Friday.  Nice and sunny so far.  Temperatures should rise into the mid-70s.  Nice for doing some gardening.  I was just thinking I should take some pictures.  I am well behind on doing that but then the garden itself is behind.  I still have some bare spots that need filling.  Some of the plants I had started inside didn't make it and I haven't yet figured out what I want to put in their place.  Usually, this late in spring, I would have every space filled and have several pots on the table or scattered around the patio in every spot I could place them.  Oh, well, the gardens have always evolved over the spring and summer.  They never fall into the shape I imagined in the winter and early spring.

Saturday.  Should be warm and sunny today.  Yesterday's weather was as advertised and delightful.  We had to go out to get a couple of items at the grocery store and mom need a couple of items from the drugstore so we went back to one of our favorite garden shops to try to find a hanging plant that would counterbalance the new bird feeder.  Well, we found an interesting iron spiral with three rings for small pots and picked it (along with appropriate pots) and some transplants to fill them.  It seemed to work when we put the frame and pots on the hook opposite the bird feeder.   So I moved my large pots of blue lake pole beans and exchanged it with the same sized pot with spearmint.  Otherwise the pole beans would grow tall enough to obstruct our view of the planter.  And then reassemble the pot tower.  Well, as often happens, my plans went askew.  The filled pots and hanger more than counterbalanced the bird feeder and I couldn't find a way to stabilize the shepherd's hook.  So, I shifted the hanger to another hook where it seems to be doing quite well.  That still leaves one hook free for the pheromone trap I have planned for those pesky Japanese beetles.

I have a few other gardening related chores planned today: finding a place for the last of the transplants we got yesterday, moving half of the hyssop to another container, bringing out the dehydrator, and starting a new round of some of the plants that failed inside earlier this spring and, maybe, take some pictures.

About four or so years ago I saw an interesting construct but didn't try to construct it myself.  Finding space in my gardens for something new is difficult and usually requires taking something else out which can be physically taxing and logistically mind bending.  But the Tipsy pots (or topsy-turvy planters) were intriguing.  No, I won't be doing any of my own but my local Home Depot has them on sale this year.  I have noticed they are carrying more of the patio and container gardening supplies and plants.

An interesting thought on the movement to legalize marijuana at the Federal level.  Be careful what you wish for.

I found this disquieting item by way of another site.  I generally don't read or view Fox News and most of what I do get from it I take with a ton of salt.  However, this I have found on other sites as well (or similar stories.)  And most of the "threats" were hoaxes or expressions of frustration that in a saner age would have been taken with a grain of salt.  And too many of the real threats have slid under the radar.  When your society seems to have gone insane you don't know how to react to what.  I hadn't intended to link to the site where I found the original link because I usually try to link to the source.  However, the last quote asks a very good question:  what does it teach the kids that we consign them to prison for 13 of their first 18 years?  And, in case you are as skeptical of Fox (or Faux, as some call it), here is the local NBC account.

Wednesday.  Starting cool and overcast.   Had enough rain Monday night so I didn't have to water anything yesterday.  The weather people are calling for possible scattered showers that may or may not hit here.  Right now most of the activity in the gardens is inactivity--waiting for the plants to do their thing.  Some of the strawberries and the lemon thyme are the only plants blooming right now.

Found this post on Daily Kos this morning.  I noticed fewer honey bees last year.  I plant flowers they and the hummingbirds like but I didn't see many honey bees at all.  And only one bumblebee so far.  We have neighbors who have a goodly crop of dandelions which bees are said to like for an early season snack but I haven't seen any bees.

Thursday.  Cool but clear to start today.  Another errand day.  Our car needs a bit of attention and we have an appointment for that.  Otherwise nothing else planned.

Ah, yes--one metric where we are still number one!!  Though the rest of the world is catching up in this category as well.  But surely it isn't all that surprising since you can hardly go anywhere in the world without finding a KFC, a McDonalds, or any of our other fast food companies.  You know--the ones that supersize the salt, fat, and sugar (and the waist lines.)

I have been reading about this for some time now.  It makes me wonder how minutely governments can try to control our lives.  Thankfully, I don't live in Europe but I can easily see attempts to push similar legislation here if Monsanto, et al., and ALEC combine to push it.  Hopefully, the latest elections over there will make Brussels rethink some of their policies.

Just saw a segment on our TV morning news that hit my skept-o-meter.  Evidently there is a new study out from Sweden that claims that cynics are more likely to suffer from dementia (as well as heart disease and other such problems.)  I was "skeptical" enough of the report to do a quick search on Google and I think my skepticism (cynicism if you will) is thoroughly justified.  The researchers used a definition of cynicism resembles paranoia and not the dictionary definition of the word.  And, as happens so often, the study shows a statistical correlation which is not causation.  Question: did the "cynics" suffer dementia because they were cynics or were they cynical because they suffered dementia?

A "graduation address" with a difference!!  Thank you, Tom Englehardt.

Tuesday.  Had periodically heavy rains from late yesterday afternoon.  We are between showers now but more may be coming.  I checked everything in the gardens and nothing was damaged.  I finally see some sprouts of hibiscus.  The sources I checked to find out if I should have been worried were right.  Outside the plants emerge in the late spring.  I started the bare-root plant last year inside and it was growing well early.  This year it had to contend with our very cool spring.  The tomatoes and peppers are all doing very well as are two of the three begonias (one of which is showing buds.)  I still have room for more plants which feels strange.  Usually I have the entire area filled with extra plants I am trying to find someplace for.  A very unusual spring season all around.  Oh, well--next Tuesday is opening day for our city farm market.  I will check out what plants the venders there have.

I was glad to see reports about a month ago that the Social Security Administration was stopping its practice of going after family members to repay overpayments to recipients.  Most never knew about the overpayments until they were contacted by the SSA or had tax refunds confiscated.  This story warms my heart. However, why did it take the publicity to make the SSA correct the problem and refund the money?

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.

Friday.  Hope you all have a nice Memorial Day planned.  Ours will be the usual--quiet and at home.  I did get the shed cleaned out.  Oh, my!!  We can actually step inside and reach anything we have stored there.  I am always amazed at how much we accumulate.  I kept about ten of the plastic milk or vinegar jars I cut to use as cloches and tossed the others.  I hate to throw away anything that might be useful but we simply don't have the space to keep them.  We get white vinegar by the gallon because we use it in cleaning up almost anything and as a fabric softener.  And combining that with the gallon of milk we consume each week I get a lot of those gallon jugs.  I have also put plants in them but I also kept the "temporary" pots from the garden centers so I don't need as many of the gallon jugs for that purpose any more.

On tap for today--going through the pots I have stored on the lower shelves of the mini-greenhouse.  I want to separate the small starter pots and put them upstairs for seed starting.  The bigger pots will stay n the greenhouse till needed outside.

I have been listening to the morning TV news and am totally irritated by the coverage of the Mark Cuban remarks.  Anybody else notice how the focus has been entirely on the "black kid in a hoodie" part of the remarks?  Entirely lost in the coverage is the second part of that remark about the skin head with the full-body tattoos.  Cuban would have avoided both and I don't blame him one bit.  Everyone has totally passed over his point in the whole conversation:  we all have our prejudices and act on our stereotypes.  Worse we almost never carefully think about them.  I may not trust either the black kid in the hoodie or the skin head but that doesn't mean I trust the guy in the business suit or the cop in uniform either.  As I watched the original sound bite of Cuban's remarks which included both parts of the comment, I thought of the scene toward the end of the first Harry Potter movie where Harry confronts Professor Quirrell expecting to find Professor Snape.  Quirrell smirks "Snape?  Yes, he does seem to be the type."  We interact with people first on the basis of what we expect of their type, of our stereotypical perception of them.  We may be right but we may also be very wrong.  To use another movie analogy--I agree with the union soldier in Gettysburg:  "Anyone who judges the individual by the group is a pea wit.  You take men one at a time."  But every one of us are pea wits frequently in our lives.

I would agree that cataclysmic is an apt description of the GM recalls this year.  Key stat: GM has recalled, so far this year, more cars than it sold between 2009 and 2013.

Isn't globalization wonderful?  An Israeli drug maker recalls lots of three different drugs intended for the U.S. market but made for it by an Indian company.

I (still) wonder who will buy the goods manufacturers make when all their workers are robots.  It is nice that robots don't need time off, don't need health care, don't need food, don't have families to interfere with the work.  But they don't need the cars, don't order merchandise, don't eat the food being processed either--and since they don't get pay checks couldn't buy them any way.

Thursday.  Cool last night which made it lovely sleeping.  Temps are supposed to be a bit cooler today and dry.  Good time to get some of the garden shed cleaned up and straightened out.  I still have some large spots in the garden to fill.  I will be going through my seeds to see what I can direct sow and have a reasonable expectation of something growing.

I started to write "sew" in that first paragraph because I had just read this article.  I would love to see a similar mindset on this side of the Atlantic.

Yippee!!  The hummingbirds are back.  One found her way to our feeder this morning.  They may have been here for a little while already.  I realized that we changed our morning coffee ritual.  We used to drink our coffee at the dining table which gives a good view of the feeder.  Now we take our wake up juice in the living room with the TV and our computers.  I can see the feeder but might easily miss a small bird flitting around the feeder.  Oh, well!!

Tuesday.  Expecting warm temps and some sun today with possible storms later.  But all week looks springlike--finally.  I got the geraniums and tomato planted yesterday and trimmed back the area where a combination of hyssop and bird seed were sprouting thickly.  I don't need as many hyssop as were popping up but I did want some for the bees--and it does add a nice flavor to tea.  I may not have to reseed the cypress vine.  Though damaged they are still alive and may come.  I have most of the mini-greenhouse straightened up.  Now for the shed.

I thought the same thing when I was listening to and reading our sanitized news reports on the various controversies at the time--democracy in Europe is pretty much dead (unless the results can be jiggered to reflect what the money interests want.)  And our democracy is pretty much moribund because there is not much difference between our two "major" parties--except in their rhetoric around election times.
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Wednesday.  Wet outside after a stormy night.  I rushed around last evening covering everything could and moving the rest under cover because the weather people said we could get sever thunderstorms with hail.  Their weather maps indicate the hail stayed well west of us.  I haven't uncovered anything yet.  An unexpected chore for yesterday--moving the purple and sweet basils.  They may like full sun but evidently not as much as they were getting where they were.  Oh, well.  I'll see if they prefer a shadier place in their own pots.

The latest mega-beef recall is disturbing for a couple of reasons.  First, the CDC and other agencies are not telling consumers where that beef went so there is no way of avoiding it with any certainty.  It appears that the government is more interested in protecting the profits of restaurants and retailers than the health of consumers.  The second reason is encapsulated in this paragraph

 Wolverine officials said their products did not test positive for E. coli O157, but CDC and FSIS epidemiological and trace-back data indicate that meat from the firm was the likely source of illness.

Notice that the company claims its product didn't test positive for the bacteria and the CDC and FSIS have said only that the meat from Wolverine is the "likely" source.  In other words:  the CDC and FSIS don't know for sure what the source of the E. coli is.  This reminds me of the salmonella outbreak of a few years ago when officials identified the source as peppers and then shifted to peppers and in the end, having devastated farmers in two countries, had to admit they didn't know where the salmonella had come from.

And then there is this item.  I can understand Petco and Petsmart deciding to discontinue sales of dog and cat treats from China.  I can also understand the delay.  For the last seven years government agencies have tried to trace the cause of pet illnesses and death--and have not found a confirmable cause.  And I am sure they have contracts with their Chinese suppliers which would be difficult to cancel abruptly without a confirmed cause traceable to their operations.  For pet owners an interesting dilemma.  I have said before that if I still had pets I would be making their food and treats at home.