Saturday.  Clear and cool today.  Supposed to warm up into the low 70s.  We didn't get out of the 60s yesterday so a bit warmer will be nice.  We had to take the car in for its long-delayed oil change and to check out a grating sound that started just recently.  Thankfully the sound came from a dislodged part that the mechanic was able to put back in place.  However needed the automotive work was it cut a large chunk of time out of my day so I didn't get anything done outside except watering the plants.  In spite of the rain we had it seems that the containers dried out quickly.

Sunday.  Supposed to be warmer today--perhaps getting into the low 80s.  We have had a steady stream of hummingbirds at the feeder.  And an equally steady stream of the chickadees, sparrows, wrens and goldfinches at the seed feeder.  I planted the latest six strawberries and pulled the three that weren't recovering from the winter.  One had given up and two were close.  Also got the pots cleaned out and re-stacked in the mini-greenhouse.  I decided it was time to cull the plastic pots I had converted from the plastic food containers over the years.  Each year we do buy some starter plants from the local garden shops and the pots they come in have actually gotten sturdier so I kept them as well.  As a result I was drowning in pots.  I would complain about my lack of storage space but I have suspect I would never have enough given how things seem to accumulate.

Monday.  Hope you are enjoying your Memorial Day.  Didn't do much in the gardens except rearrange some of the pots.  I did get the upstairs starting bench cleaned up a bit and started getting the trellis stakes sorted out.  They are metal tubes coated with a heavy plastic.  After a couple of years the plastic turns brittle and starts cracking.  I am stripping off the plastic and plan to bend them into supports I can use to make frames for protective covers.

On the TV news this morning I saw a teaser that claimed pregnant women are at risk of iodine deficiencies.  I haven't seen the actual report yet but found this during my perusal of the news on line.  They mentioned the prevalence of processed food and I had a hunch that those foods don't use much iodized salt.  Makes sense especially considering how much advice out there tells us to limit our salt intake.

There are so many "vampires" I wish would stay dead after being staked.  "Pink Slime" sorry--"finely textured beef" is one and it seems it is making a comeback.  The fast-rising price of beef (and other meats) is, evidently, pushing the fast food industry to use it again.  Well, our rules are in place:  we get our ground beef from our little meat market or we grind it ourselves.  And we don't go to the burger joints.  We don't even go to Stake 'n' Shake any more for burgers.  The insist on cooking the burgers to charcoal.  Hope they don't mess with the shakes because that is the only thing that takes us back there.

I could say some dirty words on this but I don't think I want to spend the energy.  I plan to avoid the "internet of things" as much as possible.

I guess I had better clean up my language.  I don't know how many commercials get my more caustic language over a day.  And many more get the "cute, but..." comment--cute commercial but I'm not buying.