Category Archives: garden

Garden Bounty

Our office building is getting more people back to work but earlier in the year when there were very few of us, I made friends with one of the security guys.

I was in the mailroom and this door that says “No Admittance” or “Technical Only” or something like that opened and startled me. The security guy came out and let me see inside. He’d carved out a tiny break area around the building innards. One chair, small table, and tiny microwave.

The kind of conversations you would never have in the before times. I think I already wrote how I’ve befriended my bus drivers.

These are my lemon cucumbers I started on the windowsill. How do you think they’re doing? I keep watering them.

Look at my giant tomato!

HAHA. I got that tiny tube of toothpaste last time I was at a hotel and I’ve been saving it to use for scale when I photograph my garden bounty. You’ll be seeing it again.

The other morning these two raccoons came through late. Looks like a mom and young one? Look how the smaller one hangs back, like he’s ready to go to bed, why are we running around in the daylight?

They hung out long enough to get a drink and bath and look cute for the camera.

After this clip there was one more of them wandering into the hedge.

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Complaining About the AC

One afternoon I got on the bus with a driver I’ve never seen before.

The bus AC was weak. Only enough to keep us from roasting but it wasn’t cool on the bus. This is unusual because if it’s more than 60 degrees and the sun is shining the bus is usually freezing with cold air blasting from every corner.

There were three women on the bus and one man. As soon as the man sat down he started grumbling about the AC. He changed seats three times and then complained out loud and then marched to the front of the bus where he berated the bus driver.

The women all sat in our seats and read our books.

Then the man returned to his seat which was the seat behind me and he called customer service and complained some more. He said the bus driver didn’t know what he was doing, that he wasn’t communicating, that he wouldn’t answer his questions about the AC. He also demanded that the bus turn around and take him back to the transit mall.

He may have been onto something in terms of the bus driver not knowing what he was doing because he drove the wrong route and stopped in downtown where Mr. Complainer signaled that he wanted to exit. Then he went to the front of the bus and complained again and said he was getting off the bus to wait for another bus.

So he exited into 98 degree heat to wait for another bus rather than sit on the bus another 10 minutes and get to his stop.

In the last couple of days a squirrel has discovered a rich food source under the bird feeders. Every time I look out there he’s parked under there. There are also some larger birds that can’t fit on the feeder that pick up some snacks there.

I had this brilliant idea that I would set up the trail cam to get some shots of the squirrel and the birds.

I ended up with 8 hours of clips of nothing but waving flowers and a dead battery. (It wasn’t 100 degrees. The camera was in direct sun.)

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Hey There, Stinker

This morning I got up and saw the bucket was turned over so I brought the camera card in to see who the mischief maker was. There is no clip of the bucket toss, instead there was this.

I have never seen any sign or hint of a skunk in our neighborhood.

What next!?! I can’t wait to be surprised. I hope it’s Bigfoot.

Did I ever write about my dilemma with old letters?

Hm, well I just did search and turned up a brief post from almost 20 years ago about this very same box of old letters.

I don’t hang on to a lot of stuff but I have a hat box of old cards and letters. Some from friends, old boyfriends, family.

I was looking at the old boyfriend letters and trying to decide what to do with them. I do not want them. I do not want to throw them away. I thought I might read them and then throw them away and after one paragraph I do not want to read them.

At some point in time they will be trash, why not now?

Maybe the next step to death cleaning is to hire people to throw away things you know you don’t want but don’t want to be responsible for trashing yourself. (See also: ancient stuffed animals.)

I tried an experimental exercise and chose a few letters from a guy I met in Cancun in 1989. The letters are HILARIOUS. Not in a cringey way but in a — this guy was clever and funny. I can’t throw them away. I don’t need to keep them.

I have no answers.

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Keeping You Well Informed

After joking about accidentally erasing some of my zillions of photos, I accidentally erased a bunch of tulip photos. The tulips are looking a little grim at this point so this may be it for tulip photos. Which is hilarious because how many tulip photos doI need?

Normally this tree looks pretty for about 30 minutes and then it rains and the wind blows and that’s that. This year it looked lovely for days. We both commented we couldn’t remember when it looked so pretty. It still looks nice as the flowers fade.

I bought a gadget online and they sent me a total of 10 emails for the transaction starting when they got my order and finishing when it was delivered. I’m surprised it’s only ten because it felt like a lot more. Still, 10 is at least 7 more than I need. I don’t need to know when it’s out for delivery especially since that seems to be a meaningless phrase.

Sometimes they tell you it’s out for delivery and you don’t get it for days.

Did I ever write about my kickstarter I did? It was advertised as perfume that smells like space. Here’s a story about it. It was only like, $30, and some of the money was supposed to be donated to stem programs.

It never arrived. If you go to the kickstarter page you can still buy it, the price has gone up and there are thousands of furious comments from people who never got their eau de space. I thought the comments were sort of hilarious – “I hope these scumbags rot in hell.” Someone else suggested a class action suit.

I can’t believe they can still collect money for this. What a great scam. It’s not worth my energy and aggravation to pursue any further. I paid $30 for nothing. How many lessons do we learn in this life that cost more than that?

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Surprise New Visitor

Check this out — a coyote in the backyard. I know we have them in the neighborhood but never thought we would have one in the yard.

I worried about bunny but he showed up the last two nights so he’s okay for now.

There are additional clips here. You can see him check out that hole in the hedge — I’ve seen all the critters: raccoons, oppossum, bunny, and cats disappear in there.

Gorgeous day out. I am going to do yard work.

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No News to Report

I love looking out my kitchen window this time of year.

On one of the warmer afternoons I sat out there for a little while and fed the blue jays. Sometimes they will come pretty close. Other times they’ll just sit there and watch from the wire.

I didn’t check the wildlife cam for a week It didn’t look like there was much going on out there.

I was wrong.

I checked this morning and all the usual characters have been through. Bunny is the most hilarious because sometimes I can just see his glowing eyes jumping up and down. The same raccoon duo with the damaged tails.

There’s definitely one opossum. I never get two in the same shot but sometimes it seems like the clips make more sense if there is more than one.

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Wildlife Update

I set-up the wildlife cam to get some blue jays. This one is rage eating the sunflower seed chips because all the peanuts are already gone.

They are really cute but I’ve already created a monster. They hop around on the back porch screeching for their peanuts early in the morning.

So many hilarious clips including several with me in the window, trying to get a good view of what they are up to.

Obligatory shot post ice storm. Ice storms are terrible and really pretty.

The only sign of raccoons since the bad weather started. Someone took a little detour.

He dug through the snow and ice for a drink. Sorry I didn’t get it but I had the camera set up for blue jays.

Little paw print and looks like a blue jay up in the corner, too.

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We Need to Organize the Sausages

This morning my husband told me he needed a chance to talk to me about organizing the sausages.

After we finished laughing he explained that he bought a variety of sausages when he was at the meat market and he needed to break down the package and wanted my thoughts.

I couldn’t think of any feedback I had on this particular topic so I left him to handle it on his own.

I’m trying to make friends with the blue jays that nest in the hedge.

The other day I saw one out on the power line and I went out and set two peanuts on the top of the fence. The bird flew away but I watched from the kitchen window and it eventually came back for them.

Yesterday I saw the blue jay on the line again and I went out there with two peanuts. It flew away.

By the time I got in the house a fat squirrel was sitting on the fence stuffing its face with one peanut and hovering over the other.

I kept watching and the blue jay came back. It perched on the line for a second, looking down at its peanuts and dive-bombed the squirrel. It landed on the fence and kept squawking and the squirrel ran away with one peanut leaving the second peanut for the blue jay.

One of the best shows I have seen in months.

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Tuber Wads

I generally don’t dig my dahlias because it’s a giant pain in the ass and I’m too lazy to properly follow through so they usually get moldy and/or shrivel up.

When I was cleaning up the backyard I dug up two plants that hadn’t produced flowers in a couple of years intending on tossing them. Then I saw the tubers and thought maybe I’d save them and try replanting them in the spring and see what happens.

I watched a dahlia digging video and learned a lot. Too bad I didn’t watch this 15+ years ago when I first started growing dahlias. I’ve been doing it all wrong. And I did it wrong again because I dug them too early.

I’m sure they’ll be fine. I’ve had moldy bulbs sit in the shop over the winter in a big pile and then I planted them and dahlias grew.

The above is from these pink dahlias that are so hearty it’s terrifying. The only reason I dug these up is because they were bursting up out of the ground. That thing was really heavy and hard to break apart.

I still didn’t do it exactly how the video showed but I suspect I will still get flowers.

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Tomato Soup

I didn’t get enough tomatoes to make soup but I was gifted tomatoes from Melonie so I made this Deborah Madison favorite.

Saute some shallots in butter. Cut up your tomatoes and put them in the pot with salt. Let them slow cook all afternoon.

Whir with the stick blender. Strain into a new pot. I often skip that step. I add a plop of cream.

It’s some weird trick of the light but this photo look like there’s a golden lump in there.

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