Saturday June 30

Oh, goodness!! Last day of the first half of the year. I haven't got the summer wreath fixed up yet and It will be a little while before I do get it put together and up. We are still in the middle of our radical downsizing though a bit more toward the end.

I have already watered the gardens. I have the catnip, lemon verbena and which ever other herb I cut and dried yesterday to grind and put on the shelf. It is a good thing I make a list of which herb is on which tray. I would be in a real world of hurt otherwise. The thyme pot is on the agenda today. I saw several flowers to dead head and a couple of tomatoes need pruning but I will leave that for tomorrow. It is already quite warm and we expect the mid 90s later. Ah, well!! the best laid plans and all that. I took our countertop compost canister out to our compost tub and was floored by the heat building already and the humidity. The thyme cutting and the pruning, etc., will wait for tomorrow.

Friday June 29

A good discussion of why privatization of the VA health care system might not be a good idea and an interesting comparison to the privatized prison system.

I went out very early, before 6:30,  to get the gardens watered. The weather people say we should have high temperatures for the next week. Right now they say the temp here is 89 and going to 95 before the day is over. I either get things done early or not at all. I got lavender, lemon verbena, and catnip harvested and in the dehydrator. The spearmint and peppermint I cut and dried yesterday has been chopped and put in jars on my shelf. We have slowed down on our household reorganizing and cleaning. Mom is especially feeling the strain. Her body is doing what I haven't been able to and convincing her to slow down and take things a bit easier.

Thursday June 28

We will spend most of today taking books to the library (donations), taking stuff to Goodwill (donations), and getting some more book boxes. We got quite a lot done in what I now call the "What Not" room. It started out as a library/office then became an office/sewing-craft room and is now a storage/plant starting-overwintering room. Getting that space organized has been a real jigsaw puzzle trying to fit everything we want to keep into the available spaces. Another conundrum awaiting creative solutions is how to do what we did before but without the convenient places to put things. We kept a large ottoman with storage space inside where I store my crochet work when I am not working on it. I used to simply reach over lift the top and pull out or put in what ever. I can't do that now (it is too far away) and getting up to go over and pull out a different skein of yearn, especially on a piece that requires frequent color changes will be inconvenient. I have various baskets and I can use one to keep several skeins I am working with while I am working. The yarn and WIP (work in progress) can go back into the ottoman when I am done and I can find a convenient place for the basket in between.

And here is a good expression of feelings I have had--often over the past year and on a few occasions over my life. Those usually precede a drastic change of direction though not necessarily a change of location.

Wednesday June 27

The downsizing saga continues. That has consumed most of our energy for the last week or so. The apartment looks a lot bigger now that the oversized sectional is out of here although that comes at a price of comfort. The new recliner set hasn't arrived yet so we sit on the dining room straight back chairs. All of the activity in sorting, packing for donations or for discard, moving things, and so forth has strained aging muscles and joints. I don't think we have ached so much since we moved in here.

I still haven't gotten out to harvest the herbs. I have told Mom that that is first on my list for tomorrow--before the garden becomes a jungle.

I have been reading but not commenting. But this piece at Time Goes By so fits in with my philosophy.

This post on Patheos says almost everything I have thought about the sanctimonious christianist idiots spouting so frequently and loudly today. The only word the author doesn't actually use is "hypocrisy."

Friday June 22

More rain falling now and more expected all day. It has gone beyond the "We need it" to "Please stop already." I won't be doing anything outside but the weather forecast says the weekend will be dry. I see herbs that need to be harvested.

Saturday June 23

We are in the middle of a major reorganization here so our efforts are geared totally to the process of sorting things into what we are going to discard (one way or another) and rearranging what we are going to keep. We have gone through several phases of this since we moved here almost 20 years ago. It was a necessary process because Mom moved here from a very overstuffed one bedroom apartment (as in claustrophobically overstuffed) and I had what I culled from a two-bedroom with enclosed porch house. Since then our lives have changed in significant ways. I am now also retired. We cook from scratch. I have donated almost all of my rather large library to the local library. I had materials for a dissertation I never finished and those are all gone. We had the leftovers from three computer systems for each of us and those are now (or will be shortly) gone.

The gardens are doing nicely with the recent rain and cooler weather. I hope to get back to harvesting herbs tomorrow.

A concentration camp by another name.  By my count these prisons will take in about 170k people. Who else besides immigrants will the powers that be put in there? And we've been here before. Anyone remember Manzanar?

Thursday June 21

Welcome to summer and happy solstice.

It rained overnight and we expect more today. I won't complain. I finished what needed to be done in the gardens yesterday. I have flowers that need to be dead-headed and some I plan to move but neither are urgent cores.

The main secret to magic tricks is distraction. This government has learned that well. So--is the humanitarian crisis (Of 45's and the Repthuglican's own making) a diversion from the budget priorities or is it the other way around. Or is it a whipsaw strategy that focuses first on one and then the other to get both, each acting as diversion for the other?

Well we are getting rain--a nice, steady, soaking rain. The kind about which the little ditty "April showers bring the flowers that bloom in May" was all about. For the last few years our April showers have been monsoonal cloud burst that wash away the May flowers before they sprout. I think all the plants are enjoying the rain and the respite from the heat.

Wednesday June 19

Good gods!! Already more than half past June. I think I will finally get my gardens filled. That doesn't mean I won't acquire new plants but I won't have and big open spots begging for something to take up residence. I got the catnip and a new basil. The Japanese beetles have arrived but with the cooler  weather my usual eradication procedure (hand picking and drowning in soapy water) should work well. I pulled all of the plants out of the fence-top hangers and will place them in the lower gardens. Reaching that high even with a watering wand is a bit taxing and the combination of wind and high temps dries those plants too fast to easily keep up with them. At my age rearranging things so it is easier is a major priority.

I can't say it better. This country and its flag doesn't stand for what Cadet Bone-spurs (thank you, Tammy Duckworth!!) is creating.

Here is something else I can't say better--We Are Never Getting Out of Afghanistan. At least not until this country is so fiscally broken that it can't fund anything anymore. The only strategy (if you want to call it that) is to double down on what hasn't work and which any logical thought process would indicate can't work

Task & Purpose is on a roll today! Here is another well expressed sentiment. I have said for some time now that I am thoroughly sick and tired of the constant expressions (thankfully fewer of late) of "Thank you for your service." Or the obligatory flag pins on our politicians lapels. A cheap bit of "virtue signaling" which does shit for veterans or active service members or their families. Plastic patriots, indeed.

Well, gardening for today. The sun is peeking through the clouds and when it does it get a bit warm. I moved the cinnamon basil because it had too much competition from the sweet basil and purple basil. Then I harvested some  of each and some of the bee balm for drying. I hadn't intended to do that today but since I was mucking around with that container went ahead and did it. I put in the new sweet basil and the two catnip plants. Out two little monster kitties should be happy. The begonias and geraniums are distributed through the patio providing a nice burst of color. The space actually looks neat--far neater than any garden in previous years.

Sunday June 17

It is hot outside--88 already at just after 10 am. I got the watering done very early but no other gardening. If the heat subsides by Wednesday I plan to harvest some of the herbs. Hopefully I will have some transplants to put in. Depends on what I find between now and then.

Monday June 18

It should be hot again today--in the mid 90s like yesterday. So same schedule--water early and then stay inside.

This story is from the Guardian but it could have been written for many towns on this side of the Atlantic.

Tuesday June 19

We should get a break from the heat today but lower temps come with strong possibility of thunderstorms. On a whim we decided to split our errands and delivered the donations we packed for the local library just before we did the grocery shopping. By the time we got back we were exhausted. The heat hit like a giant hand slapping your entire body every time you stepped outside.

I thinks the plants will like a rest from the heat but my large rosemary is having trouble. I think the combination of high heat and wind has dried it out more than I thought. I soaked it well just a few moments ago. I hope that will revive it. Several other plants are looking a bit frazzled. I watered everything because the rain we had hoped for didn't materialize. I hope to get more done tomorrow when the temperatures will be in the 70s (I hope!!) Right now I am a bit wilted myself from the watering.

I has been raining this morning which, I hope, will provide enough moisture that I won't have to water the gardens. Unfortunately, it will be too wet to do any work outside.

Found this interesting little piece by David Kaiser at History Unfolding. Where will the modern "aristocrats" lead us? To a new feudalism, perhaps?

I would say "ouch" except that I don't have fond memories of the University of Missouri. I was never entirely comfortable there and never finished the degree I was working toward. Every once in a while I hear similar stories elsewhere. Note the little mention that enrollments have "cratered." I hope that means a lot of people are re-thinking the notion that a college education is worth the price. It isn't and anyone who says otherwise is cherry picking the data to make their case.

I am not a great believer in IQ scores as a measure of much of anything  but this is interesting.

Today we should start a three day heat wave. I have shifted into the hot schedule for the gardens. Watering is already done and I won't do anything else outside today. Tomorrow I hope to move the remaining strawberries in small pots into place in the lower gardens. That will clear all the hanging pots for this year. Sunday or Monday I need to harvest some of the bee balm and the thyme. Maybe the lemon balm as well if I have space in the dehydrator.

It only took a hundred years for these children separated from their families to be reunited with their people. I wonder how long before these kids go back to their families.

I haven't believed the "official" economic numbers for a very long time and this piece at Zero Hedge gives an indication of why.

Only chores on the agenda today are watering and moving some plants to new homes in the gardens. I have the herbs in the dehydrator to grind a bit later. We should have sun and drier weather today.

Found this interesting take on #45: he goes beyond unilateralism and unipolarism so a new term has to be invented. Feffer has supplied it: unileaderism. A good shorthand definition is monarchy by another name.

I hope we dry out today. The temps are supposed to hit the mid 80s but the humidity is oppressive. I have some plants to put in the gardens and a couple of other jobs to do outside. The peppermint needs a cut and the first cutting of the lavender is due.

Fox News has been a booster for #45 from the beginning and it is interesting to see them criticize him now. That has happened on a more frequent basis over the last few months. The commentator is right: the Great (sarcasm!!) negotiator got what he want--lovely photo ops to spin a nothing story. But then I have to wonder if that shouldn't be counted as a win. What do the S. Koreans think? This piece suggest that many are more charitable hoping that the long Korean Warm might be on its way to a conclusion one small step at a time. I few weeks ago I read an article which floated the notion that all of the bluster with #45 took the spotlight allowing the two Koreas to act in the shadows in their own interests without Washington micromanaging. That conclusion may be right.

Well, the containers for the hibiscus and the clematis have been moved along with several 5 gal buckets to make it easier to get to the back rows. Harvested peppermint, spearmint, lavender, garden sage and pineapple sage.  Those are drying now. Have I mentioned how much I love the smell drying herbs produce in the house? Put the begonias, zinnias, and lemon verbena. I still have a few open spaces so I will put in a couple of catnip plants as a treat for the little monsters. I still haven't found the chamomile I want. I may have to wait to next year and try growing it from seed. I also pruned the hibiscus. It has been a good day in the gardens after the last week of dismal, rainy weather.

Cloudy and humid today. Picked up a 3 pack of begonias, a 3 pack of zinnias, and a lemon verbena. I treat all plants as annuals now. The little patio seems to have two settings: frozen solid and high oven hot. That doesn't really support over wintering and I have to be careful of what heat tolerant plants I put in.

Well, I'm not dancing in the aisles or releasing balloons or drinking a toast to celebrate the #45/Kim summit document. Why? Because it is basically a meaningless show. The only thing "historic" about it is #45's signature on it. It is full of grand notion and nothing specific. Oh, one specific item: cancellation of U.S.-S. Korea military exercises about which the S. Koreas had not been notified. So the tally as I count it is: allies pissed off=the whole G6 (-1) and S. Korea--dictators placated with meaningless blather=1 (Kim Jong Un). Infidel 753 as a good take on the whole comedy.

A long but good piece on "disease mongering" or how drug companies drum up business by convincing a hypochondriacal public they have some awful new disease that they have a pill for. That has been a tactic enthusiastically employed since Listerine invented halitosis back in the very early decades of the last century. I didn't know about the lead time of as much as 10 years advertising a malady to prepare the public for the release of the product--think "low-T" and "osteopenia".

It is wet outside. I think it may still be raining lightly. Later, if things dry off a bit, I will take a walk through the gardens and see how things are doing. Although I didn't do any gardening yesterday I made some progress elsewhere. I have another large shopping bag of books to go to the library tomorrow. I don't want to do more of than two bags a week because they are simply too heavy. Some books I definitely will hold onto. Everything to do with crafts, even crafts like stained glass that I know I won't pursue, I will keep. Some of those are nearly irreplaceable. I am keeping all my books on cooking/preserving and a few other instructional books. After that most, unless of a sentimental value, will go.

I also finished the embroidery on a dresser scarf and put another several rows into my new bedspread/afghan. I will look at my stock of crochet thread to see what I have to make the lace edging on the scarf.

Let's see if I find anything worth commenting on today. So much of what I read--especially in the (s)news--isn't worth the effort. Each new headline seems to contradict an earlier one.

Oh, well--not much.

Very wet outside today so no active gardening. I am glad I transplanted the new tomato and the dahlia yesterday and cut the herbs. I will finish by chopping the ones in the dehydrator today. Plenty of inside work to do. I started dusting shelves and culling the books. Most of my reading now-a-days is on e-book formats. I can change the fonts so it is easier on my eyes. Some of the physical books I will probably get e-book versions sometime in the future. For some I already have such duplicates. That will open up shelf space for other uses.

The sky looks like it wants to dump on us but has held off for the moment. I just finished cutting the purple basil, lemon balm and spearmint which is now drying. I hope to get the new tomato in along with the dahlia. I pruned a few fronds off the Vernissage tomato so it doesn't interfere with nearby plants.

Everything is done for the day. If we have a dry period tomorrow I will harvest some of the lavender and try to transplant some of the surviving strawberries. I told Mom I will plant some of the yardlong beans and we will eat them fresh and well seasoned. She hasn't liked any of the green beans I have tried growing and hated the commercial beans. She says they simply don't taste like the green beans she remembers growing up. I asked her how many of those beans had been cooked without some kind of seasoning. She had to think a minute and then said they were never cooked "naked." I am looking up recipes for marinating and otherwise seasoning what ever I get.

We have cloud cover with lightening and thunder. And wind, as I just noticed. I think I will delay any transplanting til tomorrow. The weather reports predicted pop-up thunderstorms today. Instead, I have started another culling of my books and dusting of the shelves.  Lazy day today.

It is overcast right now. The forecast calls for spotty showers--maybe. All of the plants I put in yesterday are doing well so far. I have some more to move but that will wait until tomorrow.

Errands are done. I found a beautiful dahlia and a nice tomato. The rosella tomato has been struggling for a while. I think it is time to put it out of its misery and mine. We did our shopping today to combine errands.

This is a month for getting pissed with insurance--any insurance. First it was the shock of what the CVS/Aetna merger did to what Mom pays for her prescription. She basically told Aetna to take a hike. Technically she couldn't cancel before the options period in October but she notice their policy of canceling if the customer didn't pay the monthly premium. So she has refused to either use the insurance or to pay the premium. She is out of that now but it took a bit. Now the car insurance came in and they have increased the premium by over $300 because of a fender bender last fall that caused less then $200 in damage. And that increase would be in effect for the next five years. She hadn't had an accident of any kind in more than 30 years. I can see somewhere in the near future a car-less existence.

As someone who has both taught history and read a lot of history, I cringe at the abysmal ignorance of some of the people associated with our government.

I just saw an interesting headline: A New Problem Weed Arrives in Manitoba Fields. I won't link to it but it is part of a continuing saga I have followed for several years now. The "weed" is Round-Up ready canola in fields where none had been planted and, in some cases, had never been planted. Monsanto is sending workers to hand pick the "weed" I remember a similar situation in the U.S. Pacific northwest which cost the farmer income because the buyer refused the shipment because of GMO contamination. And in that case the "weed" was a variety of experimental grain from a test plot discontinued at least a decade before. No one, to my knowledge, ever explained how the contamination occurred.

In spite of all the noise (a.k.a. thunder) we got little or no rain. The wind was, again, brisk. I will water everything this morning and put the new plants in place.

I have finished in the gardens for the day. I decided to deconstruct the hanging arrangement I started with. It has been only somewhat successful. Some of the plants dried out too fast while others didn't drain fast enough and drowned. I set the arrangement up because I had 50+ strawberry plants to find homes for and suddenly didn't have the space in the containers because two of the large one split and two other were fragile. We thought it better to take all four out together and replace them with 5 gal buckets. In the mean time, I simply had to find a place for the strawberries.

Now the buckets are in place and I am getting them slowly planted. I took the two green sage and put them together with the pineapple sage in one of the buckets. I added viable strawberry plants in front of the larger lavender plants. Those are in their own pots sunk off center in 5 gal buckets so the strawberries should not be crowded out by the lavender (or vice versa). I transplanted the three thyme plants (German, common, and lemon) into one large pot. And the second spearmint is happily in another. That and watering finished me for the day.

Well, it started out nice and sunny but the clouds have rolled in accompanied by thunder. We got our errands out of the way early so don't have to dodge the rain drops. I added two pots of garlic chives, another spearmint and another lavender to my collection. I will put them in the gardens tomorrow. That still leaves me with quite a few spaces to fill--before I count the strawberries I lost to this crazy weather.

Need a tonic for "Moron Malady" which is epidemic over here thanks to #45? Well there is an apothecary shop in northern England which has been in business since the early 18th century which has a cure for what ails you.

Very chilly today. Mom is sitting at her computer with a sweater on but we don't want to close the doors. I planted the chocolate mint, Mexican tarragon, shishito and purple bell peppers, and cinnamon basil I got from the garden shop. The wind has been brutal sucking the moisture out of the pots and the rain we got from Alberto a couple of days ago and the downpour two nights ago seem to have done little for my gardens. I lost 8 strawberries and may lose a couple more. I am getting everything watered today and checking closely for moisture. The purple basil, spearmint and lavender are ready for a first cutting but that will wait til Thursday.

Ronni Bennett has a nice piece on "Thrifty Elders" on her Time Goes By blog. How to stretch the budget is a constant topic here.

We had a heavy downpour last night. I will have to wait for some daylight to see if anything was damaged. I hope things dry enough for me to set the transplants I got yesterday.

Fascinating little piece at Guacamoley that explains #45 and why we are screwed until he leaves office. David Kaiser has another take on #45's administration that dovetails with the first one. To reiterate: we are so screwed.

America: the world's first rich poor country. Exploring a new kind of poverty.

Cloudy this morning but hints of the sun trying to break through. Also very cool which is a nice change from the heatwave we had early last week. I still have about half of my gardens to fill and here it is June 2nd. Things feel so behind this year. Or out of sync or something. Just not really right. Anyone else feeling this? I did pick up a few more plants to put in. Two peppers and three herbs. But I just didn't see anything else. Maybe next week one of the vendors at the farm market will have something interesting. I think I will spend a good bit of time looking for seeds to start upstairs. I didn't have much luck this year but I have some ideas on that problem which I will think more about over this season.

And in the wacky world of international politics the question of the day seems to be who will pay for Kim Jong-un and his entourage to stay in Indonesia for the summit. I think they should scrap Indonesia as the site or each side pays its own way. Or move the site to the DMZ with each side staying at what ever accommodations in N. Korea (for Kim) and S. Korea (for #45.)