and use the heated mattress pad to just get to sleep, a day or two when I'm kind of comfortable, and a day or two when it's super-hot, and then it gets cold again. I'm not so old yet that I can't adapt to cooler or hotter weather, but not this fast!

A neighbor lady gave us one raspberry plant and one blueberry plant (though each box said 2 plants, and we didn't realize they were both half-empty at first), and before the window fell on my cat, we'd gotten them in the ground, but they went in at least a month late, though only a couple of days after the neighbor saw us pruning roses and offered them to us. We got them around sunset, and spent a day clearing an area to plant them in, and then added compost to that area and planted them. So, at this point, I just have my fingers crossed that they survived the delay. We have a lovely volunteer squash or pumpkin plant (based on the size of the baby leaves, I'm pretty sure it's pumpkin) that is growing at the edge of that area now, however, so if we don't get berry bushes, at least the weeding and digging and compost-transport is doing some good this year.

The FAWM-type songwriting challenge 50/90 is starting on July 4, so I will be doing at least some of that as well as the gardening and (hopefully) house-organizing and repair stuff too. My budget is horrible right now, which makes house repairs a lot harder. (Watching people I hired fix things isn't perfect, but it's a whole lot better than my Angel and I trying to do all or most of it ourselves.)

Oh, yeah, and My Angel found a place to do the emissions testing on our hybrid. There's lots of places they claim can do the test for the state, but they keep changing (it must be a very low profit task) and only some of them can do the test on a hybrid, and the state's website is lacking in that kind of information. So I can have new stickers for my license plate, which is a good thing.

I wonder if I can pretend to have enough energy to record something before Bandcamp Friday? I have no focus after hearing today's news, so not tonight, but maybe tomorrow? That would be nice.

Current Mood: worried
Current Location: somewhere
Current Music: nah

Happy Solstice to you all, and also Happy Rose Moon*. May the turn of the seasons and the days (or nights) bring you the blessings you need and want.

*There are different traditions for naming the full moons, but since I still have hundreds of roses blooming in my yard, I'm sticking with Rose Moon. My yard still smells marvelous!

On to the card event:

I am still enjoying doing readings with

ellenmillion 's beautiful Unicorn Key cards, so the free one card readings will be from that deck. I have an actual, properly printed prototype deck, complete with gilded edges, in a lovely magnetic box (which she hopes she can offer as a stretch goal), and, to celebrate, you are welcome to ask for a free one card reading, or a paid reading using one of her layouts.

I have permission to post pictures of the Unicorn Key readings, so in addition to my reading of the card, you'll get to see a photo of your card, posed next to one or more of my roses, weather permitting. (If you ask for a multi-card reading, you'll get a picture of the reading with Ellen's art as backdrop instead.)

(If you might want your own copy of this deck, go here: www.backerkit.com/c/projects/ellen-million-graphics/a-unicorn-key-oracle-and-guide-deck )

If you tip, you can also ask for a card from any of my decks, but I'll have the following handy: The Dream-Weaver's Oracle (a very new-to-me deck), The Oracle of the Dragonfae (which I've used to prompt songs during FAWM), The Fantasy Showcase Tarot (the first deck I ever saw or heard of where the art for each card was created by a different artist), The Shapeshifter's Tarot (still one of my favorites) or the combined Goddesses and Animal Spirits art cards by Susan Seddon Boulet (particularly good if you want a Guide).

As always, New friends and old are very welcome.

Status: Closed to free cards.

About the readings,

You can simply ask for a single card with no obligation to tip (though tips are very much appreciated, and tipping allows you to ask for one clarifying card if the initial reading is not clear to you). You can also ask for a clarification card if you boost the signal, and help other people find this event. Just mention where you posted!

I am offering Unicorn Key readings for $20. I can choose a random layout from the ones Ellen designed, or if you share your question, I'll pick a layout that suits. Most of these readings are 3-6 cards. If you want a different deck, Three-card readings are $25, or five card for $40. Again, some vague idea of what type of thing you're asking about will help me pick a suitable layout, though you don't need to share your question unless you want to.

Regardless of the length of the reading, you may ask about real life or a creative project, or even for a character you play in a game. I can draw a card for you to meditate on, to represent the Guide you need right now, or to get you unstuck. I can draw a card for your protagonist or villain, or can draw a card or cards for you to use as writing or art prompts.

Tip are always appreciated, however, I understand all too well that when people don't have cash or spoons that is generally when they most need inspiration. Don't be afraid to ask for a card if you can't tip.

When you tip, it's helpful to me for you to mention it here so I can connect your Paypal information with your request. Tips should be at least $2 (Paypal charges fees). If Paypal doesn't work for you, drop me a message and we'll work something out. The guitar case below is my personal PayPal link, featuring my own artwork, which does inspire me even though it isn't Tarot- or Oracle-related. Or you can use paypal.me/DeirdreMMurphy

I will reply to all requests. If I start to feel overwhelmed, I will close to free readings; in that very unlikely event, that will be in nice bold letters after the word Status above. I plan to stay open at least through Monday for free readings. After that, you can certainly ask for a paid reading, if you want one. (Yes, I still have the stupid long covid, though it's getting (oh so slowly) better, so if I'm too tired or can't focus at any particular moment, I'll rest and return later. I appreciate your patience when that happens.)

As always, while I work hard to offer insight and inspiration, all I can legally promise is entertainment. See my "Dandelyon's Readings" page for a little more about my readings.

Current Mood: quixotic
Current Location: My Rose Garden
Current Music: yes!

Which makes me feel sleepy anyway, but also I stayed up until after dawn playing MTG with my partner, with a wonderful cool night-time breeze coming in the window.

The day lilies are starting to bloom (mostly tiger lilies), and the roses are still blooming, and I should go out and weed around the tomatoes and cucumbers and all. Got to be careful where I planted beans not to "weed" them!

See you soon!

Current Mood: artistic
Current Location: home and garden
Current Music: please

All the weeding and such I did in the last few years in the garden has paid off, and I have lots of roses. Sitting here with the window open, the scent is lovely!

Also,

ellenmillion 's crowdfunding campaign for her beautiful Unicorn Key cards, is up and it has funded (so it will definitely be real!). The campaign still has nearly 3 weeks to go, and she's already close to funding the third stretch goal.

I have an actual, properly printed prototype deck, complete with gilded edges, in a lovely magnetic box (which she hopes she can offer as a stretch goal), and, to celebrate, you are welcome to ask for a free one card reading, or a paid reading using one of her layouts.

I have permission to post pictures, so in addition to my reading of the card, you'll get to see a photo of your card, posed next to one of my roses, weather permitting. (If you ask for a reading, you'll get a picture of the reading with Ellen's art as backdrop instead.)

To order your own deck, go here: www.backerkit.com/c/projects/ellen-million-graphics/a-unicorn-key-oracle-and-guide-deck

As always, New friends and old are very welcome.

Status: If you want a reading now, please ask on this new post (just so I don't have to check both places): https://wyld-dandelyon.dreamwidth.org/477331.html

About the readings,

You can simply ask for a single card with no obligation to tip (though tips are very much appreciated, and tipping allows you to ask for one clarifying card if the initial reading is not clear to you).

I am offering Unicorn Key readings for $20. I can choose a random layout, or if you share your question, I'll pick a layout that suits. Most of these readings are 3-6 cards.

Regardless of the length of the reading, you may ask about real life or a creative project, or even for a character you play in a game. I can draw a card for you to meditate on, to represent the Guide you need right now, or to get you unstuck. I can draw a card for your protagonist or villain, or can draw a card or cards for you to use as writing or art prompts.

The first card is free (though tips are always appreciated). I understand all too well that when people don't have cash or spoons that is generally when they most need inspiration. Don't be afraid to ask for a card if you can't tip.

When you tip, it's helpful to me for you to mention it here so I can connect your Paypal information with your request. Tips should be at least $2 (Paypal charges fees). If Paypal doesn't work for you, drop me a message and we'll work something out. The guitar case below is my personal PayPal link, featuring my own artwork, which does inspire me even though it isn't Tarot- or Oracle-related. Or you can use paypal.me/DeirdreMMurphy

I will reply to all requests. If I start to feel overwhelmed, I will close to free readings; in that unlikely event, that will be in nice bold letters after the word Status above. I plan to stay open at least through the weekend for free readings. After that, you can certainly ask for a paid reading, if you want one. (Yes, I still have the stupid long covid, though it's getting (oh so slowly) better, so if I'm too tired or can't focus at any particular moment, I'll rest and return later. I appreciate your patience when that happens.)

As always, while I work hard to offer insight and inspiration, all I can legally promise is entertainment. See my "Dandelyon's Readings" page for a little more about my readings.

Current Mood: Celebrating
Current Location: Inside my Garden
Current Music: Lots of live filk this weekend

Yesterday left me sad, having missed the aurora (again) and thinking on a kerfluffle in the local filk community (at least, I hope it will prove to be merely a brief fuss), and issues in a different musical group (I got to listen to an elderly man tell me that he knows what racism is because he uses Hitler's definition (!) and people don't get to change meanings of words (!) and I lost my temper with him, not that he cared.) My music communities are my social lifeline, so these things are very troubling to me. I headed to bed only to have sleep escape me for hours, despite pointing my brain elsewhere by doing duolinguo and reading frivolous fiction and petting a purring cat.

After dawn, I almost gave up and went outside to work in the garden, except it was cold out there, and I was already feeling cold. Finally I fell asleep. Happily, in my dreams, I was at a Worldcon with many friendly filkers around me, with lots of singing and friendly interactions. I particularly remember singing with someone with a very lovely deep voice. I woke feeling healed and hopeful. I hope that dream is a good omen for things going forward. (And many thanks to the filkers who came to my dream Worldcon, and sang and chatted and were good company.)

I got some of the plants I bought on Saturday in the ground, but not all of them. Waking after 3 pm leaves a very limited amount of outdoor time after doing things like getting dressed and eating breakfast, especially with clouds blowing in and rain arriving before sunset. But I now have cucumber plants in the garden! I'm still hoping the stores get Cherokee Purple tomatoes in, but I have some other tomato varieties out there, and some squash too. A few Ausilio peppers. And pea seedlings, finally. Soon I'll have to plant beans too, but they are truly a warm weather plant; no point in planting them until it's warm enough for them to germinate instead of rotting in the ground.

We are also moving some of the now-abundant wood violets that have moved inward from the borders of the garden from where they would be crowding the vegetables to other places in the yard, to make other border areas look nice and maybe to encourage the grass to stay out of where we're planting flowers and/or vegetables. It makes me smile to see all the little purple flowers! Of course, they only bloom in spring, but right now there's a lot of them, even more than dandelions.

And I got to chat with my daughter for Mother's Day (twice even, because she was hanging out at my sister's house and the first call got interrupted by dinner). She's doing well, and is past the probation period of her new job and is taking a training that she's excited about now that the new job will pay for it. So, all in all, a better day than yesterday.

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Location: heading to bed
Current Music: quiet is good sometimes

Yesterday it was pleasant outside. We got the wood chopping area cleaned up, all the tiny saplings there dug out and several of the the big logs from the mulberry tree that used to rain mulberries on the neighbor's driveway set up into a kind of table and chairs setup. Then I did some weeding and spotted (finally) pea sprouts. I got some Ausilio Italian Pepper seedlings in the ground, after moving some of the wood violets to the base of the new "table" to get them out of the way. The table was planned to be a chopping block for branches, but I think we'll use a different one for a year or two, and use this as a place to relax in the shade for a while, since I expect it will be pretty all summer and well into the fall.

I am still open for One Card readings and longer readings over here: https://wyld-dandelyon.dreamwidth.org/475541.html. I would love to have more people stop by, and also to be able to show off the Unicorn Key cards, which are lovely.

The tomato plants are all doing well, getting darker leaves and looking stronger since they have been out in the sun (or rain) all day and exposed to wind and the other normal stresses of living outdoors. The garden store still does not have any Cherokee Purple plants, which they always have had in the past, even when I show up in mid-June to buy them. At least I have been calling them instead of driving out there multiple times, so I'm not wasting hours finding out. (I've been calling the location where the volunteered the information that one of their employees is looking for them, so I don't have to wait while someone walks all the way back to the back of the lot where the vegetable seedlings are housed). I hope they didn't have a disaster wherever they create those seedlings!

I would love it if I could get some Northern Lights seedlings somewhere. But it's hard to even find the seeds. Those tomatoes are one of my favorites, good flavor, yellow flesh, and pretty skins. I was very happy the year I had a few of those plants and they were very productive that year too. I'll have to look for more seeds, I guess, since I have no more of them.

Well, it's stopped raining outside; it's probably too wet to do more planting right now, but there are always weed tree seedlings to pull, and they often come right out when the ground is saturated.

Current Mood: relaxed
Current Location: home
Current Music: yes please!

Yesterday was frustrating, but it had some high points. I woke up to find that the black cat had once again pooped in the upstairs hallway, and so spent time doing things like mopping there, which was not on my plan for the day at all (and should have been done by my partner days ago, but all she'd done was pick up the solids and spray the floor with the denaturing spray). That eventually led to partner slipping on the stairs and dumping the entire mop bucket on the floor. She's ok (thank goodness), and (also thank goodness) I had a hamper full of dirty towels waiting by the basement stairs to throw on the floor to limit that mess and to keep it from seeping down to the basement and causing huge additional messes to clean, but that led to more mopping before breakfast, and much frustration.

My plan was to go to the gardening store, early, but partner had a medical appointment, so we ended up going to the gardening store late instead, and they didn't have the Cherokee Purple tomato plants I'd hoped to buy. Apparently those will (might) arrive by Monday. A nice manager checked to see if their other locations might have the plants I wanted, which led to arriving home even later than our late start should have led to. They also had only two cucumber plants, but more of those should be arriving later too.

While waiting, we looked at roses and bought an on-sale rose to fill a hole where a rose had died overwinter (I think over a previous winter, rather than the most recent one.) It's bare root, so we can't delay much getting it into the ground, but getting a flower on May Day sale is appropriate.

So we got home shortly before Cathy McMusic's planned Beltaine Concert, and was busy planting the few tomatoes I did buy during the concert, which would have been much more pleasant if the connection didn't constantly break up. I eventually listened to it properly later, improvising playing bass along with her songs.

And then the cat shat on the hallway floor again. Ugh. And looking around at my house, it's hard to remember how much progress I was making before I got the stupid Covid a year ago.

But in better news, in the lonely spot in the grass where we had, long ago, planted a bunch of tulips in a little circle garden that my daughter gave me, which had one lonely tulip show up most years thereafter, we found a little circle of four tulips! I guess the survivor got lonely, and created some new buds. I may yet dig them up and transplant them to a less lonely spot, but not while they're flowering. So that was at least one nice surprise for the day.

And I got to listen to live (over the internet) Beltaine music, and secretly play along with a couple of my favorite musicians in my own music room, and I lit a candle for my Beltaine fire, since I wasn't in the mood for sitting outside in the chill.

The lilacs are starting to bloom, and we still have a few ragged daffodils, and some lovely tulips, and I have some experimental pepper seedlings (experimental because I haven't tried those varieties, so if I get fruit I'll find out if I like them), and some sunflower seedlings, and outside there are lots of violets and dandelions. And I double-checked the 30-day forecast, and there are still no more lows predicted below the 40s (F), so while the beginning of May is historically risky for putting tomato plants outside, I'd been taking the ones I grew indoors out most days to harden them to sun and wind for weeks, and I feel safe getting them properly situated. (Two of the ones I overwintered are even blooming!)

And we did get the replacement seep hose buried, though that delayed planting peas. So there's lots of happy spring gardening news. Here's hoping for no Covid this year, and nothing else serious, and that the long covid keeps getting better. I have things to do and, especially, wonders to create!

Current Mood: hopeful
Current Location: The garden, mostly
Current Music: Alexander James Addams and Cathy McManamon

Progress, health wise, continues to be slow and unpredictable. For example, the air quality yesterday was worse than it is today, but to me it felt worse today.

We did get some gardening done, mostly weeding around roses and watering the old fashioned way, since we weren't able to replace the broken seep hose before planting peas and beans and sunflowers along the area where the hose would need to be dug in. Peas are going great, beans are starting to be big enough to notice, but the sunflowers seem to be totally absent. That's puzzling, since I bought new seeds. Maybe they just germinate slower than beans? Anyway, trying to plant the seep hose now would be likely to destroy some of the veggies, so we'll probably stick with watering in the evening for the rest of the summer.

I do have some green tomatoes growing now, and the cucumber and squash plants are growing. And we finally got the sweet potato seedlings that grew from an old sweet potato in the kitchen in the ground. They might not have enough sun and enough time to make big tubers, but any tubers would be really cool.

Today, now that the day lilies are just about done blooming, I worked on digging up day lilies and other weeds that were encroaching on a couple of the roses, and got My Angel to help with digging up some weed trees in that area. Then we gave the roses some compost and ash from the cooking pit and watered them thoroughly. I always worry when I'm weeding close to a rose, because disturbing the roots can make them unhappy, but the ones I weeded around and gifted with compost last year really set out a lot of new branches and had lots of roses this spring, so I'll keep doing that. And at least today I didn't see the rose moving when I dug the shovel in, which is a good sign.

I ate some mulberries and peas while I was out there too. It's nice to have snacks to pick when I'm out in the garden.

Current Mood: relaxed
Current Location: My own yard
Current Music: peace

I'm trying to do 50/90 this year, more actively than last year when I signed up and mostly ignored it. It is very FAWM-like, since it's at the same site, and with a lot of the more active FAWMers. The stated goal is to do 50 songs in 90 days, but I'm not at all worrying about the song count. (Especially since the aftermath of Covid is still kicking my butt--I started to do some gardening yesterday and ended up bringing the tools inside and falling asleep again. The cpap told me that between lunchtime yesterday and lunchtime today, I slept exactly 12.00 hours!)

There have been way too many fireworks around here. The noise isn't my issue so much as the huge amounts of smoke from the gunpowder and other chemicals. I always have breathing issues right around the 4th of July, until we have a good rain or three. In better news, we did have a sudden downpour today, which doubtless cleaned the air atm least a little (though I'm expecting more illicit fireworks for some days yet) and had the bonus effect of watering the garden. I slept through the optimal garden watering time yesterday.

(Optimal watering time, when you don't have a seep hose installed, is either well before the sun hits the leaves or after there's shade, as water on the leaves can lead to problems on days with bright sunlight especially if it's hot enough to otherwise stress (or encourage) the plants.) And it was too hot yesterday for me to even think about working out there in the sun.

The stress test went well. I haven't had a chance to talk with the doctor about the results, but the word normal appeared in a bunch of places, including the very important "normal response to exercise". So this stupid on-and-off chest tightness is not an incipient heart attack, and I don't need to fear exercising. I'm used to dealing with exercise and asthma, at least.

Maybe tonight it'll be quiet enough to start work on recording the song-swap song. If it keeps on drizzling, that will reduce people's excitement about shooting off fireworks.

Current Mood: tired of being tired!
Current Location: home
Current Music: hopefully

So, a couple of weeks ago, the post-covid brain fog led to me asking My Angel to get cabbage (which I already had) instead of apples, which I needed for my version of waldorf salad. So I mixed up a bowl of cabbage, shredded carrot, and canned pineapple (sliced tiny). The pineapple was really disappointing, more sweet than pineapple flavored. Ah, well, that's canned for you.

For my best experiment before today, I added sliced leftover ginger pickle, onion, and soy sauce. I think that version would have been really good with sliced roast beef added, if I'd had any handy, but I didn't. Or peanut pieces, which I also didn't have.

I did turn some of it into waldorf salad, adding chopped walnuts, apple, and mayo, and decided (no surprise) that the carrot didn't work particularly well in it.

Today, I took the last of it and added dried apricot, sliced very small, sliced onion, minced fresh ginger, and soy sauce (gluten free, as always). This version was inspired by the thought that carrot and ginger are a good combination. It was good.

So that's two different alternate (to me) cabbage salads that are worth further experimentation in the future.

Now I should put on outdoor clothes and go pick peas. There's lots of mulberries out there too. And I'll have to water the garden the old fashioned way, since it didn't rain yesterday and neither I nor My Angel have had the energy post-covid to dig up the old, broken one, and lay the new one into the ground.

Current Mood: low energy
Current Location: home and garden
Current Music: birdsong

I woke up for a call of nature, but presumably as a result of going to sleep early last night was unredeemably awake. Well, my body was, anyway. My mind was drifting, awake enough to be bored and not awake enough to do any mental work. I tried laying down for a while, then playing with pixel dragons briefly, and finally let myself be lured out into the very early morning sunshine.

I'm still taking things very slowly, since though the breathing feels better, my chest is still tight, which could mean some wonderful new health adventure like heart disease. (There is a stress test scheduled.) So there was no digging or anything stressful, but I did clip branches off weed trees we want to dig up or otherwise kill, and sat on my grandmother's very comfy tub stool to strip the leaves to throw in the compost. And now the compost pile is covered with pretty green leaves, and needs to be turned.

That was enough to get me awake enough to be hungry. Time for leftovers. And then? Either napping or Eurofilk. Or maybe a little of both, but if it's to be napping, the CPAP will be on.

Current Mood: bored
Current Location: home still
Current Music: Only in my head right now

I looked at the weather forecast, and even if I went out into the rain, cucumber seeds aren't likely to sprout out there any time soon. So, I figured, I have the skills to transplant tiny seedlings when it gets warm, and started some in one of my tiny indoor greenhouses. They're all snug in their moist little nurseries now, between a heating pad and a grow light.

And I stayed warm and dry. Well, dry and warmish, anyway, since I don't want to pay to turn the heat up. But that's a lot better than cold, wet, and miserable.

I think (finally) the breathing is predictably better than it was, but my chest still feels tight. I seem to be a little more clear-headed too. Here's hoping the trend continues. I have things I would rather be doing.

Current Mood: Still too tired
Current Location: Still home

This post-covid crap is horrible. I'm behind on everything possible.

On Saturday, I (very slowly) got the tomato plants we bought Friday into the ground while listening to the Festival of the Living Rooms concerts; My Angel got the squash and hostas planted. (I had daydreams of getting some more showy shade plants to put under the mulberry tree, but My Angel likes hostas, and they were on sale and placed easy-to-find at the store. I then very slowly got the gardening tools and stool inside, and planned to plant cucumber (seeds, sadly the store had no plants) on Sunday. The weather laughed at me and provided chilly rain all day.

Today (Monday), I had a late breakfast, did the Cologard thing (which left me exhausted--again, this is a dreadful virus. I'm not even testing positive any more! I so very much did not need this!) Anyway, the cat wanted me to lay down and pet her. I did, and fell asleep for more than three hours. It was too dark for planting cucumbers by then. Hopefully tomorrow.

There's lots of roses out there, but I have not got out to properly photograph them, much less do pruning and weeding.

I did manage to do a little singing during the Festival, though. Friday, singing was really hard. I just didn't have enough breath. I had some focus, though, and did some painting. On Saturday and Sunday singing was better, but I didn't have much focus for it. People said I sounded good, though! In between songs, I mindlessly deleted old political and sales e-mails that were too boring to bother with before. There's still way too many of them, but I zapped thousands.

It was very pleasant listening to so many friends singing to me, sitting in my living room and doing almost nothing. But in a better world, it could have been very pleasant singing lots of songs and getting something else done in between turns. Very pleasant indeed!

I never did get back out to take more pictures of the wonderful-smelling roses, but I got this shot of one of the first ones last week. I'll try for more tomorrow, if I'm feelig up to it.

A lovely pink rose between two buds; one of the first in my garden this year.

A lovely pink rose between two buds; one of the first in my garden this year.

Current Mood: still so tired!
Current Location: home, home, home
Current Music: filk!

I believe I'm getting better slowly. I definitely felt better two days ago, then yesterday I woke up and decided I didn't even want to go out in the garden without washing my hair, so I took a bath, and I was falling asleep in the bath. I rinsed my hair and laid down and slept for 7 more hours. Today I was not so tired, until I tried doing things and came back in for my rescue inhaler and to just sit for a bit.

This picture is from a couple of days ago. I took the leftover salad from some takeout and added some lilac flowers and dandelion petals. It sure made it pretty! I meant to add some of the basil seedlings, but that thought escaped me until after I'd eaten the salad. Dumb brain fog.

The brain fog is also making Duolinguo frustrating. I'm forgetting to finish sentences and forgetting the spelling of way too many words. It's worse this week than it was when I was sicker, which is doubly frustrating. If I'm feeling better overall, my brain ought to be working better too! But I'm pushing through that, since I know so little of what I have learned is solidly in long term memory that I'll lose a lot of ground if I don't.

A bowl with the leftover salad from takeout, with lilac flowers and dandelion petals

A bowl with the leftover salad from takeout, with lilac flowers and dandelion petals

Oh, and I paid the yearly renewal for the license plates before it was overdue. I have trouble feeling accomplished when getting so little done, but not paying a late fee is a good thing.

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Location: Where else?
Current Music: quiet

I've been going outside and sitting in the sun, mostly weeding slowly. Yesterday, the tulips-in-a-hydroponic-vase I bought on a pre-covid trip to the pharmacy started losing their petals, so I weeded a small area for them and put them in the ground outside. I'm hoping they'll be happy there and will bloom again next year.

The lilacs are blooming, and are shedding glorious scent everywhere. The snowball spirea are also blooming.

closeup of one of our snowball spirea, showig the bright white flowers in round clusters

closeup of one of our snowball spirea, showig the bright white flowers in round clusters

My health seems to have stalled. I tried to sing Cynthia McQuillin's Horses of Air at a zoom filk this weekend, and had to take a lot more breaths than usual. My chest is still tight, even with taking the rescue inhaler as often as the prescription says I can every day (in addition to my advair), and I still get tired way too easily. There's less runny nose, and (maybe) less coughing. Still muscle stiffness and soreness, and sinus headache off and on. And still there are naps, or suddenly having to sit down and stop doing stuff for a while. Not a lot of focus for music either, which is frustrating. At least I don't feel like I have developed yet another bacterial infection.

Tomorrow I go to meet a new primary doctor. I hope I like her. I have had too many bad experiences with primaries, who do not typically have much experience with people with asthma and allergies and who too often don't listen to me. But I'm keeping my fingers crossed. The last primary I loved moved to Madison to work for the VA. So I know there are good ones out there. (I'd have asked about My Angel's primary, who I really like, but my insurance doesn't cover her clinic, so that's not an option.)

Speaking of My Angel, she is still coughing, still tireder than usual, and still running out of breath and needing to take her rescue inhaler about twice a day, though that's about it for her.

Now I'm heading out to sit in the garden some more. Maybe plant some more sunflowers once I weed the spot by the house where I plan to put them. And My Angel got me some bulbs, alliums and other stuff. So maybe I can get those planted too. We'll see.

Current Mood: still sick&tired
Current Location: garden
Current Music: FilkCast

I got outside after the neighbor drove off in his four-wheeled boom box. It was just too loud--too loud for me to even want to be in the kitchen with the windows closed. I sure hope he has things to do to keep him out of his car or away from the house for most of the summer. We cleaned an area of the driveway where I'd been storing sapling trunks to use as plant stakes for several years. Naturally, leaves had collected over and under the wood, and once we picked out the remaining tomato stakes and random sticks, we found lovely black soil and even happy earthworms! The leaves and dirt went either into the compost or on the ancient rosebush that we pruned dead stuff out of earlier this spring.

My Angel had to do most of the standing work, I'm afraid. But that bit of the garden looks a lot neater now!

Earlier, I chatted with friends and worked on my dandelion-fairy painting.

Last night, after falling in bed early, I woke up and did a little music in the middle of the night. The bass stuff is happening so slowly compared to before I got sick. Everything is happening so slowly, since the unpredictable chest tightness and exhaustion haven't gone away. Ugh.

But slow progress is better than none.

Detail of dandelion fairy painting, showing progress on the fairies

Detail of dandelion fairy painting, showing progress on the fairies

Current Mood: creatve
Current Location: Still isolating, ugh
Current Music: Yes!

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Dandelyon's Worlds

The further musings of the Dandelyon

Happy Earth Day!

Back to the Garden--but First...

Mint Dressing

Finally

How is it July Already?

Summer Solstice / Full Moon Card Draw

It's hot!

Unicorn Key Card Daw, with bonus roses

Good Dreams and Garden Things

Still Open for card draws; garden natterings

Belated Happy Beltaine!

Garden nattering

50/90 and Fireworks (and health foo)

Experimental Salad of the Day

Early Morning Randomness

It's cold and rainy again

(no subject)

Taking Things Slow

Sloooooooow gardening is still gardening

Slow Progress is Still Progress

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April 2025

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