Bergamot

I planted seeds for bergamot/bee balm and thyme in the spring. Exactly none of them came up. I've been keeping an eye out for a bergamot plant, until today, zip, zilch, nada. Nurseries don't make a lot of income off of permaculture: drought tolerant, hardy perennials, reliable self-seeders. But I found one, exactly one, a bit pricy, but looked healthy. It came home with me, I hope it will be happy.

So, I pulled a few more of the excess sunflowers, used up most of the remaining water collected in May from the eaves draining into the yard waste bin (90 gallons, got me through June and a bit), and planted this one. Really does have a lovely scent, rather like spicy thyme. Hopefully it will take and spread and seed and the plan doesn't have to end with dead and buried seeds. Trying to root the stem that got broken.

Long, long ago, someone offered me cake flavored with bergamot, which she thought I would hate. Because I was young and inexperienced, she would have to teach me how to have taste. I liked it immediately, to her mild consternation. Never could find the food quality essential oil to make my own version of that cake, but I never forgot the interaction. A reminder to me that those much younger than myself may well be more sophisticated and capable, and I strive to treat them always as potentially intelligent and wise individuals. Age does not confer wisdom, it's just a matter of more opportunities, which many squander all their lives, thinking themselves above others.


At work we are often enlisted to examine OR staff applications, resumes specifically. One for a tech yesterday was Extraordinary! She called her skills Remarkable and Excellent, and Extensive and Amazin... no I don't think that one was on there, but it felt like it was. She'd gotten hold of a thesaurus and didn't know when to stop. Total hard sell, but to those of us who have written our own versions of this, the gaps were stunning. No mention of the specialties she's scrubbed - was it ortho, general, vascular, gyn, ENT, transplants, total joints, neuro, open hearts? None mentioned. If we scrub liver transplants, crainies or total joints, we list 'em like OBEs or Purple Hearts.* She gave two facilities in two different states not Utah, that both seemed to be outpatient surgeries, which largely means lower complexity cases, of whatever specialty. No explanation for her moves, or why she was moving here.

After a few minutes for her Edifying Resume to sink in, and all I could think of was,

"SOME PIG!"




No doubt she is also.



On the other hand, she may have been given some terrible advice, or not be a writer, or just got wrapped up in an inadequate template. Unlikely, but not utterly impossible.


Got THE book on mosses, ILL from BYU. Wow, a lifetime's work for a brilliant scientist, and in dire need of a good index and profound annotation. Not of much use to someone looking for a few local mosses to fill in a backyard-with-issues. One nurse from work says she gets some moss in the spring, and promised me a spoon of it sometime. The text is overwhelming... correction, I'd need a bryologic expert just to narrow it down to overwhelming. If I can find a layman's guide, I will be all over that.

More stripping, used chemical stripper on the difficult door. Lots more paint came off, but it all gummed up into snot-like balls that stuck differently. Turpentine helped a bit, but it's all rather messy. If I find another door with such poor initial prep that the paint doesn't just come off well with the heat stripping, I'm thinking I'll just sand and repaint with a non-black/grey color, and call it good. Already thinking of some stencil work for the inside of the bathroom door, which is grey, but in a small space it's not so bad. Something bright but not overwhelming, like a koi stencil in red/yellow/orange on the panels. Perhaps kelp up the sides.


Cats both on the bed, content together, with a couple of feet space for Moby's comfort.




*And for much the same reasons. If I never see another liver transplant again it'll be too soon. But I'm proud that I could run them and scrub them once upon a time.