Meadow Garden

I've been trying to establish a meadow garden for years.  I should have followed the original guidelines and just covered the whole 15 x 30 bed with black plastic for a year, but I thought good transplants would grow.  They didn't.

So last year, I bought ten 5 gallon pots to grow tomatoes (my regular garden is too shaded) and stuck 30 meadow flowers around them.  They just sort of sat there all year.

This Spring, they exploded in growth!  All of a sudden, I had 8" thriving plants in 8 of the pots.  A few days ago, I started transplanting them to the meadow bed.  Finally, I had plants large enough to identify (the originals of past years came 2" high and the grass shaded them out)

Transplanting them from the tomato pots to the meadow bed has been hard.  I know how to transplant.  But the soil there is almost impossible to dig into.  It is all rocks in every place I dug.  I removed all the rocks, but it was exhausting works.  The shovel hits a 1" rock and it seems like a brick!  I finally found it best to pry them out with a trowel.

The meadow flowers I bought last year are tolerant of bad soil.  Years ago, it was a ridge in the backyard that I had a landscaper scrape level and add to the soils to a low spot in the front lawn.  That worked well.

Then I used a roto-tiller to mix the clay/sand 4' deep.  And then dragged around a board to smooth the surface.  The surface 4" is all good soil.  But 4" down it is still clay and rock.

Digging holes for the transplants about kills me.  6 holes takes an hour.  It is like I'm prying out bricks with a screwdriver!

But I've transplanted over a dozen 8" meadow flowers in the past few days.  I gave them a deep slow watering yesterday morning and they all perked right up by the afternoon.  I expect they will thrive.

Finally, I will have some meadow flowers that survive and grow!  I still have a few more to transplant, but the heavy sprinkler watering should make digging their holes a bit easier.  

I have some small ones from last year.  They didn't grow, but they did survive.  Since the ones I planted around the tomato pots (in great soil) did so well this year, I expect good results and larger plants next year to increase the size of the meadow bed.  

I'm going to have a meadow bed of plants that butterflies and bees want to visit if it (darn near) kills me.  😩

And some good news about the meadow bed.  Some flowers that seemed dead there last year have exploded with growth on their own.    There is a group of 6 identical plants in one spot, so they must be deliberate plantings.  

And there are 6 scattered around with small yellow flowers already emerging.  So they must be meadow flowers I planted in previous years that are finally maturing and thriving.  

I may have a functional meadow bed emerging!

Spring Bulbs

I got another 100 bulbs planted the past 2 days.  It has been a bit frustrating.  I may have mentioned some of this before...

First, I ordered the bulbs in March.  I intended to mark individual empty spots to plant many of the new bulbs.  Both to fill in and diversify the daffodil colors.  I originally planted 5 colors bloom time of daffodils in wedges around a circular bed, and I regret it..  

I even bought 60 thinset bricks (cheap) with the idea of using a cold chisel to break them in half (so there would be 120 markers for Fall planting.  And then in April, I woke up to discover my hip felt broken.  I couldn't even walk, so the breaking of the bricks and marking empty spots went out the window

By mid-Summer, when I could walk again (apparently it was actually just a very badly torn groin muscle that wouldn't heal easily) all the daffodil leaves had faded away, so I didn't know where to put any markers.  

But the new bulb order of 250 daffodils, some hyacinths, and some crocuses was not cancellable.  Worse, it arrived in late November.  At the same time, the other hip was giving my problems and it was suddenly cold and wet.  Bad situations for planting bulbs!

So, the hip healed in mid December.  Half the daffodils were planned to go in the existing backyard bed and half in the front island where there was nothing but weeds surrounding a circle of a tree and a boulder.   I couldn't plant in the existing backyard bed with destroying a lot of existing daffodils, so I focussed on the front island.

With meant rototilling the soil, putting down packing paper to smother the grassy weeds, and then covering the paper with 2" of soil to hold it down.  I figured the rain would soften the paper enough to drill through (it did).  And there was warmer weather forecast.  So 100 daffodil bulbs went in there.  Yay!

Well, that left 150 daffodils.  The past 2 days, I planted 100 of them in a empty 10' diameter bordered circle in the backyard.  Actually, I planted the 25 hyacinths in the center, and the daffodils around them.  There is a 50' flowerbed along a fence, and I had some species tulips and crocuses along the lawn edge, but the voles have gotten almost all of them.  So later today, I will plant the remaining 50 daffodils along there.

Not what I originally planned, but the best I can do given the timing.  

I will plant the 50 crocuses in some tubs to enjoy their blooms next Spring and hope I can retrieve new-formed bulbs in late Summer to plant in wire cages in the lawn in the Fall.  Without mesh cages, the voles just find the bulbs and eat them like candy.  Fortunately nothing bothers daffodils.  They are toxic to mammals (which is why I have almost all daffodils here).  

I am damn near worn out these days, so this will probably be my last major bulb-planting effort.  

And I don't know if this late-December planting will be successful.  Spring bulbs need chill time over Winter and they should have been planted in October (to give the bulbs time to develop roots and recognize the right time to emerge in early Spring).  But I've read that, even if they don't bloom well next Spring, they will likely recover during 2025.  

Climate change is affecting emergence and bloom time.  I planted my first here 30 years ago.  My daffodils used to start emerging in early February.  Then it was January.  And now, here I am in late December planting some, and existing ones are emerging NOW!

I don't know whether they will adapt to shorter and warmer Winters or just start to die out.  I'll be glad for any existing or new ones that survive, but I worry someday they will all be gone.  

I'll keep some hope for years more of the existing and new ones.  Daffodils are one of the few things neither deer nor voles will eat.  But a yard without Spring bulbs would be a sad thing.

The front island all planted an covered with soil...

The new daffodil bed is to the right of the saucer magnolia tree.  There isn't anything to see there right now. but it should be full of hyacinths and daffodils in some months soon.

The fence to the left of the tree is the flowerbed.  That is where some of the new daffodils will go as a border.  That bright spot is where I set down large cut-up large cardboard boxes to smother weed.  It is also The Mews Memorial Place.  So while they are 2' down, I don't really want to dig around there even shallowly so "smothering" weeds feels best.

I think I will plant a dozen catnip plants there next Spring.

The State Of The Mews

Trying new things to fix "fuss&upset"...

Marley still has kidney problems and alway will.  But the kidney care Hill's Science diet (and some portion control for weight) has helped.  And he will be 14 in August.  Elderly cats usually develop some problem.  I can't do anything about that.  

Lori is still upset about Loki and Binq.  I can't do much about that either.  But things are slowly getting better.  Lori and Loki sniff noses and butts sometimes.  They walk past each other calmly sometimes.  They eat near each other sometimes.  

There are still hisses and raised paws, but not like at first.  I have seen them sitting calmly a foot apart a couple of times.

Lori is still having stress-diarrhea issues.  I say "stress" only because the Vet says it has gone on too long and meds should have solved any physical issues by now.  There could be something more serious physically and if Lori and Loki resolve their psychological issues and Lori still has diarrhea, we will try more serious tests (disease, blockage, whatever).  I want her around for a long long time.

But I can say the diarrhea problems are less frequent.  There are now several clean days to each bad one.  Which (to me) seems to fit the "stress" idea.  And to be fair to Loki, Lori initiates about half the "fusses".

Loki is still a problem.  He arrived with "eye-goop" and abdominal muscle spasms.  Those have both gone away.  Meds cleared the head infection and I have no idea why the abdominal spasms occurred or why they stopped.  Some problems stop and you know why (meds) and some stop and you never do know why.    

One day he just stopped having those abdominal spasms.  I didn't even notice at first.  It's like when an itch stops.  All of a sudden, you just realize it ended...

Loki's biggest problem is that he suddenly started peeing on my bed a month ago.  I didn't know which cat it was, but every few days, the sheets/blankets were wet.  First once a week, then every few days, then every day.  

I finally caught him "in the act".  I yelled (wish I hadn't; he must have had a reason).  Well, I was frustrated!  I don't know how many of you have ever had a waterbed.  I've been sleeping on waterbeds for about 40 years.  I love the "give" as my body settles onto it.  Some people hate them.  But because water absorbs warmth from the body, you need layers of sheets and blankets beneath you even with a heated one.

So I have 3 sheets and 3 blankets below me and 1 of each above.  Well, I was getting tired of laundering sheets and blankets every couple of days.  I put a plastic tarp over the bed, so that if he peed there his own pee would pool around his paws.  I thought that would discourage him.  Not at all...

THAT didn't even stop him.  And a few days ago, while I was right there next to him, he was sitting on the bed and I recognized the "litter box blank stare"!  And the pee rolled to the edge of the bed and wet the bedcovers.  I had to wash everything again.  And my washer/dryer can only handle 1 blanket and one sheet each cycle.  Took all day!

I decided that Loki was "too much trouble" and needed to be returned to the Shelter in hopes he would find a new home that didn't cause him stress.  I've thought that several times in the past month.  

I go between "Loki is never going to be quite domesticated" and "I need to find some way to keep him here".  I am angry one day and trying to be tolerant the next.  Loki loves me personally.  He seeks (and gets) all the attention I can give divided among 4 cats.  He seeks me out and follws me everywhere.  He is definitely happy around me.  And he is happy around Marley and Binq.

It isn't a litter box problem.  Loki happily poops in them.  And I know the "1 box per cat" guidance (so I have 4) and I clean them every day before I make my own dinner (makes it easy to remember to do).

So I've changed tactics.  The tarp stays on the bed as pee-proofing of the blankets and sheets below.  And that works because I put an old sheet on top of the tarp.  That way, any pee is soaked up by the old sheet.  I will launder an old sheet every day for his life if I have to.  

Because it isn't his fault that he is having a peeing problem.  It is mine to help solve (OK maybe the Vet too).  

I have occasionally mentioned that I am constantly amazed that some animals can share our human artificial spaces.   Dogs need to be walked, rabbits poop anywhere, I don't even know what ferrets do.  Cats usually just need a litterbox.  

That's part of the human/cat bargain.  We provide shelter/food/attention and they use the clean litterboxes.  But they have to use the litterboxes.

The old sheet on the tarp covering the bed has stayed dry for 4 days.  That is great news.  

Maybe, a few months from now, all The Mews will snuggle together, Loki will stop peeing on the bed, etc.  

Meanwhile, I will go about planting the garden and cleaning the house...  *Sigh*

Reconsiderations

It is Sept 11th and I am becoming torn about how to respond to the 20th recognition of such a horrible event.  I  wrote a post in great anger a couple of days ago.  Everything I wrote in it is true,  to me.  But I decided not to post it here.  I spoke of anger and not ever forgiving the events of THAT DAY.  And I do NOT forgive.

But this morning, I also thought about hope and new days and the past, and I decided to change my post to reflect that.  I understand that part of the World's problems are due to various People nursing old angers and victimizations.  How long should anger continue?  I remember reading about some people expressing anger about a battle fought in the 1400s (I do not recall who or which battle now).

The US fought 2 wars against Great Britain, yet we are strong allies now.  The US fought against Germany, Italy, and Japan in WWII, yet were are allies now.  People who live today are not the same people who lived in the past.  

Many people around the World and within the United States think we think we are "all so much " or "all that".  Yeah, sometimes.  We are fortunate here.  Otto von Bismarck once said, if memory serves me correctly,  "America is blessed by God having oceans on 2 sides and weak neighbors on the other 2".  Let's say "peaceful" for now.  I like our good neighbors...

So maybe this round number of years is time to begin to let anger go.  We in the US are not innocent of horrible crimes against others.  

I acknowledge that there were people here before my European ancestors, but migrations happen in history.  And I know about slavery.  We have done wrong and I can't change the past.

But I listened to a song today and it reminded me of hope.

Hope has come from many places around the world though time.    Freedom has sprung up in the weediest places and defended to the death.  Sometimes it lasts and sometimes it doesn't.  

In my lifetime, "America" has stood for hope.  It's not perfect or anything "real" close, but sometimes a good try is worth it.  As Churchill said "The Americans do the right thing...  eventually."

So I was reminded of a song.  And today it felt more important.  We here are more divided than for scores of years.  We will re-unite...

Because there is a basic promise in our very existence.  Hope, freedom, and a promise that most of us agree on outside of politics.

The symbol is from France...

The words "We The People" have reverberated though 2 centuries+, and 

“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Still has meaning...

It is a promise not kept perfectly lately, but I think things are changing again.

The song is from Neil Diamond, who expressly described his Grandmother (as like so many others) reaching our shores from the far parts of the World...

Coming To America

Someday, the US will fade into history or change from what it was; every good nation has and no nation can hold the best ideals forever. History move forward relentlessly as things change.  Sometimes cruelty and horror erupts.  But somewhere there is always an island of hope.  I think we are that, however briefly.  It has been other places at different times.

To paraphrase Edna St. Vincent Millay:

Our candle burns at both ends;
It will not last the night;
But ah, our foes, and oh, our friends—
We gave a lovely light!

But for today, and with a sense of humility, we are doing the best we can and I am pretty proud of the dream.    

Better than anger and hatred.  Cherish hope! 

You can read my original post HERE.  It's a site I've used for various purposes at various times.  There is a part of me that still thinks as I wrote there, and probably always will.  Sometimes we hold conflicting thoughts in our minds.

Let's say I am going 75% with this post and 25% with the post at the link for now.  It will certainly change over time, and I don't really know in which direction...

The Night Before Election Day

A poem expressing my concerns the time before Election Day in the US... 

"Twas the Night of Election Day

As I paced through the house.

Would we get back to normal, the old voting way

Or would Donald steal it, the Cheating Old Louse?

 

I knew that the polls

On MSNBC

Had the Biden team goals

Being granted, you see.

 

But that's what I thought

In '16, when we "won"

But Hillary still lost what most of us sought

So I won't count my chickens until the last one.

 

Cuz Donald makes Tricky Dick

Seem like a nun

Saying he'd cheat the People with legal stuff sick

By saying the voting was over afore it half-done!

 

He said he would do it

Then said it was fake

And when shown the recording a bit

Said "Let them Eat Cake".

 

And spent 15 minutes

Defending you see,

What he claimed he had not said

To the cameras and we.

 

The businesses all boarded

Their windows today

In expectance of armed crazies with guns all aloaded

If Electoral College count drives Trump away.

 

They will say it is fake news

Conspiracy proven

The Deep State and Anti-Fa fears fanning their illusions

Of being the majority as the Biden's prepare move-in.

 

Or maybe tis I to weep who shall

Weep deep bitter tears

At the end of our laws and see autocrat gall

Replace freedom and voting for may yet years. 

 

Ben Franklin once said

When asked by the crowd,

If we had democracy, monarch, or dread

You have a Republic, defend it or be cowed.

 

Republics are fragile

Just ask the Old Greeks

Or the Romans who had some experience a while.

Nothing good lasts for long, go and vote or be weak.

 

So I pace the floor watching

The news of the day.

I think that the outcome will likely be fetching

But I won't be relaxed for many a day.

 

It takes time to count ballots

Mail-ins take some time.

And Trumpians are trying legal tricks quite lots.

But I think that when Electors meet, Biden gets the dime."

 

Political Stuff

It's a week before the US Presidential et al elections and I'm losing my mind.  I don't mind saying that I voted for Biden.  If Trump wins I think my head will explode.  I have disliked the candidate I didn't support before, but never felt complete utter disgust.

I mailed my ballot Friday.  I hope it gets there on time.  I mean, it only has to travel to the next town and 11 days should be way more than safe.  I could probably mail a letter to someone in China in 11 days.  I have a tracking number, so I will check in a couple days.

My State (Maryland) is so Democratic it probably wouldn't matter if it didn't.  Even my County (which was very Republican when I moved here 34 years ago) is now thoroughly Democratic.  Maryland is so completely Democratic that neither Trump nor Biden bothered to visit here (that I know of).  I don't even get political telephone calls or emails.

Still, you never know until it is over.  I went into some shock when Clinton lost in 2016 and even waited 2 days for everyone to announce they reported it wrong.

I was watching some TV interviews with people doing early voting in person today.  It was about how long they had been waiting to vote.  Most said "several hours".  But when the interviewer asked one lady, I just KNEW the answer.  "4 years".  And that is exactly what she said a few seconds later.  I often do that with movies, new commercials, and political speeches.  

I'm waiting with bated breath for Trump to do or say something dramatic to try a last-ditch effort to win.  Announcing  a Covid-19 vaccine, a major tax break for the non-wealthy, firing Mitch McConnell, a war with North Korea, something, who knows?  

He's desperate.  If he loses the election, a half dozen States are just waiting to charge him with a boatload of tax crimes, loan fraud, and who knows what else?  If the Department of Justice is free of his control, they might have things to investigate even he can't pardon himself for.

So nothing Trump does between now and the election will surprise me.  But watch me get surprised.  "Aliens are arriving November 2nd, NASA says so"...

If Biden was up 20 points in every State, I would still be worried.

And I ponder the consequences of Trump still being in office until January 20 even if he loses.  He could do a lot of damage in rage and revenge.  And that would be in his pattern of past behavior.  Let's just say politely that "he does not respond well to rejection".

If Trump loses, I will credit Biden for staying calm and rational in the face of insults and attacks.  I will credit Harris for energy and support and fundraising.  I will credit Obama for getting on the campaign trail at the end (not too early, not too late) and being himself at his best.  His campaign speeches were great.

But mostly, I will credit the Democratic voters who turned out in 2020 who didn't turn out out for Clinton (though if they had, we wouldn't be in this hot mess),  the Republican voters of 2016 who realized that they made a mistake (everyone makes a mistake sometimes) and changed their minds about Trump,  all the Republican strategists and columnists who turned away from Trump in the past couple years (that must have been hard to do).  

And I also will credit the resiliency of American Democracy.  Not that other Nations don't have some strong traditions and history of their own, but the Trump Presidency has been a particular challenge. The US is often said to be a "Nation Of Laws".  Sometimes that means we pay more attention to "laws" than we do to "justice".  My personal opinion is that we depend on law and limit justice in hopes of fairness and consistency.

But, as we have discovered in the Trump Presidency, we are more a Nation of "norms" than we realized.  It wasn't until Trump and Senate Leader McConnell started ignoring the informal rules that this legal loophole became clear.  Decades and even a century of informal rules have been broken or ignored for short-term political gain.

Past political leaders have always played "hardball".  They bullied their own party members to get things done and threatened the other party with consequences.  Political leaders have a lot of control over campaign funds to recalcitrant party members, funds to States, and laws which benefit some industry or not.  Politics at the top level are not for sissies.

But some rules have been agreed upon by both sides.  You don't kick the opponent party TOO hard when they are down, because the boot will be on the other foot soon enough and revenge is certain.  If you want something, you give a little bit to get what you really want.  You talk to each other to understand what they care about the most.  If you need a bridge built in your State, you look for someone on the other side who needs a highway in theirs.  Give and take.

In a democracy, "politics is the art of the possible".  In an authoritarian government, politics means "stomping on the opposition and grinding them into the dirt".  It means destroying the Civil Service.  It means ridding the government of any and all of the people who are experts in their fields who disagree with you.

Trump has been working toward "authoritarianism" for 4 years.  It's time to call a halt to the whole damaging process and get back to the usual "fight like hell but obey the norms" again.

A Thought

I watched the last half of the movie 'Arrival'.  I didn't understand it all, but grasped that it involved alien linguistics and apparently things worked out in the end.

But what stayed in mind afterwards was that the heroine finally came up with "zero sum game" when her daughter was seeking a "sciencey" phrase for "not lose-lose".  And I got to thinking about that.  I often do that when watching TV and completely lose the next 15 minutes deep in thought.  Which is a good reason to watch DVDs because you can just rewind them.  And see how old I am?  You don't rewind a DVD, LOL!  But I digress...

So I was thinking about "zero sum game".  Too many politicians think of life as zero sum; "if you win, I lose".  And that actually annoyed me.  In the movie, there were alien ships in many nations and all nations were trying to solve the language problem on their own for individual advantage.  One minor character dared suggest that everyone share what they knew and was ridiculed.

So back to reality and "zero sum"...

We have to stop thinking that way.  It's just causing too many problems.  We all know some things but no one knows everything.  We need to start sharing better.  If Nation "A" knows more about building wind turbines and Nation "B" knows more about storing that energy, shouldn't we share?  And why not tell Nation "C" about both parts so they can make life better for their own people?

I once read about 2 Chinese villages that both made hoes and were fiercely competitive.  As they were about to go to war, the Emperor stepped in and demanded that one village make the blades and the other make the handles and share the profits.  It a myth of course, but makes a good point.  We are all one species and should help each other.

Suppose we detected actual aliens approaching Earth 5 years away.  I bet we could all get along better then, huh?  And if they arrived and looked like 8' squirrels with tentacles, we wouldn't think we were all that different either. 

Why wait?

My paternal grandmother used to say that if a flying saucer ever landed on Earth, she would be the first person aboard.   On the surface, that reflects the fact that she and Grampa had rather "hard-scrabble" lives.  But I knew her better than that.  She was a brave and forward-looking person who thought our human progress was too slow and needed a better challenge.  A good kick in the butt...

And I agree.  We have gotten too locked into to group competition.  That's the "zero sum game".  No one wins that way and I'm getting damn tired of it.  We need to go from "zero sum" to "win-win"!

This is all because of the current political nonsense here in the US.  Be on any side you like domestically or internationally, but things are just not working as they should.  It isn't that one side should win and that would solve everything. 

Too many people feel a need to "win" at the expense of "the others" just to get ahead.  But isn't reality the idea of everyone getting ahead?

There is a reason we all don't live in caves today.  We traded knowledge.  One group showed another how to use animal sinews to hold hides together to make a portable shelter, and the other group gave them some seeds they saved that grew better grains.  And the next group had a better flint-knapping technique.

Everyone benefitted.  When did we stop?

Let's start doing that again.

And Happy Summer Solstice Day in the North and Winter in the South...

An Awkward Afternoon

OK, so it was about 5 pm last night and time to start preparing dinner.  I do a lot food prep.  Not like sliding a knife guided by my knuckles (as seen on TV), but I slice and dice pretty well.  I'm careful with knives and tools.

I love most veggies and one of those is beets and I mean fresh beets.  I bake them or m/w them, and I've always peeled them first, which works pretty well.  But I decided last night to bake them first and see if the skins would just slip off afterwards.

Well they didn't.  Worse, trying to peel them after baking was like trying to peel a damp sponge.   The beet was hard to hold, and the peeler couldn't get a grip.  In fact, as I was struggling with it, I said to myself "Self, you could hurt yourself this way".  You know what's coming right?

Yeah, one last peeler-pull and it slipped.  It didn't hurt in the least.  In fact,  while I sensed something was wrong, it wasn't until I rinsed off the beet juice that I was sure I was bleeding.  My left middle fingertip  was bleeding and by pressing on it I could tell I had taken a (small) piece of the nail out as well. 

It is amazing how hard it can be to open one of those individual-wrapped specialty band-aids (fingertip-type in this case) when one hand is bleeding.  I had the bleeding fingertip pressed against a wadded tissue, so I had to use my right hand and teeth.  Fortunately, I wasn't worried about sterility, I just needed to stop the bleeding. 

I finally did manage the get the fingertip bandage ready to apply, the fingertip dry of blood, and anti-biotic ointment applied to the finger, and the band-aid ON.  Which was done pretty awkwardly, but it stopped bleeding.

Which was confusing because there was still blood dripping...  It turned out the ring-finger  was similarly-but-less injured.  So I had to go through the whole process all over again.

So then I had the fun of preparing dinner (chicken, tossed salad, M/W potato, stir-fried peppers and mushrooms without getting my left hand wet or oily.   Its like typing with 2 fingers on one hand... 

Now all I have to do is wait to see what things look like later today.  I stop bleeding fast, but I need to look at the fingernails.  I've never damaged one before and I don't know what happens when you do. 

Fun and Games in the kitchen,  LOL!

And my semi-annual Dentist visit is later today.  Sure, why not?  And tomorrow I "get" to pick up my riding mower from the repair shop after 3 1/2 weeks for $350.

It could be a LOT worse. I could have pulled a fingernail partially or completely loose.  The dental visit could be about a root canal.  The riding mower could be essentially unrepairable and require a new one (and the new ones aren't actually as good as the old ones).