Sunday, February 26, 2017

Sunday, Feb. 26, 2011

I try not to post on the weekends. However, this item make me angry. Yesterday it was Muhammed Ali, Jr., who black and Muslim. I guess the agents who questioned him for 2 hours failed reading in school and couldn't glean from his American passport that he had been born in Philadelphia and they were so ignorant of our cultural history the name didn't ring a bell. His mother had to produce a picture of herself with the elder, deceased Muhammed Ali to prove her connection. But Mem Fox??? She is neither. What? Did they some how fail geography is school and think Australia was in the Middle East?

Yeah--deja vu all over again!! There aren't many sequels I enjoyed and this one looks to be particularly unappealing.

Friday, February 24, 2017

February 20-24--

Monday, again, and it feels more like late March or early April than February. We even brushed 70F yesterday. I went out on the patio and cleaned out some of the dead plants I had left as ground cover and to let the roots rot in the soil. I transferred the purslane to cells of the tiered pot under my grow lights. I think I will have to transplant the two rosemary plants out of that pot into their own slightly larger pot. I should also move the basils out from under the starter tray canopy because they will soon be too tall.

I pulled out the crocodile stitch crochet work I had done. The stitch is pretty but it eats up yarn like a rabbit goes through a spring garden. I simply didn't have enough yarn to make anything useful in that stitch and I really didn't want to have to try and match what I had. I started a couple of light weight headscarves in a stitch I have used before and liked well. After I found a refresher course on line because finding it in my print collection was somewhat challenging.

I love this "Breaking News" alert from the Archdruidess. Absolutely hilarious!!

Another post from the Archdruidess but not a funny one. I read recently of wildlife biologists trying to help a starving whale that had a lot of plastic bags clogging its stomach. Little wonder it was starving.

Tuesday--

Wednesday--

Yesterday was a day of errands (planned and unplanned) that took us out of the house. Today will be a day of household chores. And it is supposed to be another day of record or near record high temperatures. Yesterday set a new record for days in a row of 60+ days in a row in February, tied the number of sequential days of 60+ days in a winter and today may break both. But starting tomorrow the temps should go back to almost normal for this time of the year. I have to constantly remind myself that we are still mid winter here not mid spring.

This is painfully hilarious! Refugees from the U.S. seeking asylum in Canada.

Thursday--

Friday--

Nothing much to say talk about yesterday. I planted sweet basil, lemon basil, spearmint, and lime basil. Moved the Thai basil out of the heated starting tray. I am seeing more articles telling gardeners what seeds for their spring gardens now. They must all be a couple of growing zones south of me. I will start the seeds for the patio gardens in about two weeks. Everything I have started to date are for inside use. The tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers started earlier are small pot varieties and are doing well under lights. The eucalyptus I cut back severely is putting out some new shoots which makes me very happy. I should fill more of my starting cups and get them moistened and in the starting tray. Otherwise, I will decide what small part of my areas to straighten and clean up. As I get older I much prefer things neatly in their places and have become more strict with myself about putting things where they belong.

Friday, February 17, 2017

February 13-17

Monday--

Half way through February already. I should move the mini-belle peppers and eggplants to larger pots. Those seedlings are almost too tall for the starting tray. I have seeds for sweet basil, lemon basil, lime basil, thyme and oregano to start also. The local Menards garden section already had its seed display out so I added those to my collection. I did some more cleaning in the plant/craft/storage room. I hope to clear enough space to set up my sewing machine again--that itch has been growing. The weather has been unusually warm lately--the kind of unusual that makes you wonder when Mother Nature will decide to smack you in the face and remind you it is still winter. In case you are wondering why in the name of whatever Divinity I am planting things now when the average last frost date is around May 15 in my area, all of the plants I recently started are staying inside. I will start the outside plants at the end of March.

Tuesday--

The Thai basil has I planted late last week has started to spout. I should start some of the herb seeds I got over the weekend and fill some more starting cups. The little heating mat is working very well in that small space to get the temperature for the seeds to a good germinating temperature.

I debated linking this. On the one hand I do believe out industrial society has altered the climate. On the other I don't think we can change how we live, even if we had the political will do do so--which we don't, soon enough to make much of a difference. I think I wrote on this blog somewhere in the past posts that, when I became aware of the idea of climate change some 20 or so years ago and most pundits claimed we had to keep the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere below 350 ppm, I looked up the historical levels of CO2 and discovered that we had passed that level around 1985. I have seen a number of articles about how we might adapt to warmer average global temperatures and even have seen a couple of hints by prominent politicians on that subject. However, However, once again it is too little, too late and there isn't any kind of consensus about what "we" might do or even if there is a "we" to do it. Whatever "it" might be.

Wednesday--

So the Flynn tweets about being the "sole scapegoat" in the affair of his conversations with the Russian ambassador were fake. A lot of people were fooled but, being of a suspicious mind, I wonder who was behind the phony Twitter account and what were their motives. Considering how events unfolded it seemed plausible that Flynn was scapegoated. It seemed plausible, though not necessarily likely, that he was stupid enough to have the discussions described with a foreign ambassador before his boss was actually president. After all said boss was acting as though he was president almost from election night when he, in fact, was not. But I have begun taking everything I read with a ton of salt not matter what source it comes from. And the question still lingers: who set up that fake twitter account back in January and for what purpose?

This isn't a good sign. I said above that by the time we recognized (or at least some of us recognized) that anthropogenic climate change was upon us it was too late to prevent it. Well, we have done the same with various types of pollution.

This sounds so very familiar--and the author does draw the parallel with Trump's election over here.

Thursday--

Not much happening today. I think I saw the first bit of a stevia plant breaking the surface and the last of the eggplant starts suddenly decided to sprout. The Thai basil is doing well but won't need to be moved for another couple of days. I got some more of the table cleared in the plant/craft/storage room so I am close to having an area for the sewing machine. I spent some time trying to figure out the crocodile crochet stitch and I think I have it figured.

Friday--

David Kaiser has an interesting post today with which I disagree in several parts. When George W. Bush was elected (even in his very unusual election by Supreme Court decision the first time) I was able to say he was my president and wish him well. His military adventurism forced me to amend that a bit by refusing to condone actions I mightily disagreed with though I could do nothing about. Trump, however, is something else again. He does not speak for me, act for me, or in any way represent me. He happens to be the president of the country I was born in, have lived in for all my 67 years, had at one time been proud to be a citizen of and to have served in my (inglorious) stint in the armed services. But he is not my president. Yes, a little less than half of voters voted for him but without the Electoral College he would have lost to the slightly larger half who voted for Clinton. So which half should defer to which? Kaiser talks about compromises which ended (sort of) the divisions of the Civil War but that required concessions by both sides. I have seen damned little compromise from Republicans over the last almost 20 years.

I agree with the author of this post and I am not at all surprised by the development. The militarization of our society continues.

Friday, February 10, 2017

February 6-10

Monday--again

I started some Red Mini Bell peppers, Patio Baby eggplant, purslane and lavender over the weekend. I plant to keep all of those inside. We are still a month and a half away from the time to start outside seedlings indoors. I cut and formed about two dozen starter pots from the tube cores from toilet paper and paper towels so I have plenty to start. I read bloggers who make hundreds of paper pots each year but they have large outside gardens and a lot of space for seedlings inside (if not in a greenhouse). Not my situation.

Everyone needs a good laugh!! I rather expected the punchline but it is fun anyway.

Ira Chernus has a very good article on Tomdispatch today on Trump's (in)security team.

Not much else going on. I baked bread today and when I do that I don't really want to do much else. Made a change in the recipe that we hope will taste as good as it smells.

Tuesday--

The bread turned out quite good. I used apple nectar in place of most of the water and included chopped, dried apples.

The purslane I started Sunday has already sprouted. I plan to get more cups filled and watered to start more greens and to transfer the lettuce and spinach into larger pots. I noticed new growth on the eucalyptus so the drastic pruning may have helped.

This should get interesting. California pays more in taxes than it receives in Federal funds. It has one of the top ten economies in the world. And California contributes a bit more than 13% to the U.S. GDP. It is an interesting question as to which would hurt worse if Trump follows through and "defunds" California.

Tom Englehardt has another good post on the future crimes of the Trump administration.

Wednesday--

Thursday--

Friday--

I did fill and water more starter cups and discovered that I need to be less liberal with the water. Four of the 20 cups I set up were beginning to come apart. Get the soil moist but don't soak everything. I moved the purslane to the other side of the planting area because the seedlings were getting too large for the space under the plastic cap. The tray forms a micro-mini-greenhouse. I think one of the peppers and one of the lavender are trying to surface. We'll see. I have had only limited success with lavender. I hope I have much better luck this year. Otherwise, I get seedlings from the local garden shop. I just started another group of orach (the first group failed), a group of stevia (which I have never had any success with), some Thai basil and more spinach. The tomatoes, spinach, and lettuce I put into larger pots are doing well. Since I planted the entire thing (plant, root ball, and cardboard cup) none showed transplant stress.

Friday, February 3, 2017

January 30-February 3--

Monday--

Beautiful sun today which was absent except for very brief and infrequent interludes over the past weekend. We got about two inches of light, fluffy snow which was very easy to sweep off the car and patio. It is cold but we keep reminding ourselves that it is still mid-winter after all--only a couple of days away from Groundhog Day.

Had a nice quiet and productive weekend. Finished one project (a large shawl to replace the one I took apart last year because some of the yarn had worn through and I had some unintended holes in it) and made progress on the doily that had frustrated me almost to the point of ripping the whole thing out. Fourth try was the charm, so far, as the first three didn't work at all. I still don't know how I messed it up the same way three damned times. Ah, well it is going well now and I am almost back to where I was when I first discovered I had gone wrong with it.

Tuesday--

A mixed day today. I baked a loaf of bread using a new recipe. It smells good and we hope it tastes as good as it smells but I don't think I will do it again. It is a kind of quick bread and I didn't really like working with it. Next time I will find a regular quick bread recipe to work with.

I frogged the doily. I got past the problem I described yesterday but got to another section I simply couldn't figure out. I think the pattern might have had a misprint because the directions made no sense at all--at least to me. By that time I simply gave up. I will find another project soon.

I am not exactly ignoring politics but letting the issues simmer in the back of my mind a bit. I have thought for some time we needed change but I really didn't see anyone who I thought could change things for the better. Obama promised "hope and change" but I saw his policies as more of the Democratic usual than real change and some of the changes (like changing from the Bush "No Child Left Behind" to "Common Core") simply made things worse. I think we are still sleepwalking toward an ecological and energy cliff which none of our so-called leaders want to recognize much less address. Even if they did I have to wonder if we as a society would follow them. Perhaps not.

Ah, technology is wonderful--until it bites us in the ass. I had stayed in a couple of hotels/motels in the past that had key cards and never gave a thought to what would happen if the electronic locks went haywire. The blogger who linked to the story questioned whether guests were actually locked in their rooms. Usually you don't need the key card to get out only to get in but I don't know how the programming worked.

Wednesday--

We tried the new bread and it is pretty good but I think I will stick to regular quick breads.

I have a table scarf to finish the embroidery on and a small embroidered doily that has been waiting for hemming and trim about forever. Those are next on my list.

We are only half way through winter and it feels like early spring. We are waiting for wintery weather to slam us to remind us of what time of year it really is. Planning for the outside gardens is in full swing and the starting trays are ready upstairs. Every now and then we add something for inside. We just ordered Meyer lemon, and dwarf key lime and orange trees to keep inside as potted plants. I guess I will be learning a good bit more about pruning and tree care.

On the theme of gardening here is an interesting piece from Grist. I have seen more of this both in the blogs I read and here at home. Several years ago I noticed a patch of the land owned by the nearby Lutheran church had been converted into a community garden. How many of the plots are planted and tended varies from year to year but there is always someone gardening in the area. About that same time the city started a community garden which it has expanded at least once. A church near the downtown area created their own raised gardens about three years ago. I have been content to use my little patio space though I have thought about getting a plot in the Lutheran garden or the city gardens. But the Lutheran space doesn't have a water source so I would have to haul water to it. And there is no shade which means, at my age, some of our scorching summer days would be dangerous. The city gardens is simply too far away. Driving would use gas which would eat up all of the savings the produce would provide.

Thursday--

On the matter of "alternative facts" check out Ursula Le Guin's letter to the editor. She puts the matter succinctly. The current administration doesn't have "alternative facts"--they have lies.

I baked again today. I don't know what happened to the wheat bread I made but it never tasted as good as it smelled coming out of the oven. Substandard in every way. The rye I made today is from a recipe I have used before and knew what to expect. Two very pretty loaves are cooling now. I will freeze one for later. Generally, when I get three in the freezer I go back and start on the earliest of them continuing until all three are gone and it is time to begin the cycle again.

Friday--

Root Simple has a movement I can get behind. Actually we have been part of that movement for sometime. Needed new phones we went with "dumb" phones. We have computers so we don't need phones that double as computers or play movies. We still have a whole lot of features we don't use. We got the simplest we could. I bake bread the old fashioned way--mixing the dough and kneading it by hand (you know, those things on the end of my arms. "Fewer Features" sounds good to me.