Faithful garden correspondent Marvel:
Our summer garden has been putting on some serious growth and in the case of the popcorn and sunflowers, most of the growth is vertical.
I love the look & rustling sound of growing corn and we have an open spot where it does well. My problem is that regardless of how I stagger/delay sowing the corn flights to limit the amount of corn that ripens at any one time (I want to EAT the stuff, not FREEZE it), with our long Summer days, once the plants start taking off, they all ripen within a few days of one another. My solution this year is to buy fresh sweet corn at the local farmers’ market every week and plant pocorn in Area 51 — it’ll all ripen togther and I’ll harvest it in th Fall. It’s doing well — easily seven feet tall.
As tall as the popcorn, the sunflowers [top pic] are towering wonders this year.
The greenhouse is full of peppers and basil — they love the hot-hot-hot (120-degree) environment and there’s plenty of space for growing them once we move the Spring seedlings out.
We’ve harvested about a third of the onions — the rest will come out in another week, after they finish their long-day growth. I’ve transplanted some lettuce & spinach into the bed as the onions vacate it and will continue to fill it in with Fall veggies as the onions come out.
There’s a good amount of open ground out where the raised beds are and it’s an endless chore, keeping the area clear of weeds. The last couple of years we’ve decided to encourage the growth of a naturally-occuring purslane and use it as a ground cover (I know it’s an edible weed, but we don’t eat it). It’s a lovely & durable plant and it’s been a real champion in squeezing out other less desirable weeds. (It’s even giving our heavy-duty weed mat a run for its money.)
***********
There was purslane growing wild all over our tiny lot when we bought this place twenty years ago, but apparently it didn’t like my soil improvements. Neither did the wild snapdragon called butter-and-eggs, alas. But there’s a wild geranium with lovely cut leaves & reblooming pink flowers that self-seeds promiscuously… and on the back lawn, where the neighbors won’t see, patches of wild violets that the Spousal Unit encourages…
What’s going on in your garden(s) this week?
raven
Great garden shots! I have an old buddy and his son here this weekend and we went to the Southeastern Train Museum yesterday while my bride slaved in the garden in the awful heat! The figs are ready and she harvested a boatload and spent the afternoon making preserves.
rikyrah
Good Morning ?, Everyone ?
rikyrah
The garden pictures are beautiful ?
rikyrah
Kay,
I don’t know if you saw my comment to you about the conservative ladies on the radio. You had written that didn’t really approve of Palin because her children were our of control. I had wondered about their thoughts on First Lady Michelle Obama.
Ultraviolet Thunder
Lovely pictures. My wife has discovered purslane and decided I should be eating it. I need to educate her about the kinds of chemicals that have been used on this yard over the last 80 years, their effects and persistence in the soil.
It’s 75 degrees in Detroit at 6:00 am. I don’t think gardening is in the schedule for today as it will probably hit the mid 90s. We’re supposed to get some rain and that would be good, if too little/late.
HeartlandLiberal
Here in south central Indiana we have been eating small tomato varieties for weeks, but this week the large tomatoes, primarily heirlooms, started ripening. So two days ago I cooked down a pot of them for sauce, got some lean ground beef, used oregano, parsley, and cilantro from the herb garden, added garlic, shredded carrot, and onions, and we ate a pot of the best homemade spaghetti served on whole wheat noodles you can imagine. All that hard work to grow the tomatoes was worth it, including turning the water scarecrows on every night to keep the deer out of the garden. The cucumbers have done well this hear, and sliced cucumbers with chopped tomatoes with vinegar and olive oil and some herb mix makes a really good dish.
gindy51
South East Indiana and I got nothing. of course we live in a micro climate that is cooler longer than the hills around us so maybe that is why. I couldn’t even get sunflowers to grow and miss my bees something fierce. Only one lonely volunteer came up, not one of the seeds i planted bothered to raise even a leaf. About ready to give it up and plant trees, now that I can do, easily.
satby
@Ultraviolet Thunder: Happy Birthday again, in case you didn’t see it in the last thread!
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
Beautiful garden photos as always, Marvel!
No “gardening” for me today – gonna be another scorcher in NoVA. I’ll be doing Win10 upgrades on my remaining Win7 machines – so far they’ve gone well.
Gotta get up and walk the doggie before the sidewalks melt…
Have a peaceful Sunday everyone, and HBD to Ultraviolet Thunder!
Cheers,
Scott.
Tokyokie
Mmmmm. Sunflowers. Sunflower seeds. And I wish the folks at the SunOpta plant in Minnesota would get their production ramped up again so I could find my favorite sunflower seeds again. Although I wish more that they had prevented the Listeria contamination in the first place. Think I’m only 2 bags away from having to get the overly salty David & Sons.
Ultraviolet Thunder
@satby:
Thanks again. Commented in previous thread
“Thanks. We’ll probably go to the new Star Trek movie because why not, then ice cream.
I passed through your neck of the woods twice last week on 94 from Detroit to Chicago and back. Still a lot of downed trees in the highway right of way. Must have been some storm.
Hope things are going well with your relocation. I was mostly out of touch last week and missed any updates.
“
MattF
I expect a quiet Sunday at home. Made some progress (finally!) on a problem at work on Friday, so one less thing to worry about. Might venture out to the farmer’s market this morning, but I’ve got a few books in the ‘to read’ pile next to the sofa and I expect that’s where my attention will be today.
ETA: And yeah, it’s gonna be hot outside today. Very hot.
MattF
And some Sunflower Mathematics.
OzarkHillbilly
Nice sunflower, Marvel. I can’t grow corn, the squirrels and coons just go to town on it.
Gonna be another 100 degree day today, so other than a little puttering around I won’t do much outside. Picked about 30 pounds of tomatoes yesterday. Am now in the process of turning 22 lbs into salsa, last year’s is almost gone. The beans have finally started producing, so we’re having some for dinner tonight.
We have a cold front coming thru tomorrow That should be the last we see of 100 degrees this summer.
ThresherK (GPad)
@Tokyokie: I’m allergic to them, so you’re welcome to mine. It’s the “bite on em” allergy, not the “touch em” kind. And there’s sunflower oil in many things and that’s no problems to me.
Everyone’s garden pix here make me think I wouldn’t survive Armageddon. I must have some needed skill besides changing oil.
ThresherK (GPad)
@Ultraviolet Thunder: Enjoy your b-day. And being in an AC movie theater sounds pretty good for some of today.
Another Holocene Human
Flowering artichokes. Cool!
also, Tim Kaine gives a good speech. Consider my socks knocked off.
satby
@Ultraviolet Thunder: Still looking, some possibilities but no decisions yet because there’s two good prospects I haven’t been able to see.
No word from the insurance folks on what the adjuster thinks the estimate to repair this place will be, which makes me think it’s a doozy.
bemused
I have two sweet books on my shelf that have garden related projects for children, Sunflower Houses and Hollyhock Days by Sharon Lovejoy. The Sunflower House project is delightful. Lovejoy asked an elderly woman if she remembered any special garden things she did as a child in Nebraska. The summer playhouse was her and her sibs favorite. Early summer her mother would take the children out to choose flattest, sunniest spot and trace out a large rectangle about 6 by 9 feet leaving a small opening for a doorway gouging out a trench to plant sunflower seeds, one sunflower seed along with a “Heavenly Blue” Morning Glory seed to climb the sunflower stalk. Once the sunflowers grew tall enough, they got a ladder and string, stringing the tops of sunflower necks, lacing across the rectangle back and forth to form a roof which soon was filled in, string invisible and they had a magical playhouse they loved.
Ella in New Mexico
Wish I could stay home and enjoy coffee in our little backyard desert oasis with the hubby on his only day off in the past two weeks. But it’s off to the salt mines for me…
By the way, haven’t had time to go thru the 390+ comment thread under John’s post below, but I just stumbled onto the whole DNC email dump engineered by Russian hackers that makes it pretty clear they were dishonest in their supposed “neutrality” as a party machine towards Sanders so now Trump thinks all the Bernie supporters want to jump on his bandwagon and vote for a guy who is literally in debt to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars to Putin’s Russian friends.
Am I the only one that thinks the FBI needs to get involved? Not with the DNC thing which is despicable and I hope every single one of the players here loses their job, with the THE FUCKING TRUMP IS TAKING MONEY FROM AND BEING INFLUENCED BY THE RUSSIAN MOB CONNECTION issue.
Crap! Now I’m off the grid for the next 12+ hours unless I get a lunch break and get to come back and read here…:-(
bmaccnm
None of my 8 tomato plants set fruit this year. I planted a variety of varieties; romas, slicers, cherries, but not a single tomato. The raspberries and blueberries are heavy with fruit, but no tomatoes at all. Weird.
satby
@bemused: That sounds amazing! Thanks for that description, I will keep that for a summer when I’m growing things in the ground instead of in pots.
Percysowner
@Ella in New Mexico: The FBI should be looking into Trump’s Russian connections. I will say that his followers have done a nice job of making that hard. We are all appalled that Trump is calling for his political opponents to be jailed, but our being appalled means that if/when the FBI investigates it will be called “both sides doing it” and look “Hillary is a Fascist too! She’s making the FBI look into jailing HER political opponent as well!” and the press would probably be happy to run with that narrative, because they love nothing more than “both sides do it”.
Hillary Rettig
@bemused: Beautiful story!
Here’s the list of top 10 books about gardens the Guardian ran this week.
Ultraviolet Thunder
@satby:
Insurance is a mixed bag. 5 years ago a tornado took the whole roof off my dad’s large house. Auto Owners had them back in in 90 days with the place better than new. 3 years ago my MIL had a major fire and was out for a year while we hassled endlessly with the adjusters and various contractors. SAME insurance company. There are still outstanding issues.
I hope yours is more like the former. I used to work for Auto Owners back in the 80s, BTW. It can help to keep in touch with the insurer, though it really shouldn’t matter. Wishing best of luck and quick resolution for you.
Baud
@Percysowner: Agree. Let’s defeat him and then investigate him.
Aleta
Wow amazing gardening and great pictures.
Ultraviolet Thunder
@Ella in New Mexico:
Can you imagine the reaction if a Dem had ANY ties to government connected Russian oligarchs, much less hundreds of millions in indebtedness? There would be crowds in the streets with pitchforks and torches. I don’t know how this is getting overlooked. Maybe Taibbi is working on it. Somebody. Hopefully.
bemused
@satby:
I know. I love the story. I’ve always thought I’d like to try this when we had grandkids. Now we do have a couple but one lives on the other side of the country. Still worth trying next summer and if successful volunteer to let local garden club come tour and inspire the gardeners to try it.
I mentioned the project and the books to our cat/house sitter. She and her sister run a farm visit business. They have a big farm style building that groups can rent for events (local high school actually had their prom party there), tours & activities for kids and grownups (it was a hit with some adult rehab home residents who were initially blah and unenthused) and assorted animals, llamas, alpacas, bunnies, chickens, donkey, pot bellied pig, ponies, cats and dogs. I left the books out for sitter to look at while we were on vacay and she loved the books so much with the many kids projects that fit their business, she ordered them immediately.
Joel
I’m way behind on the news, so I’m catching up with Jim Fallows today.
Kaine is an inspired choice. I’m a fan.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
Gorgeous garden shots as always Marvel. And thanks as always AL for posting the garden threads.
@Ultraviolet Thunder: Late to the party; Happy Birthday.
Elmo
This is one of several weekends in a row that’s the only time I get to be home at all. I’ve been traveling Monday thru Thursday, then home Fri-Sun, then back on a plane Monday, for weeks. This week is different in that I won’t get home until late Friday instead.
So of course I’m struggling with bronchitis at the same time, and nothing whatsoever is getting done around the house.
debbie
@Baud:
Except you don’t know what’s coming in the next email dump. I think someone with NFLTG should make a couple pointed remarks. I’m looking at you, Joe.
debbie
Marvel, your pictures are astounding. What camera do you use?
Baud
@debbie:
You mean the DNC email dump? Sorry, I can’t get to exercised about what I’ve heard so far.
debbie
@Baud:
You need to be concerned about how Clinton non-supporters (of all parties) will use what’s in it.
EZSmirkzz
Since this is an open thread let me reiterate, “They are coming for your truck!”
That being said, my two cents worth on the WikiLeaks dump is I am Shocked! Shocked I tell ya! There’s politicking going on at the DNC, and I ain’t talking about dustin’ and cleanin’s, except in a punnish sort of way.
That aside, this should serve as YA wake up call, especially to you youngsters, on how the game is played. I’ve said a hundred times you can’t control the machine, you have to become the machine, which means getting involved in all the mundane work of precinct, county, state and national party operations, whether one is a Democrat or a Republican. DWS and the DNC played the insiders game because they were in a position to do so. DWS worked her ass off to get where she was, as did Hilary and Bernie, and they used whatever levers of power that were available to them to achieve their political objectives. Are we to be shocked and upset that they communicated with each other on obtaining those objectives? Get real.
There is absolutely no reason to get worked up about this issue whatsoever. What it should do is serve as a wake up call, not only to Sander’s supporters, but to Hilary’s supporters as well. When we get so caught up in our own righteousness of our cause that we cannot acknowledge the righteousness of the other’s, we hamstring our own judgment, and hence, accept a twisted reality of the world. You might could say the same thing about WikiLeaks, or any other advocacy group.
As someone that sent Bernie three bucks every two weeks for months on end I urge everyone, including the nymphs of Mons Venus to study the DWS and DNC power play as an abject lesson in power politics. It is what it is, it is the there that is there.
Baud
@debbie:
Why? There are a million real things to worry about.
amk
@debbie: These nothingburger e-mail dumps aren’t going to sway anyone on either side. wikileaks is way past its sell-by dates.
Schlemazel Khan
@Baud:
Drumpf, and the morons in the media, will try to milk the email thing but I don’t see it getting any traction.
@ultraviolet Thunder – Happy belated Birthday
@Percysowner – Spiro Agnew was taking payments from the Baltimore mob while he was VP. That even scared the bagman but not Agnew.
@Marvel – great looking garden! Thanks for sharing.
Sorry for not back-linking but I’d be consigned to moderation with that many links
Baud
@Schlemazel Khan:
And then they’ll move on to milk the next thing. It’s what they do.
MattF
@EZSmirkzz: Well, yes. Consider what you see here on BJ or on Twitter, and then compare that to whatever ‘leaks’ from the DNC. I’m far more concerned about the tie-in between Wikileaks and Putin than about email snark and anti-Bernie stuff from the DNC.
Schlemazel Khan
@Baud:
On that note I wonder what the Sunday shit hows will say about this last week. My sense from reading different sources is that America was generally appalled so I wonder how the talking heads will try to spin it. I am hoping the lack of space between the two conventions will heighten the difference between people who care and have plans and ideas and those who have nothing but hate and fear.
debbie
@Schlemazel Khan:
I think the people who aren’t thrilled with Clinton will take it more seriously than her supporters.
D58826
@Ultraviolet Thunder: Lose track of all the players sometimes. Why is everyone so certain that the Russians were behind the DNC hack. I’m not saying they weren’t but there are enough hackers out there that why the certainty that it was Russians?.
In the meantime the ‘Bernie was robbed’ wars are starting up again. Good bit of coverage of the memos along with the occasional reference to Hillary’s e-mails. Various law suits continue to force Hillary to release more documents and possibly be deposed so that Judical Watch can leak the selected ‘juicy’ parts. Kaine’s legal and fully disclosed gifts are proof of corruption.
Has Bernie made any comment on the selection?
In the meantime Trumps possible ties (financial or otherwise) to Russia/Putin, his tax returns and other financial records – crickets.
Baud
@Schlemazel Khan: Don’t know. Don’t really care. They’ve been in the GOP tank for years now.
@debbie: That’s universally true with every candidate and politician.
bemused
@Hillary Rettig:
Thanks for the great list. I have The Secret Garden but will have to read some of the others. Have you read The Private World of Tasha Tudor? I didn’t realize she was the illustrator for the 1985 edition of The Secret Garden.
Tasha Tudor was definitely an old fashioned lady in appearance, dress and her home and activities. I thought she was much older than she was. She looked nothing at all like all the ladies I’ve known born at around the same time, 1915. No polyester pants and blouses and perms for her!
Ultraviolet Thunder
@D58826:
I dunno the details of the hack. But the Russians, shady ones, are the only people who will financially back Trump these days. He’s too big a risk for respectable money.
As for the DNC emails, yeah they talked about rodent copulating Bernie. But they didn’t do it. Could have but obviously decided not to. So that makes the discussion of it via email between some people a dead issue as far as I’m concerned. YMMV.
Baud
@Ultraviolet Thunder:
Last I saw, it was just one guy. Was there something else?
amk
@Baud:
But, …. but, CC !!!!!! = Confirms Conspiracy.
MattF
@D58826: For Wikileaks/Russians, I guess I’m following Josh Marshall.
debbie
@Baud:
I agree. But I will again point to Swiftboating and Kerry’s not responding. I will also point to Obama’s team in 2008 who focused on rapid responses to anything derogatory.
Mike J
Nice to see them saying it out loud to the media.
Baud
@debbie: I may not be up on all the details, but I thought the emails didn’t implicate Hillary — only the DNC. I know people have treated them as one in the same and as a big cabal, but that doesn’t make it so.
Baud
@Mike J: Awesome. They mentioned it at the rally yesterday, so I knew the story was about to blow up.
D58826
@MattF: Yea I read his piece and agree. As I say I would not be surprised that the hackers are Russian, just wondering why in this case every one is so certain. Unless there is a pattern or some digital fingerprints left behind that links it to a Russian group.
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: I can’t find it in me to worry overly much about all this. I knew Hillary’s high negatives when I voted for her, her ties to Wall Street, , her supposed infidelities with the truth, the decades of Republican bashing of her because she is a strong, confident, intelligent woman with largely liberal policies, just their absolute hatred of all things Clinton. I reasoned that her strong standing in the DEM party, her long and well documented political career working for equal rights on behalf of women and minorities, etc etc would overcome all that.
I have faith in my reasoning and have seen absolutely nothing to shake it. We knew these days would happen.
Schlemazel Khan
@Baud:
I think that is changing a bit. FOr evidence look to the WaPo editorial “Donald Drumpf is a unique threat to American democracy”.
With some Republican pundits abandoning him the media may well feel free to join in.
MattF
@D58826: Well, there was a report (that I wouldn’t be able to find right now) that the source code in a related hack had comments in Russian.
D58826
@EZSmirkzz: And
that the DNC would tilt toward a candidate who has been involved in democratic politics her entire adult life vs an independent socialist who joined the party (sorta) just to run for president.
EZSmirkzz
@MattF: Politics makes for strange bedfellows, no? Josh has an interesting piece up about Trump’s tie in to Putin which may help amplify your concerns about WikiLeaks and were we conservatives, conspiracy theories to boot.
I don’t ascribe to theory of objectivity in analysis, I think to some extent, even with training our own feelings and biases skew our perception, so I think it is imperative to consider the righteousness of others assertion to delve out the nuggets of truth in their arguments. I think WikiLeaks shows a definite bias in their reporting, as do all media outlets, and sites dedicated to leaking information, which get their leaks from disgruntled people who may or may not have an agenda.
People like to think they are doing the right thing. I like to assume that in their arguments anyway. But I do not overlook the fact that many people have become so blinded by their own righteousness that they miss the trees for the forest. A quick case in point would be the atheists that are so sure of the fallacy of religion that they overlook the wisdom of the genius that could spawn a religion that billions of their fellow humans establish righteousness by. One need not be a follower of Moses or Christ to acknowledge the genius of what they said or did.
Schlemazel Khan
WaPo:
And it just gets better from there. Trump is so bad they can’t even pretend any more.
D58826
@MattF: ah, now that sounds like ‘fingerprints’. thanks
Mike J
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: The biggest things we’ll need to overcome will always be misogyny and racism (since Clinton draws her biggest support from minorities).
EZSmirkzz
@D58826: Sorry, but the primary is over. Hilary won.
Baud
@Mike J:
Sanders has been cool since his endorsement. The Dems who said he would get on board and not be a Nader were right.
Doug R
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: Win 10 going well? I’ve tried literally a dozen times to upgrade-each time it gets to the last step and then fails/reverts. It forgets my wifi password.
I whined to Micro$oft on Facebook, disabled all the startup programs I could find with their instructions and even uninstalled my anti-virus, Still nada. I hesitate to try yet again because it is SUCH a time hog, but I see July 29 is fast approaching. :(
D58826
@EZSmirkzz: that was sarcasm.
OzarkHillbilly
@bemused: Michael Pollan’s “Second Nature” is really good. One that wasn’t on the list that I liked was Barbara Kingsolver’s “Animal Vegetable Miracle”. It is not strictly a gardening book, more a treatise on the local food movement, but still more than a little gardening is discussed.
amk
@Schlemazel Khan: was it wapo’s op-ed or some pundtwit piece?
EZSmirkzz
@D58826: Writer’s responsibility, not the reader’s.
amk
@Doug R:
m$’s “errors” page.
I am positive it would be of zero help to you.
MattF
@amk: An editorial.
OzarkHillbilly
@MattF:
Here.
D58826
@amk: wapo editorial board. kind of a why wait till October before NOT endorsing this guy.
Schlemazel Khan
@amk:
It was the WaPo editorial board! They state flatly that there is no way they would even consider endorsing Trump.
Schlemazel Khan
Here is the link to the WaPo editorial, it is well worth the read.
The Thin Black Duke
@EZSmirkzz: I understood him just fine, friend.
bemused
@OzarkHillbilly:
I do have the Kingsolver book and liked it. Time to read it again.
amk
@MattF: @D58826: @Schlemazel Khan:
Good. the bw paper has seen the light. fiiiinally.
Now grey lady, do your effing job.
amk
@EZSmirkzz: no, not really.
debbie
@Schlemazel Khan:
Nice editorial, especially this:
All Trump would need to do is ask W.
Emma
Finally got a decent night’s sleep, and woke up to beautiful sunflowers.Many thanks to Marvel for growing them and AL for posting. They will ease me into the day when all I want to do is stay in bed.
Happy Birthday, UT!
As for the Wikileaks stuff — from what I understand, one person emailed the other discussing strategies for ratfvcking Sanders. That person answered that he agreed but that the boss said no. So the hated Debbie stepped in to make sure Sanders could keep on attacking Hillary as corporate whore sellout. It seems that, whatever their opinions, they stayed out of it. Or am I missing something?
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Doug R: I haven’t had that issue on two WiFi laptops running Win7 that I upgraded to 10 (Dell and Toshiba). Doing a quick Google search, it looks like WiFi problems with Win10 are due to incompatible hardware or bad drivers.
If you can’t upgrade the driver before you try the Win10 install again, you might want to try a USB WiFi adapter. I have one of these $20 TRENDnet adapters on my Toshiba R835 and it works fine for our mixed WiFi network. Check the specs, maybe something like it will work for you.
Good luck!
Cheers,
Scott.
Baud
@Emma:
I didn’t realize there was a response to the initial email. Thanks.
amk
@Schlemazel Khan: Thanks.
Schlemazel Khan
@amk:
That might help some but I am not sure either has the sort of impact needed let alone what they once had. The National Review and The Standard have both come out very hard against Drumpf to no affect inside the GOP. Does anyone (in this case I mean specifically the low information voters) pay any attention at all to any print media? Even the TV and radio have little impact on this modern electorate. In fact pointing out he is a thief, a liar, a crook and a bully only makes some people more convinced he is the guy who will fix all their problems.
Emma
@Baud: That was in one of the reports I saw but I haven’t looked at the emails myself. I can’t find the energy to care. The Bernie campaign was killed by self-inflicted wounds.
Kathleen
@Ultraviolet Thunder: @Ultraviolet Thunder: Happy Birthday! I hope you had a good one.
Baud
@Emma: I don’t care either. I would just like to distinguish between the real story from the manufactured story.
amk
@Schlemazel Khan: The rabid base sure won’t be swayed, might even make them more determined to support the fraud. That doesn’t mean the 4th estate mustn’t do its effing job.
SiubhanDuinne
@Ultraviolet Thunder:
Have a great birthday, UVT!
Kristine Smith
Beautiful shots. So that’s purslane–here it pokes out of sidewalk and driveway cracks. It seems to like rocks.
I have two produce plants this year, both in containers. The basils are doing marvelously, and are really tasty. I have two varieties, Opal and Green Ruffles. Lovely bright flavors.
I also have one cherry tomato vine, a Black Cherry. One tomato is close to picking. Lots of greenies and flowers.
That’s it. So far this year, I’ve been concentrating on the shady eastside yard, encouraging wildflowers to fill in around the hosta, ferns, astilbes, and hydrangea. So far, I have a type of anemone, wild violet–which I will have to watch or they will Take Over–and smooth Solomon’s seal. I need to plant more hosta and install a flagstone path. I’ve hung suet feeders and installed a small birdbath; I already had a seed feeder. I like watching the woodpeckers–red-headed, downy, hairy, and northern flickers.
ruemara
@Ultraviolet Thunder:
Happy Birthday! May it be filled with fun and may you have many more.
I quite like purslane. It’s delicious in a fry-up with bacon or sausage or even in an omelette. A local farmer has some around spring, so it’s a seasonal delight for me, like fiddleheads, fresh young garlic and squash blossoms. Wonderful garden pictures, Marvel. I’m ready to move in for the produce alone.
Repatriated
@D58826: Let’s see if I can get a link past FYWP…
Metadata in the files shows that the files were converted from Word to PDF on a machine configured for Russian. Turns out the leaked emails were stolen by two separate groups of hackers, despite the assertion that it was a single hacker.
Repatriated
@Repatriated: meh. format got borked but it seems to work.
Doug R
My tomato plants keep growing and growing, only 2 almost red ones so far, all flowers and green tomatoes so far from my Ketchup ‘n Fries.
No red ones from this Cherry Tomato plant in a Canadian made 12 gallon self watering pot.
OzarkHillbilly
@EZSmirkzz: You need to reboot your sarcasm meter.
debbie
@amk:
I have a few of those in my family. There is no reasoning. Their support is based on Trump’s outsiderness. I get nothing but crickets when I point out that his having “bought” many politicians (as he himself has boasted) makes Trump a consummate insider.
Ultraviolet Thunder
Thanks for the B-day wishes. My present to myself is a day off FB. Dunderhead Berniacs think the DNC had a 20,000 email evil plot to destroy their blameless hero. One guy. One email. No action.
Bah.
Taking Lady Thunder and the MIL to see Ghostbusters this afternoon.
Aleta
Does a non disclosure agreement hold up in court if the signer is reporting a crime? Are there laws about the limits of a nda, perhaps similar to the mandatory reporting despite confidentiality rules? Or do the ndas provide a kind of uncertain loophole for people who commit crimes?
Thinking about Tr of course, but also the woman who was fired by fox after reporting s. harrassment, and then settled, but now is talking to press. I know people sign those agreements after sex assault and then are never able to speak about it. Is there any thinking in the legal profession that such rules should be challenged or changed?
Iowa Old Lady
Mr IOL is watching Fox’s Sunday morning show, and Mike Wallace just asked Manafort if Trump got a bounce out of the convention. Manafort said they did what they had to on stage and you had to look at the last month and see how Trump was closing the gap.
Translation: No bounce. :-)
amk
@debbie:
Or the fact how the con totally avoided ‘personal responsibility’ both in his ‘business’ and personal lives.
That proverbial 27% … or 35% (my new limit). Can’t reach’em. Forever.
Aleta
@Ultraviolet Thunder: Sounds like a good afternoon. Happy 57.
amk
@Aleta: Didn’t bill cosby’s case set some precedent on that?
Baud
@Iowa Old Lady: Yep. He needed to be ahead to have a decent shot IMHO.
bemused
@debbie:
So what do you think the cricket sounds means? Crickets because they didn’t know Trump bought politicians and boasted he did or they don’t believe he did or they don’t mind that he did or….? These people are just unfathomable.
Doug R
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet:Worth a try. Thanks. I see my local London Drugs has some Netgear and Dlink adapters in stock. Maybe I’ll take a drive in a couple of hours.
Doug R
@amk: I find a repair, it “fixes” Windows Update, but forgets my update history. Must be something in the way it overwrites.
Ultraviolet Thunder
@Iowa Old Lady:
Nate Silver says it was inconclusive. Polls too variable before convention to tell if the convention helped. But 538 says if Trump doesn’t pull even after the R convention and before the D convention ends he probably never will.
debbie
@bemused:
Crickets because they were unwilling to even acknowledge what I had pointed out. I suppose it could have been worse; they could have started in on Benghazi. That’s probably soon to come.
OzarkHillbilly
@Schlemazel Khan: Something tells me Trump is not reissuing their press credentials any time soon.
debbie
@Ultraviolet Thunder:
Just saw it’s your birthday. Happy birthday to you!
D58826
@OzarkHillbilly: Since the movie Casablanca I always figured ‘I am shocked shocked’ was a red flag for sarcasm.
Ultraviolet Thunder
@Schlemazel Khan:
Wow. They hit him with everything they had. No equivocation at all. That was brutal on all levels.
bemused
@debbie:
Ha, no doubt.
It’s so weird to me how angry Republicans are when a topic has anything to do with Dems or liberals in general, even those I know who are normal, caring, reasonable people otherwise. I have no idea how the topic of Bill Clinton saying he never inhaled even came up, an offhand joke by a liberal I think but this couple instantly started to bitch about that old story like someone turned on a switch from calm to fuming. It feels cultish.
OzarkHillbilly
@D58826: I have been a little obtuse from time to time, but that post was plenty over the top.
Marvel
@debbie: Re my camera: I just use an iPhone — it’s a champ.
Mike J
@Doug R:
My mom’s win7 machine was hosed, updater was broken. Had the idea of fixing it by upgrading to 10. Running the upgrade from the download died, but running the CD based upgrade worked. Downloadable upgrade was trying to use system’s broken updater, CD based used its own. Download the ISO, burn it to a disc, run setup from the CD.
tybee
the banana patch has 5 blooms. we’re gonna get overrun with nanners in a few months. anyone have any suggestions on preserving bananas?
the orange trees have zillions of oranges on one, nothing on the other. weird.
not getting any tomatoes to speak of, the okra hasn’t started flowering and a butternut squash vine or two is conquering the garden.
we started putting out suet feeders a few years ago and the number of feathered moochers is a hoot:
redheaded woodpeckers
red bellied
downy (might be some hairy in there but i cannot tell the difference)
pileated – and it’s a trip watching it cling to the little hanging suet basket.
carolina wrens
chickadees
tufted tit mouse
bluejays
cardinals – watching them hover beside the feeder trying to get to the suet is a hoot.
brown thrashers – a surprising badass at the feeders. will attempt to run off the redbellies which are third on the pecking order (pileated takes no shit from anyone, redheads are next and then the redbellied)
mocking birds
Brachiator
@Schlemazel Khan:
The National Review, etc, represent the GOP Establishment. Their attacks on Trump were totally rejected early. You could consider Trump support to be an extreme form of conservative Protestantism. Conservative doctrine is believed, but the authority of all institutions have been rejected.
Add to this the rapidly increasing obsolescence of print media.
Also, there’s really no such thing as low information voters; there’s just stronger and weaker partisanship.
They know that Trump is a bully. But they think that he will fight on their side. They may have a point. They have already seen him take the GOP down and make them do his bidding. The funny thing is that I will bet you that the Republicans still believe that a GOP Congress will be able to manipulate Trump for their benefit.
O. Felix Culpa
@Ultraviolet Thunder:
This. And hopefully a lesson to party operatives: don’t put anything in email that you wouldn’t want made public. Social media management 101. Sheesh.
Beautiful garden pix too. Soothing to the soul.
Brachiator
@Iowa Old Lady:
I don’t think that history shows that “bounces” are ever sustained. This is like the sports fallacy of momentum. Lots of people believe in it, because it is easy to understand; but very little confirmation in the real world.
It comes down to campaigning and getting out the vote.
debbie
@Marvel:
Amazing color!
lgerard
Favorite Trump move from Friday:
Having a stooge float the story to Bloomberg that Trump will set up two 10 million dollar PACs to insure that Cruz and Kasich never get elected again.
Please proceed, dumbass
debbie
@Brachiator:
That’s what this whole “getting rid of political correctness” is all about, not so much that he’ll fight for them, but that they’ll be able to resume their own rudenesses and bullying ways — just like in the good old days
I wouldn’t be surprised, if the GOP managed to either win the White House or have a majority in either the House or Senate, that a bill would be introduced removing all political correctness from US laws.
Brachiator
@EZSmirkzz:
I can acknowledge the righteousness of your beliefs without either accepting or even respecting them. The assertion that some religious convictions are “deeply held beliefs,” does not defend them against their being homophobic and totally unacceptable.
Similarly, merely asserting the “genius” or “wisdom” of religion does not make it so.
EZSmirkzz
@The Thin Black Duke: Non-germane argument friend.
EZSmirkzz
@amk: What do you mean?
Doug R
@Aleta: You would think a NDA would cover civil actions and be unenforceable against criminal actions. You could maybe make a conspiracy or RICO case against it, if it covers up a felony.
EZSmirkzz
@Brachiator:
Nor does your assertion that they are homophobic make them so either.
The fact that billions of people believe them, and the fact that they have shaped our secular society in such profound manners speaks to me of genius. YMMV. You may prefer the Beatles.
Brachiator
@EZSmirkzz:
The great philosopher John Lennon said it all:
The rest is commentary.
EZSmirkzz
@Brachiator: Sorry to be so slow in responding, the local genius is repairing his wife’s Corrianne countertop he broke yesterday, so responses are timed to epoxy set times.
Anyway, I just have to ask, did you type your response while standing on one foot?
No One You Know
The pond’s in full bloom: white and yellow water lilies froth across the surface. Cattails host red and blue dragonflies, and this morning a new green dragonfly showed up that dwarfs the usual crowd; we call it “Huey”.
It’s supposed to get really hot this week, but right now it’s breezy and just warm and sunny. It’s a reminder that contentment doesn’t depend on perfect circumstances.
Brachiator
@EZSmirkzz:
No. I was sitting in one of my favorite local cafes, talking with some homeless people who had come in to beat the heat and to charge their cell phones.