Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

If marriage is the equivalent of selling yourself into slavery, women with self respect should reject the offer.

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

“That’s what the insurrection act is for!”

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

Consistently wrong since 2002

I’m more Christian than these people and I’m an atheist.

Dead end MAGA boomers crying about Talyor Swift being a Dem is my kind of music. Turn it up.

Everyone is in a bubble, but some bubbles model reality far better than others!

In after Baud. Damn.

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” is supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

Glad to see john eastman going through some things.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Come on, man.

“Loving your country does not mean lying about it’s history.”

Fight them, without becoming them!

Somebody needs to explain to DeSantis that nobody needs to do anything to make him look bad.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

When we show up, we win.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

You are here: Home / Garden Chats / Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Blooming in the Northwest

Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Blooming in the Northwest

by | 129 Comments

This post is in: 

Vistas of a perfect summer afternoon, from ever-reliable gardener and commentor Opie Jeanne:


Pink cranesbill, related to geraniums.


Our back driveway hasn’t been mowed yet this year.


Clematis.


Annie in the jungle under the pear trees.


Blue cranesbill.


Hydrangea.


This white flower is supposed to repel snails and slugs, and I can’t remember its name. I don’t think it does much except for itself.


Clematis, Sally Holmes roses, and cranesbill.

***********

What’s going on in your garden(s), this week?

Reader Interactions

129Comments

  1. 1.

    Sister Golden Bear

    Greetings from Thailand!

    Here for surgery, but got in yesterday and have had the weekend to play tourist. Picked a hotel that’s walking distance of several of the major sights, including the Royal Palace compounds and several of the major temples. Will have to send photos to Alain when I get a chance for the photo threads.

    Monday I get picked up and taken to the clinic, which is about an hour away from Bangkok itself. Then it’ll be a battery of tests, and then a day off before the main event on Friday.

    You may see me commenting more frequently, since I’ll have time on my hands while I’m recovering. (I’ll be here about four weeks before returning home.)

  2. 2.

    OzarkHillbilly

    You always have the most beautiful garden Opie Jeanne. Love the trellis. I had to remove the trellis I slapped together when we first moved in. I miss having one and someday I will build another and this time do it right.

  6. 6.

    OzarkHillbilly

    The Cards fired Matheny. Finally. While not exactly a great fan of his I did defend him against some of the more outrageous slings and arrows thrown his way. But this season it became obvious even to me that he just couldn’t get the job done.

  8. 8.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @MattF: Heh:

    Who, moreover, can forget the obligatorily bibulous rhapsodies from sports commentators in the waning days of the old Yankee Stadium in 2008 — grown men dissolving in foaming raptures over a “great tradition” in its twilight or intoning solemn encomiums to the glorious “temple of sport” soon be reduced to dust? Temple, forsooth! More like the largest brothel in the world, being torn down only because a larger, glitzier brothel was being erected across the street. (Really, how does a Yankees fan’s pride in all those purchased championships differ from the self-delusion of a man staggering out of a bawdy house at dawn, complimenting himself on his magnificent powers of seduction?)

  9. 9.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @MattF: Even better, Yankee (trump) fans:

    Not that the horror is easy to recall clearly. The trauma is too violent. Memory cringes, whines, tries to slink away. One recollects only a kaleidoscopic flux of gruesomely fragmentary impressions, too outlandish to be perfectly accurate, too vivid to be entirely false: nightmarish revenants from the dim haunts of the collective unconscious … monstrous, abortive shapes emerging from the abysmal murk of evolutionary history … things pre-hominid, even pre-mammalian … forms never quite resolving into discrete organisms, spilling over and into one another, making it uncertain where one ends and another begins. … It really is awful: ghastly glistening flesh … tentacles coiling and uncoiling, stretching and contracting … lidless orbicular eyes eerily waving on slender stalks … squamous hides, barbed quills, the unguinous sheen of cutaneous toxins … serrated tails, craggy horns, sallow fangs, gleaming talons … fragrances fungal and poisonous … sickly iridescences undulating across pallid, gelatinous underbellies or shimmering along slick, filmy scales. …

    And what raucous yawps of elation they emit, like sea lions crying out in erotic transport. How languidly and grossly they intertwine with one another — how clumsily, lewdly, indiscriminately — like lascivious cephalopods merged in seething tangles of prehensile carnality. And somehow, without having to see, one knows things about them: that the categories “parent,” “sibling” and “mate” are only hazily delineated in their minds; that they suck nourishment from cellulose, heavy metals and cactus spines; that, should they grow hungry on the journey home from the game, they may pull over to the side of the road to devour their young. One simply knows. …

  10. 10.

    p.a.

    Really nice. Neighborhood gardeners here have seen a changeover from slugs to snails in the last few years. Very seldom saw snails before.

  13. 13.

    satby

    My garden is a mess, weeds taking over the raised beds, drought affecting everything else even though I deep water every few days, and I may have murdered one of my two pots of tomatoes by overstating and not realizing it for a couple of days. One of the currant bushes cut down by the vibe removers is showing a tiny sprout of life, but no signs on the hydrangea that was about to bloom. And the heat and humidity are back, just walking the dogs results in clothes soaked in sweat.
    I hate summer. Can’t even enjoy what does bloom.

  14. 14.

    satby

    Autocorrect and no editing… Murdered the pot of tomatoes by overwatering.
    It may come back. But I almost don’t care.

  15. 15.

    Immanentize

    Opie Jeanne — great pics! I love your pergola. I have a place where I want one, but haven’t done it yet…. Maybe grapes some day.

    Meanwhile, I finally got around to some changes in the weed zone; with professional help. Since last year, everything has been allowed to go to hell in a hand basket. So, I got a company to come and put in some arbor vitae for an eventual screen between my house and the close neighbor. Also had some sod thrown down over the quarter of the yard that burnt up when the big trees came down. They also weeded and mulched my beds. I grilled last night!

    Also, I am losing some tomato plants too!
    Rutgers, my new favorites. Overwatering? Sun stroke? Wilt? Weeds choked ’em? I don’t know. I have cut them back and hope they return. Onward!

  16. 16.

    HeleninEire

    @Sister Golden Bear: Please feel free to say STFU, Helen, but can I ask what type of surgery you are getting that necessitated you going all the way to Thailand? I would imagine it’s either plastic surgery or a serious problem that you could not afford in the US.

    Also, just to prove that I’m not a nosey bitch (well, not a bitch, anyway) I will admit to one or two, um, elective surgeries that were TOTALLY vanity related.

    Good luck with the surgery and with the recovery.

  17. 17.

    OzarkHillbilly

    ‘We don’t know how it worked’: the inside story of the Thai cave rescue

    In the end it was a textbook rescue operation. Divers managed to carry, pull and at times swim the 12 young Wild Boars footballers and their coach along more than two miles of flooded and cramped tunnels in the Tham Luang cave complex, as billions of people around the world watched.

    A textbook they wrote because nobody had ever done anything like this before.

    But briefings by Thai officials and interviews with six Australian, American, Chinese and Thai divers involved in the operation have revealed extensive details of a plan some were unsure could work, even after it started on Sunday morning. “At the end, after we managed to get everyone out, we were just sitting there shaking our heads,” said Claus Rasmussen, a Danish diver who helped to execute the rescue. “We have no idea how this worked or why, but it did.”

    The plan to ferry the boys out accompanied by two expert divers, and escorted by a daisy chain of support workers, started to firm up as the most likely option on the evening of Thursday 5 July, said Ruengrit Changkwanyuen, a diver from Thailand who helped coordinate the diving teams – and to carry the first two boys to a field hospital when they emerged on Sunday.

    ………………………………………..

    Authorities had been trying to avoid bringing the boys out through water, which Rasmussen had earlier said was “definitely the scariest option”. But what was the alternative? Even keeping the boys in the cave chamber until January was looking increasingly risky, after medics reported that oxygen levels had depleted to 15% and that the boys could fall into a coma if it fell to 12%.

    “That made us worry a lot,” Apakorn Youkongkaew, a rear admiral in the Thai navy, said. “It was hard to fight nature. What would we do if the oxygen kept decreasing?”

    Preventing disease in the dank environment would also have become increasingly difficult. “It is very likely that infections would have started setting in, and the boys would have deteriorated a lot faster than they already were,” said Rasmussen.

    Another plan, to drill approximately 600 metres into the boys’ chamber from the thicket of jungle above, was also foundering. Engineers could not figure out where to drill. “It was like finding a needle in an ocean,” said Youkongkaew.

    Monsoon rain predicted for the morning of Saturday 7 July might have flooded the cave, making an extraction impossible. When it didn’t come, rescuers knew they had to go for it. “We had enough people to run the teams, the environment was right, we had a window with the weather,” said Rasmussen. “We thought, this is going to be the best option we’re going to get.”

    Inside the cave on Sunday morning, unaware of the dangers ahead, the boys were excited, says Changkwanyuen. “They were like, ‘oh wow, I’m going to go diving’,” he said. However, the rescuers were wracked with anxiety. “There were way too many unknowns,” said Rasmussen.

    Much more at the link, most of which echoes my NCRC training. Except for the diving, that was all made up on the spot.

  18. 18.

    debbie

    Your garden and flowers are so beautiful, Opie Jeanne! I especially love your back driveway and hope you won’t need to mow anytime soon.

  22. 22.

    debbie

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I still shake my head in amazement at the rescue, and I’d almost bet the most amazing advances that have been made in this world have all been crapshoots.

  25. 25.

    MomSense

    @Sister Golden Bear:

    Best of luck to you. Hope everything goes well.

    Opie Jeanne your garden is beautiful. I love the pergola. I sort of missed the whole beginning of my gardening chores and then the browntail moth has been so bad I haven’t been able to do much else. I still have too many weeds and I didn’t fill in the space where the roses that died off used to be. Ugh. Maybe the next part of the summer will be better.

    I mixed in clover with grass seed so I actually have something that looks lush when mowed. I’m hoping to convert my trugreen neighbors to forget about the golf course look since it will never work without spending a fortune on chemicals and water.

  26. 26.

    chris

    @Opie Jeanne: It takes a lot of work to make a beautiful wild garden like that. Well done!

    I’m happy I don’t have to do any of that work and can just enjoy the wild flowers all around me like this Marsh Mallow.

  28. 28.

    A Ghost To Most

    This year has involved reclaiming my yard from the forces of nature after years of partial neglect. Much tree cutting. I even got two beautiful apple walking sticks for my wife and I, lighter and stiffer than the redwood sticks I made in CA 35 years ago.

    It sure is nice to see that it is green somewhere; we’re burning up here.

  29. 29.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Royal family ‘snub’ Donald Trump during UK visit Heh:

    This business of Prince Charles and Prince William not being there for the Trump visit was a snub,” the source said. “They simply refused to attend. It’s a very, very unusual thing for the Queen to be there on her own. Usually she is accompanied by somebody. Prince Charles has been substituting for Philip a lot recently.”

    Prince Philip, 97, has retired from royal duties, but the source said: “He goes to what he wants to go to, and if he had wanted to be there he could have been.”

    Arriving for tea at Windsor Castle on Friday, the president failed to bow to the Queen and then walked in front of her when they were inspecting the guard.

    Charles had a board meeting for his company AG Carrick at Highgrove and also an event with Gloucestershire police. The Duke of Cambridge played in a charity polo match and the Duke of Sussex had private engagements.

    One Whitehall official involved in the planning said Trump’s time with the Queen was also “kept to the bare minimum”. He added: “The Queen will do her duty, but among the wider family, they were not as enthusiastic as they were when Obama came over.”

    Even on working visits, such as Trump’s last week, dignitaries expect to meet several members of the royal family. In 2016 Barack and Michelle Obama not only had lunch at Windsor Castle with the Queen and Prince Philip, they also had a private dinner at Kensington Palace with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry.

  30. 30.

    A Ghost To Most

    @MomSense:
    “mixed in clover with grass seed so I actually have something that looks lush when mowed. ”

    What a good idea. Doesn’t clover fix nitrogen in the soil as well?

  34. 34.

    satby

    @OzarkHillbilly: the Queen was a good sport about inspecting the troops with the troglodyte, if I had been her I would have stopped dead and let him look like the boor he is as he cluelessly walked on. He wouldn’t have even noticed until the end of the line of troops.
    Would love The Crown to have this in a further episode, with the royal family discussing what a pig he is.

  36. 36.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @A Ghost To Most: @MomSense:

    Doesn’t clover fix nitrogen in the soil as well?

    Yes. I do the same, but it’s more because growing grass in this clay/dolomite matrix is almost impossible but clover will grow almost anywhere.

  40. 40.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @satby: I actually watched a short video of that (i usually do all i can to avoid looking at or hearing trump) and my head literally hit my desk.

  43. 43.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @JPL: It all depends on who makes it. If James Cameron made it it would most likely be accurate. (he knows caving) Anybody else? My wife and I will probably spend the entirety of it ridiculing all the impossible things they portray and I will give particularly scathing commentary of the imagined rigging.

  45. 45.

    MagdaInBlack

    Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
    ✔
    @Ocasio2018
    New Rule: anyone that was cool with the GOP inventing $2 trillion out of thin air for freebies for people with yachts that have tiny yachts inside doesn’t get to demand how we pay for people who need chemotherapy treatments.
    10:22 AM – Jul 10, 2018

  46. 46.

    geg6

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Yup. Cameron is the only one I can imagine getting it right. He knows caving, like he knows all diving. But does he even direct any more? Can’t remember the last thing he directed since Avatar (which I must say I hated).

  47. 47.

    JPL

    @OzarkHillbilly: What will Trump promise Putin during the one on one meeting. For those who think that Russian interference into our election was a big nothing burger, imagine what happens when they take down our electric grid.

  48. 48.

    MomSense

    @satby:

    Clover is drought tolerant because it grows deep roots. It stays green and if you let it get tall, you have little flowers. When it’s mowed it looks nice and dark green. I just mixed it with the grass seed and planted it all together but on the southwest side of my house the grass didn’t do well but the clover filled it in nicely.

    The problem I have is that we don’t have enough good soil. The grass wasn’t doing well with such sandy support but the clover seems very happy.

  51. 51.

    Percysowner

    Trump trying to make himself look important. Trump hints at the Queen’s private views on Brexit

    Apparently she thinks Brexit is “a very complex problem”. because that tells us her deep, personal thoughts

    Also, too, Theresa May: Trump told me to sue the EU

    Revealing it for the first time, May said: “He told me I should sue the EU.” After being prompted by a surprised Marr, May repeated: “Sue the EU, not go into negotiations with them, sue them.”

    The prime minister smiled, and indicated she had disregarded the advice, saying “actually we’re going into negotiations with them”

    I suspect that, were I British, I would never vote for Teresa May, but good on her!

  52. 52.

    debbie

    @JPL:

    Very good! I never think of him (happily).

    Anyone who’s near a Graeters: Today’s their 148th “birthday,” so they’re selling single scoops for $1.48, about a third their usual price.

  55. 55.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @debbie: In his movie, he personally takes his submarine in to rescue each and every child by himself, than has to rescue all the cave divers too.

  56. 56.

    Heidi Mom

    As this is a garden thread, thanks to everyone who offered advice about my too-leafy geraniums last summer. Miracle-Gro Bloom Booster really works!

  58. 58.

    Yarrow

    Gorgeous garden! Thanks for sharing the photos. Mine is a mixture of overgrown and neglect at the moment.

  59. 59.

    germy

    Saw Sorry To Bother You and enjoyed it. Great cast and great story.

    Waiting patiently now for Stan And Ollie, a new movie about my favorite comedy team’s late-career “comeback” tour.

  60. 60.

    germy

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Scientific and engineering achievement is hard and the people who do it well are disciplined professionals. A culture that reveres grifters like Musk instead of actual professionals is one where water systems get infested with lead because preventing stuff like that is boring.
    — Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) July 14, 2018

  61. 61.

    Sister Golden Bear

    Thanks everyone.

    @HeleninEire: No worries. I’m trans and it’s “sexual reassignment surgery,” i.e. turning an outie into an innie. (No, contrary to popular misconception they don’t just cut it off, rather the tissue is reused to create a vulva and neo-vagina.)

    As far as why go to Thailand? Thai surgeons use a technique that’s more advanced than what’s
    typically used in the U.S. — among other things, they do everything in a single operation rather than two operations done a couple months apart, plus the results are better aesthetically (I know of some trans women whose gynos didn’t know they had after-market lady parts until the gyno did an internal exam.) And I’m seeing someone who’s probably the best surgeon in the world for this procedure.

    Also because the cost is considerably less, since insurance very rarely covers any of trans-related surgery. Although thankfully there’s now to be a handful of cities and companies that include it in their insurance packages, and it’s had a negligible effect on overall insurance costs.

    Standard disclaimer: Not every trans person gets SRS, and they’re no less trans than those us who do. Some don’t feel the needs, others can’t for health reasons, or because of the cost. And for trans men, the results traditionally have been less satisfactory (as one surgeon puts, it’s harder to create a pole than a hole).

  63. 63.

    germy

    Elon Musk's cosplay as Tony Stark is tiresome and annoying, and the only reason he can do it is because he's allowed to play with billions of dollars of other people's money.— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) July 14, 2018

  69. 69.

    scav

    ooooo, Opie Jeanne, I have aspirations of your back drive for the pasture edge across the road, the one where I’m currently battling blackberries and the other usual suspects. Hoping to work in some poppies as well and there are some serious lupine fans in the neighborhood.

    And, to add to the pedant ranking of the jackalariat, cranesbill are Geraniums. “Geraniums” are Pelargoniums. Now you too can have endless confusing conversations, especially if you grow both. I’m personally rather fond of the scented Pelargonium Geraniums and am a bit of a slut with the Cranesbill Geranium end of things. Sanguineums as an aspiration, macrorrhizums as a stalwart companions.

  70. 70.

    Gin & Tonic

    @chopper: That essay reminded me very much of a college student saying: “look at me, I can WRITE! using big words and shit.” Or the old Jon Lovitz SNL routine: ac-TING!

  72. 72.

    Ohio Mom

    @Sister Golden Bear: Thank you for being so open; I just learned a lot.

    Not the least of which is that Thailand is the leader in SRS. I would have guessed someplace in Europe, how far off I would be! I am continually amazed at the small bits of prejudice that lurk within me (I.e., Western countries have the monopoly on medical expertise).

    Wishing you a quick and complication-free recovery, and much happiness going forth in your new body.

  77. 77.

    Gin & Tonic

    @chopper: Yeah, I lived in NYC too, and now I live in that transition zone where you’ll run into Yankee fans (although fewer) as well as Red Sox fans. But I just couldn’t get past the pretentiousness of the prose.

  79. 79.

    JPL

    Things you learn when you listen to Trump. His father was born in Germany and the EU is a foe. shame

  81. 81.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Gin & Tonic: The essay was an exercise in fun with the English language. I once wrote a piece about a cave survey trip in which the dialogue was entirely in my own head. As a union carpenter my 2nd language is Cursing and what goes on in my head is far worse than anything that ever exits my mouth. So just for the hell of it I replaced every curse word with perfectly acceptable words and phrases one might read in the daily paper.

    It never ended up in any of the caving journals I regularly contributed to (it made the editors too “uncomfortable”) but I still had fun coming up with a dozen new and different ways to say “fuck” and “shit”.

  82. 82.

    japa21

    @JPL: I just heard that. The EU is a foe. Russia is a foe is some respects. Going on again about it all being Obama’s fault for the hacking. Also, they tried to hack RNC but RNC had better defenses and DNC should be ashamed. I believe that, in fact, the RNC was hacked. And once again, no condemnation of Russia.

  84. 84.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Percysowner:

    OMG:

    “We would make a great deal with the United Kingdom because they have product that we like,” Trump said. “I mean they have a lot of great product. They make phenomenal things, you know, and you have different names – you can say ‘England’, you can say ‘UK’, you can say ‘United Kingdom’ … the fact is you make great product, you make great things. Even your farm product is so fantastic.”

  85. 85.

    MagdaInBlack

    @japa21:
    Did Obama force them to take and use the hacked information, as well?

    “Will no one save me from my own stupidity?”

    Good lord, they make my head hurt.

    *The flowers help tho, thank you ?

  88. 88.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @MagdaInBlack:

    Did Obama force them to take and use the hacked information, as well?

    Yes. I have seen the email from Obama in which he threatened an amphibious landing of US Marines at trump tower if trump did not in fact accept the hacked info.

  90. 90.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @Ohio Mom: I was here about a decade ago to accompany a friend when she had her SRS, and the Thai hospitals are comparable to anything in the States, and Thailand does a lot of medical tourism of all kinds. Enough so that the hospital where I’ll be has a whole section of it’s website (in English) devoted to touting its medical tourism capabilities. IIRC, awhile back the Thai government decided to develop medical tourism as one of the countries industries.

    But other countries as well. I went to Buenos Aires for what’s referred to as “facial feminization surgery” — reshaping the face in various ways, most notably reducing the brow ridge and the shape of the jaw, which are both characteristics of male anatomy. (I had a dozen procedures done during the course of two surgeries 10 day apart). There’s a particular way of changing the brow ridge (which involved excising and resetting the frontal bone over the sinuses) that’s so specialized that there’s literally only a half-dozen surgeon worldwide who are truly expert at it — three in the U.S. two in Europe, and the surgeon I saw in Buenos Aires, who I personally think is the best of all them.

    Again the hospital was on par with those in the States and the after-care was definitely far better. I spent one night in the hospital for observation after each surgery, and the rest of the recovery time was spent at a apartment I rented for a month. Every three days, one of the three surgeons on the surgical team came to the apartment to do follow-ups — I didn’t even have to go to their clinic for that.

    The surgeon here operates five days a week, and does enough patients that a hotel next to his clinic reserves for two floors for his patients (you’re in the hospital for a week post-op and then discharged to stay at the hotel for another 2-1/2 weeks). Works out well, since his nurses do rounds daily at the hotel, in addition to doing the formal follow-ups at the clinic every couple days.

    In both cases, thanks to the differences in cost of living in those countries, the cost is less than what things would cost in the States, even when you include airfare and having stay somewhere for a month.

  91. 91.

    Elizabelle

    @Sister Golden Bear:

    Chiming in with a good luck, and keep us posted. Plus, didn’t you lose your mom not too long ago? You have had a lot on your plate.

    I have some friends who head to Thailand every year or so for concierge level checkups; they love the medical care there, and just do bare bones/catastrophic policies in the US. Medical tourism is a big deal, and a smart choice.

  92. 92.

    debbie

    @japa21:

    “Not my fault that I was committing traitorous crimes; it’s the black guy’s fault for not stopping me!”

  94. 94.

    Amir Khalid

    @Gin & Tonic:
    I agree about the writing style: undisciplined, full of flourishes that call attention to themselves rather than to what the writer is trying to say. It’s needlessly hard going for the reader, who must put that much more effort into following the argument.

    By the way, the World Cup final has just kicked off. Shouldn’t Alain’s post be up?

  95. 95.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @MagdaInBlack: It came from an individual requesting anonymity connected to Congress with total access to all classified intelligence reports. I can not mention his name but his initials are Kash Patel.

  96. 96.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @Percysowner:
    Trump (from the interview):

    “We would make a great deal with the United Kingdom because they have product that we like,” Trump said. “I mean they have a lot of great product. They make phenomenal things, you know, and you have different names—you can say ‘England,’ you can say ‘U.K.,’ you can say ‘United Kingdom’ . . . the fact is you make great product, you make great things. Even your farm product is so fantastic.”

    It’s official: the President is the stupidest client on every sales rep’s contact list.

  97. 97.

    A Ghost To Most

    @OzarkHillbilly: I have no problem with clover in a lawn. I wonder if it would take the dry we get here? I’m thinking about setting up a beehive; clover would be a plus for honey.

  99. 99.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Sister Golden Bear:
    I want to add my best wishes to you for a smooth and successful surgery, and my thanks for your clear explanations and insights into what the transition entails (I never thought about the facial reconstruction, for instance). If you feel up to it, I hope you’ll continue to comment during your weeks of recovery (and of course when you return home!)

    Good luck to you!

  100. 100.

    FlyingToaster

    @scav: I grow both types as well; for the neighbors, I call the ones in the ground “perrenial” geraniums, and the scented ones in the pots “annuals”. The perennials work great as ground cover in partially shaded areas (hence, the street corner under the dogwood and sweetspurs), and the scenteds are grand in the flower pots out front plus the parsley pot on the patio. But the pelargoniums can’t survive a Bwahstin Wintah.

  103. 103.

    Gelfling 545

    Lovely garden. The hydrangea is stunning and I have made a not to self to use more crane’s bill.
    Speaking of hydrangea does anyone know ehat would cause bigleaf hydrangea to stop blooming? My daighter has 4 and 3 have not bloomed for 2 seasons now. They were planted by the previous owner and bloomed regularly for the first few years they lived there. My research has come up with nothing about mature plants suddenly ceasing to bloom that would effect some but not all of a group in the same location.

  107. 107.

    JPL

    @japa21: His grandfather was born in Germany, so why lie about his own father. I assume that Trump no longer knows the truth.

  111. 111.

    scav

    @FlyingToaster: My scenteds can’t even survive a Northwestern wintah, although I managed to overwinter mine this year in the garage successfully (not sure that would have flown for the traditional Chicago cold spell). I might very well steal your annual v. perennial trick.

  113. 113.

    Mnemosyne

    @Percysowner:

    One of the British papers pointed out that the outfit that QEII wore was the same one she wore for an anniversary of the European Union — it’s the same blue as the EU flag.

    That’s her opinion of Brexit right there.

  115. 115.

    Mnemosyne

    @Sister Golden Bear:

    The surgeon here operates five days a week, and does enough patients that a hotel next to his clinic reserves for two floors for his patients

    As I’m sure you know, with any kind of surgery it’s always best to see the doctor who does successfully it all the time, so it sounds like you made a good choice. I hope the surgery goes smoothly and you heal well woth your new aftermarket parts. ?

  116. 116.

    J R in WV

    @debbie:

    Good god. His answers are incomprehensible.

    Yes. I suspect Mueller’s investigators attempting to have an interview with him would be useless! His baffle-gab would be non-responsive except for accidental off the cuff remarks.

    He doesn’t remember what he had for breakfast, much less what he knew about meetings with his Russian handlers back nearly two years ago now.

  118. 118.

    Elizabelle

    @ Opie Jeanne: Have scrolled through photos of your splendid garden (and cat) a few times now. Thank you for sharing.

    I really like the colors you’ve painted your outdoor furniture, too. You have an eye for color.

  121. 121.

    J R in WV

    OpieJeanne:

    Thanks for the photos. I will confess, I have not found the critter in that photo, yet.

    No, No, no clues, please, everyone, it’s like a puzzle now!

  124. 124.

    opiejeanne

    @JPL: It’s just under an acre. A horse acre, meaning about .8 of an acre.

    And the weeds are unrelenting this year. I had my second cataract surgery on July 3 and have been unable to deal with them since the end of May. No bending over from the waist for a month after each one, no lifting heavy stuff. And the heck of it is that NOW I CAN SEE ALL THE WEEDS!!!! And the dust in the house is terrible, because now I can see that too but I’m not supposed to mess with that either. I think I’ll put on Dave’s safety glasses and dustmop the house.

  125. 125.

    opiejeanne

    @OzarkHillbilly: Oh my gosh,, that is so perfect. although they have been a lot more polite in Angels stadium these past few years and it was the asshole RedSox fans who fit this description more recently. When we had season tickets, 1979-1981 (shared with three other couples) we used to sell the Yankees game tickets to friends because that’s the only time we saw drunken brawling in the seats, and those were not the cheap outfield seats.

  126. 126.

    No One You Know

    Pretty garden! Looks like a nice place to be.

    I’ve installed a foxglove corner tucked into the back fence corner, and a small border of yarrow for butterflies.

    I dropped some extra crocosmia corms in a light shade location last year, among the Siberian bugwort, and they have multiplied like crazy from all the extra water. The hummingbird traffic is fun to watch.

  127. 127.

    The Lodger

    @Sister Golden Bear: Best wishes for your surgery and a thorough recovery, and thanks for being willing to share what’s going on with you. I never suspected Thailand would have the best setup for that kind of procedure.

  128. 128.

    Mnemosyne

    @opiejeanne:

    I think I’ll put on Dave’s safety glasses and dustmop the house.

    Or, you know, hire a cleaning crew to come do it for you while you go out for some coffee. As I’m sure your husband and children would like me to remind you, that would be WAY cheaper than having to get your eyes re-done. ?

  129. 129.

    Sister Golden Bear

    Probably a dead thread, but just wanted to thank everyone again for the well wishes.

    @Elizabelle: Yes, Mom died two weeks ago. It has been a lot. Silver-lining is that everything happened while I was still there. Mom had wanted me to go ahead with the surgery — the waiting list is more than a year-and-a-half — and my worst fear was that she would die while I was here and unable to return.

    @SiubhanDuinne: I’ll probably be commenting more than usual, since I live near San Francisco and my day job is really busy, so normally I only get a chance to comment on the late-night threads. Though there’s likely to be radio silence from the 20th-27th while I’m in the hospital, since I’ll be on some pretty heavy pain killers.

Comments are closed.