Midget

My Mexico Midget tomato plant... has a little tomato forming already.


I am aghast and delighted.

It's like a poodle. You may think it's fussy, but it's an old breed that had undergone centuries, if not millennia of natural selection.

Stroll around the front garden.




And a peek in back.

Expiration

I got a bit sucked up in an unreliable corner of the twitterverse. With a nudge, I realized and pulled myself out. Feeling a bit better now. I much prefer real work to false hope. Neither salvation nor doom survive the specific expiration date. My skepticism held, just stretched a bit.

The garden helps. Just keeps growing.



Got asked for ID to get beer. Could have been due to the blue/purple hair. I know my face does not look younger than 30, but I would never question a cashier. Pull out my ID, say I never get asked, amused, no argument.



One day, in the hopefully not too distant future, I will be writing here a LOT. Right now, too much in the middle, can't work through any of it yet. So, I'll keep the garden records, leave a hint, get back when I can.

Cheat

I went to a church Easter party, about 5 or 6 years old. There was a jar of candies, and we could guess how many. The prize was a lovely, very real, brown/grey stuffed bunny.

I guessed right, remarkably close to the real number.

As I sat on the church steps, waiting to be picked up, holding my new cuddly, some bigger girls came up and took it from me, saying I'd cheated. They were much bigger, and I could do nothing to stop them. I got in trouble for sitting outside waiting alone to be picked up.

My mother told the priest, and the church folks got me another bunny, bright yellow. Not in any way the same, and although I tried my best to be grateful, what I really wanted was that real looking bunny back from the mean girls.

Today, I have a stuffed bunny, and a lamb, some teddy bears and a moose. Two lovely real cats.

And I still think about that lost bunny.

Being cheated sets steel in people.

Got to the Wasatch Community Garden's Plant Sale on Saturday. Two each, Mexico Midget and Roma tomato plants. Idaho blue fescue grass, bee balm, raspberries. The latter to the back garden that prefers weeds, being I suspect tree root poisoned. So, if raspberries take over, I'll call it good. Invasive vs invasive.

Knocked

Every year there is a city Neighborhood Clean Up. We put out unwanted stuff, pickers whittle down the piles, and eventually the city picks up what is left.

I found this metal basin, much rusted, but with a strange framing beauty.

Everything is blooming madly. I put in pansies, and some columbine.



Young woman asked me if anyone ever knocked over my rock balances. Sure, so do I, and birds, and strong winds... I just put them back up. She said ok. Not what she expected perhaps.

This is what we do. Lives get knocked over, we pick them up.

And France did the right thing, which leaves me with a modicum of hope.

Vive La Resistance! I wrote that in chalk on our sidewalk.

Insistence

Poppy, Iris, Iris, Veronica, Rose.



All buds and hope. But the black iris that never bloomed last year, and looked like it wouldn't this year, has grown expectant. And the rose is alive! It's ALIVE!

Despite everything, I have decided this afternoon to trust that Obama out maneuvered the conman. Knew he was in a war, accepted that there would be casualties, and set up a strategy, with fall backs and contingencies.

Woke yesterday in the early hours, ill and in a lot of pain. My upper back has been worsening, and I've done a lot, but not enough, to calm it down. I think it became a migraine by morning. Threw everything at the pain all day, ice, massage, acupuncture, drugs, exercise, ice. By bedtime, I felt appreciably better. Still tender today, need to attack it again, but finally feeling progress.

Nothing like pain to sap energy.

And now, buds. Spring is insisting.

Plot

I was warned the mint would take over. So has the lemon balm, and the catnip is establishing itself.



Given the ivy and weeds, I accept this.

Poppies and tall grasses welcome.



Golden Celebration rose looking promising. Really, it is.


Lambs tongue, bergamot and catnip.


Allium blooming.Prickly pear.



Verge, with wheat and rye grasses. Weeds at bay.



My little bit of ground, that I am responsible for.

Vocabulary

Learning more exact meanings of so many words this year, as well as new ones, and appreciating others already known. Emoluments, inditement, subpoena, arrests, kompromat. The WP crosswords have been doing a subtle attack on the corruption and crimes. (I had to stop doing the paper* at work, since they kept using a particular 5 letter name that turns my stomach.) Dictionary with twitter account has been pushing appropriate vocabulary, like Kleptocracy and gaslighting.

Dreamed I was taking a bus to a voting place to register, and the bus driver ignored the stop request until seven stops later and much shouting. I was walking back along a road without sidewalks in the dark. Woke angry and frustrated. Tried to sleep, but everything I tried to think about failed to sooth or distract. Wound up just getting up around 0430, fed Moby, started fresh batch of catsoup.

Going to the Climate march this afternoon.

One day soon, I hope to start writing here regularly. Once I can get my mind to settle and digest.

I suspect I've always done this, needing only short bursts when I am going through rattled times, only able to think thoroughly once the storms are over. Even I can tell my words are disjointed, not what I mean. Reflective of my thoughts, though.

Oh, and I know a bit about the foot issue of a certain pertinent national figure. Nothing that isn't in the public eye, thankfully. So I have no temptation to break HPPA. The surgeon I worked with yesterday got the page from the Name, and I admitted curiosity, added immediately that I would not ask, ever. He did not respond, as is appropriate. At least I know he won't be my problem.

My theory? Immense stress shows up in the body. And there are those who will additionally self harm. Stories coming through the noise, that there is real movement toward ending this coup. I dare not hope, but I watch with less fear.

It ain't over til it's over.

Photos later of the garden.

Rejoice

Planted the Golden Celebration rose last week. It's already going green, with a reddish shoot. Well, with all this rain.

Yes, it has been raining this month. Day after day, pouring down. Rain barrels out catching it. This is great. Garden very green. Still early, no idea how the summer will grow. Mostly clump grass so far, weedy stuff, I try to thin it out every year. Even mowed it, in patches of course. Since I don't really have mowable patches. The verge is mostly the rye grass I put down last fall. Keeping the weeds down, anyway. Plucking up what weeds I can. Constant vigilance. Wheat grass is tall and provides a dark green texture.


Bergamot returning, first the wild stuff, the less wild ones only emerging today.

Hard to keep hoping, these days. But the buds return, and I rejoice.

Determining the wild flower cotyledons from the weed and tree seedlings continues to be daunting. Sometimes, I just have to wait for them to declare themselves.

Still, green arrives. And I rejoice.

Soon, perhaps, there will be more reasons to rejoice.

Scientist

No idea which marches these came from, but they are my favorites.


Heard of one chant from a rained on march, "We're nerds/We're wet/We're very, very upset!"

Science!

Tired and happy.