Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

The words do not have to be perfect.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

Shut up, hissy kitty!

This really is a full service blog.

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

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

Disagreements are healthy; personal attacks are not.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

Not rolling over. fuck you, make me.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Not loving this new fraud based economy.

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

You are here: Home / Garden Chats / Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Spring *Will* Come!

Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Spring *Will* Come!

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From the gifted and gift-giving Ozark Hillbilly:

I won’t be around this wkend but the last 2 pictureless garden threads makes me think I should leave a little hope for all the folks still waiting for a little spring warmth, even if we still have snow on the ground here.

Saw someone digging out bushes in his front yard just yesterday. Of course, he was using a mattock, but I’m gonna consider it a sign of spring anyways…

What’s on the agenda in your garden (planning) this week?



Reader Interactions

157Comments

  1. 1.

    MagdaInBlack

    Wee bit windy in northwest Chicagoland. La Gordita*, my feline room-mate and I are enjoying the nocturnal peace.
    The crocus make me smile, thank you ?
    I am eagerly awaiting spring peepers.

    * name self-explanatory….she’s “fluffy.”

  2. 2.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    The housecat got me up for her middle-of-the-night snack. Not insomnia! Her jangly voice cannot be ignored.

    It was gray and dreary here in NoVA on Saturday, but today it’s supposed to get up into the mid-60s. It’s only 41° now, and raining a bit, although that seems to be ending. Should be a pleasant, sunny day. Sunrise not until 7:27; that will take some getting used to.

  5. 5.

    satby

    Good morning ?!
    @MagdaInBlack: very windy here too, but balmy, if your version of balmy is 37°. Mine is after the prolonged freeze we had.
    Have my seed starters planted and under small grow lights in my kitchen, but haven’t figured out where I want to hang the enormous higher intensity grow light yet. Basement is logical and easiest, but also cooler than the main floors. Decisions.

  6. 6.

    ola azul

    Boughtta cheap guitar from a buddy who can slap a box and make it sing. He hadda boat go down last July, but he’s back in the saddle and got another, excited to go fishing again. Me, I wanted to keep pecking away at Pachelbel’s Canon — if you can banish diamond commercials and smaltzy weddings from your brain-pan, it’sa (I think) lovely work and fun to (try’n) play.

    So me and Hank was playing scrabble, like two semi-old farts do of a Saturday night, guitar gently weeping for its unlucky stars to be stuck with a irreparable duffer, when Sitka treasure Lisa tells us in her thoughtful way (don’ wanna freak the regulars the fuck out onna unfounded rumor) that Irish Dave (a lovable asshole) was onna boat out in the western Gulf that went down. All hands survived. That were good news.

    ‘Member when I first come to Sitka as a boy, worked for a man that became a dear friend who, of a morn onna 50-knot blow-day n tied smartly and smugly to the dock, got rather pie-eyed with a buddy of his as they made a coupla lists. Me, not realizing, only eventually surmised that the twin lists were peeps they knew whose boat went down, and peeps they knew who din’t make it.

    It’s a little weird that all these years later, I got my own twin lists, but, live long enough, all kinda strange shit is bound to o’ertake ya.

    Was it Yogi who said, don’ look back, they might be gaining?

  7. 7.

    JeanneT

    Thank you for the crocuses – they do make me feel like spring is closer. And my garden seed order came in the mail yesterday. This week I’ll be building some grow light shelves and be getting the gear together to start some seedlings. I’m pretty excited about finding a heritage cross tomato that may have good disease resistance AND taste yummy. Won’t know till August, but if it’s good I’ll let you all know.

  10. 10.

    Raven

    @ola azul: So a couple of weeks back I went down to Melbourne Beach with a buddy and his son. His brother, same aged Nam vet as me, has a nice 23 footer and does NOTHING but fish and smoke dope. The cold front knocked down the snook fishin but we went at it hard anyway. Ever been to Seabastian inlet?

  11. 11.

    ola azul

    @Raven:

    Ha! Funny you asks.

    My addled recollection (and to this day I ain’t just sure what happent), I ‘member waddling inna fucked-up state a mind (Billy Joel song?) across a grated bridge, I think we wuz trespassing but as I sez, I ain’t exactly sure, and throwing an undersized cast net at mullet ’bout 15 feet below the bridge, and then seeing a sea-snake come moseying upriver that were, in my impressionable state, exquisitely beautiful and immoderately immense. I *think* that were real, but, as I sez, it were a night.

    Will say, onna more concrete empirically verifiable note, got coupla cracker buddies that is fisht the jetty at Sebastian there for years, specially during the mullet run in autumn, and done spectacular on reds and snook.

    Will confess, am jonesing for some Florida.

  14. 14.

    ola azul

    @Raven:

    Thank you.

    Am glad to know, but must confess feel an ass to a forgot it’s Satchel Paige.

    What’s left a me ain’t what usedta was.

  15. 15.

    ola azul

    @Raven:

    Curious about the pot-smoking.

    Were the boys gone with the wind or up in smoke?

    Course it were decriminalized up here for years and now it’s legal, but will sez, fwiw, gotta lotta friends who burn. But, to a person, they is functional. Highly (ahem) functional.

    In marked contradistinction to alcohol, which not only makes folks stupid and aggro, but tends to get them killt in these parts.

    Were your friends functional?

    (It’sa nosey question, no worries if you wanna decline.)

  16. 16.

    NotMax

    @zhena gogolia

    Personal all-time favorite Russian proverb:

    It’s a long walk to the church, and the roads are icy.
    It’s a longer walk to the tavern, but I’ll be careful.

  18. 18.

    NotMax

    @ola azul

    Saw it in the theater at the time of first U.S. release. Trippy as all get out. Contra the critics, I place it high on the Fellini list.

  20. 20.

    CarolDuhart2

    Is winter over yet? Have we had the last polar vortex? We are starting the week with ’50’s and 60’s. but its gloomy all over. And we have one day this week where the low is going to be 19. Feeling cooped up in this house with all the rain. It’s not so much cold anymore, it’s the wet, wind, and grayness.
    This is the first winter I’m feeling somewhat gray and better. Last winter I was busy waiting for everything-my pension, assistance-but I was still kind of draggy due to lingering sinus. In short, I was tired, too tired to feel winter gloom. Plus, I was still thinking I would go back to work somehow. (I was a seasonal for a long time, and I was used to thinking of callbacks)

  21. 21.

    Steeplejack

    I’m looking for cat litter recommendations. I’ve used Fresh Step for years, but it seems like they’ve changed the formula recently, because the last few bags have clumped up in a weird way—like sticky clay. No bueno.

    I tried a bag of Yesterday’s News, made from recycled paper, but neither the housecat nor I liked that (for different reasons!). We want something that works like the “old” Fresh Step.

  22. 22.

    ola azul

    @NotMax:

    How can one not adore the ecclesiastical catwalk?

    Or the anguish and heartrending loss of the new-found subterranean frescos?

    Or the sex-workers who ain’t got time for yer piss-ant shit, it’s closing time don’cha know!

    It’s wild, eccentric, idiosyncratic, expressive and, in its way, sexy-ugly-beautiful. If that ain’t art, then art can go fuck itself.

  24. 24.

    Gin & Tonic

    @CarolDuhart2:

    Is winter over yet?

    I’m looking out the window and it’s snowing, and there’s a foot of old snow on the ground, so I’d say “no.”

  25. 25.

    satby

    The neighbor’s outdoor cat, who we both had assumed dead, is back. He was out eating the dregs of dry kibble and I was able to bring him a new can of wet food. He’s been living rough, but his leg seems to have healed.
    Now to try again to trap him and get him neutered. His “owner” might help, but if not I’ll do it myself.

  26. 26.

    satby

    @Steeplejack: I never liked Fresh Step. My current favorite ones are Tidy Cat lightweight, Cat’s Pride Lighweight, or Arm and Hammer Clump and Seal (which works great).
    I have to go with what’s on sale since I go through about 40-50lbs a week, but one of those three usually is.

  30. 30.

    zhena gogolia

    @Steeplejack:

    Oh, that’s bad news. I always used Fresh Step too — we haven’t had cats for a year, but we’re hoping to adopt this spring. So I’m interested in what you learn.

    I hate “clumping” litter!

  31. 31.

    zhena gogolia

    @Steeplejack:

    So has “clumping” taken over the world? I hate it!!!!!

    This is the worst thing about growing old. Excellent, reliable products you’ve used for years just disappear, and no one else seems to notice.

  33. 33.

    Raven

    @ola azul: that be the joint! The brother worked at Whitey’s and is family enough that he just takes his bucket behind the counter, fills it with shrimp and hats up.

  34. 34.

    debbie

    @zhena gogolia:

    No cats or litter issues here, but I agree about perfectly reliable things disappearing. I hate it, mostly because I feel like I’m becoming my mother or grandmother, who used to complain about changes they didn’t think were for the better.

  35. 35.

    ola azul

    Aleta:

    Not sure if you’ll get this but: In my meager defense, did try’n get name and more info of woman who give the scintillatin’ talk on whale forage predation. Radio silence. Ain’t heard back. If do, will pass on.

    Lo siento.

  37. 37.

    Raven

    @ola azul: I guess, they were always losing their keys and shit like that. When we were on the bay triple tail fishin he had me up on the bow flipping a jigged shrimp at the posts on the markers. When he decided to move he had me grab the anchor rope and he hauled ass to the next marker. I figured if I died it would be doin what I loved but it may not have been the best judgment. What miffed me is when we got there at my pal whipped out a big jar of bud for his bro. I drove from Athens to Valdosta while they slept and was bookin on 75. I might have gone a little slower if I had known there was herb and a piece in the car. Then again maybe it was better that i didn’t know.

  39. 39.

    satby

    @zhena gogolia: seriously? Clumping is easier to clean, the lightweight is easier to tote, and Fresh Step was the only litter I tried once and never again because the cats tracked it everywhere. Now that was probably 15 years ago, so maybe you’re talking about some different formula, but I had such a bad experience with it I refuse to buy it even on sale. Obviously, YMMV.

  40. 40.

    satby

    @debbie: ??!
    The only old thing I miss is the heavy black landline phones, because they were indestructible. Most of the changes seem to me to be improvements.

  42. 42.

    Sab

    I pied ola azul for long- winded trollishness. I’m okay with long posts.I can ignore guys I disagree with. I just hate the combo.

    Was that a mistake?

    I only have 3 people pied. I keep them that way because whoever wrote the pie-filter comments was brilliant, and I can’t believe the actual comments are better.

  45. 45.

    Steeplejack

    @zhena gogolia:

    I’ll let you know what I find out.

    Fresh Step always clumped, I guess, but the “clumps” were small and dry and could be scooped out easily. I don’t know what the change is, but now the urine mixes with the litter to form something similar to artist’s clay—sticky and hard to deal with.

    I know what you mean about product changes. I always feel like it’s some cost-cutting business decision.

    “Hey, boss, if we cut the amount of absorbium by just 1 percent we’ll increase the profit margin by 3 percent!”

    “What does R&D say?”

    “The tests say, ‘No substantial difference.'”

    “Do it!”

    And of course none of them have cats and in a year will be wondering why they lost market share. Bad marketing, no doubt.

  46. 46.

    Amir Khalid

    @satby:
    They were simple and robust electromechanical devices. Not quite as versatile and portable as today’s technological marvels, but they never once failed to work.

  49. 49.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    because of daylight savings time? Did I miss some big fight

    Not that I’m aware of, but you may have just started one by incorrectly referring to Daylight Saving Time.

  51. 51.

    Sab

    @Steeplejack: I don’t do kitty litter but my spouse (crazy cat guy who made us adopt 5 cats) swears by liteweight scoopable Purina.

    Cat number 5 disagrees. He only pees on puppy pads in a particular corner of the kitchen. If he doesn’t have a puppy pad in the appropriate corner he pees where-ever, on the floor, on the counter, on tables, wherever the other cats upset him. He is okay with pooping on Purina, and the other 4 are okay with the whole Purina in the litterbox program.

    I personally despise anything that smells (stinks) of Febreeze, but that’s just me and I am not a cat.

  53. 53.

    Sab

    @debbie: I mostly agree with you but a couple of trolls were so long–winded and pointless that I got tired of scrolling past their long long comments.

  54. 54.

    ola azul

    @Sab:

    Think it’s absurdly funny that you ask for help in determining if your reflexive reaction is well-founded. Go you! Can never be too sure when banishing all contaminants!

    Also think it’s funny (and a little sad) how you speak of me as tho I weren’t a real person, but rather someone who must be negotiated and dealt with. Were you to consider this reaction from another perspective, you might find it a wee bit unwelcoming.

    Look, go and God be with you, or not, just as you please.

    What I would ask of you (a big ask, I realize!), is consider how you might deal with this person to whom you confess to be flummoxed, if said individual was an actual human being. Or, say, you. You might, in fact, feel differently.

    Will say: You don’t gotta like how I write or think. That’s OK!

    But it’sa purty long stretch to call someone a troll just cuz you can’t be bothered.

  55. 55.

    Amir Khalid

    @Sab:
    I have considered pieing ola azul/poleaxedbyboatwork for his wilfully bad writing. His prolixity and indulgence in rustic affectation make him very hard to read, and it feels like what I get from his comments is never quite worth the effort.

  56. 56.

    MomSense

    I am envious of your lovely crocuses, Ozark. It’s more of a blech weather day here. It’s about to snow again.

  57. 57.

    Steeplejack

    @satby:

    Fifteen years is a long time ago. I like Fresh Step because the granules are large and the housecat doesn’t track them around, and there’s very little dust. But a few months ago the granules got finer, almost like sand, and that’s when I started noticing the problem. After the Yesterday’s News experiment I found a bag of Fresh Step with the large granules, and I thought the problem would be solved. But no such luck.

    ETA: I feel like there’s a blog or Reddit area where I’m missing out on a deep technical discussion of this issue. Probably with solutions. LOL.

  59. 59.

    Ohio Mom

    @CarolDuhart2: What weather forecast are you looking at? I went to weather.com and they don’t have any Cincinnati temps below freezing for the next ten days — okay, it is predicted to get down to 34 once or twice but that’s still not freezing.

    But yes, the gray damp is getting to me too. And I am tired of wearing layers of heavy clothes.

    Big, predictable hullabaloo here at the Ohio Family household this morning. Ohio Son would not get out of bed in time for his job at the synagogue religious school. The spring time change is hard to adjust to.

    Ohio Dad drove him anyway. I suspect Son is getting the “I’m very disappointed” treatment from the Rabbi as I type. I wish I could get over feeling embarrassed and responsible for Son’s screwups. Just because he’s autistic doesn’t mean he has no agency.

  60. 60.

    Steeplejack

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    I think it’s the time change. I was surprised to weigh in at #2 a half hour after the first comment, and then there was only one more comment for almost an hour.

    I don’t remember any big blog blow-up. (No more than usual, that is.)

  64. 64.

    NotMax

    Too early yet for it to bloom, but does anyone still grow lily of the valley in their gardens? Always was a visual favorite when used for borders, there’s just something modestly cheerful about them.

  66. 66.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Steeplejack: There was an interesting story, somebody may have linked it here, or it may even have been a real post, about some scientist in Iowa, immigrant from China, who through some completely random set of circumstances befriended Charles Barkley, who then showed up at the guy’s funeral to pay his respects. The scientist had spent some 20 years or more working on cat litter.

    I’m too lazy to look it up.

  69. 69.

    Sab

    @Amir Khalid: So I pied the same guy twice for the same reason. Question answered, maybe.

    I did pie one of the beloved regulars because called me a troll and then lied about my participation as a commenter when I was being an asshole to another beloved regular.

    He was right to call me out as an asshole, but I have a major issue with his absolutely blatant lie about how long I’ve been commenting here. Made me doubt every “fact” he has ever cited, because he was 10 years off on that one. I used to believe what he said.

  72. 72.

    ola azul

    Will say: Some folks here are the most hidebound conformist chickenshits fate ever pissed on.

    Pie me. Do. Not. Care.

    Tried to be nice, y’all don’ wanna let me be me, OK.

    Go fuck yourselves.

    (Will say it’s an innerestng distinction w/a difference: a person can *act* like an asshole, under certain circumstances, but not *be* an asshole. Like the diff betwixt ser and estar in espanol, permanence vs. conditional. In any event, think some folks is acting like an asshole. Hadda bellyful, go fuck yourselves.)

    Have a nice day!

  74. 74.

    Gelfling 545

    @Steeplejack: We started having problems with litter “clumping” into one litter pan sized clump. Here though the problem seems to be the cat who we judge to be in the 20 year age range is peeing a whole lot more. I’ve gone back to non clumping and just changing it frequently. Seems to be working better for us.

  77. 77.

    NotMax

    Turning to the more serious,

    Heavily armed assailants again attacked an Ebola treatment centre in the heart of eastern Congo’s deadly outbreak on Saturday, with one police officer killed and health workers injured, authorities said, while frightened patients waited in isolation rooms for the gunfire to end.
    [snip]
    The attack occurred hours before the World Health Organization director-general and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director visited the centre, which remained open. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus encouraged workers to continue their fight against the second-deadliest Ebola outbreak in history, which is spreading in a region compared to a war zone. Source

  80. 80.

    Gin & Tonic

    @debbie: Does anybody know what these are? Very low-growing, cover the forest floor and bloom early, before the leaves come out. This was outside Stockholm in the first week of May. They are not planted, rather naturally occurring.

  81. 81.

    burnspbesq

    Winter temps appear to have fled Austin just in time for SxSW. No frozen hipsters stacked like cordwood on every street corner downtown. A couple of bluebonnets popping out by the base of the mailbox. Not bad.

  83. 83.

    Steeplejack

    @Gelfling 545:

    I thought about whether the housecat (age about 18½) was peeing more, but the change in the litter was relatively sudden, and she got a clean bill of health at the vet’s in early January. Either way, I need to fix the litter problem, so I’ll try the suggestions here.

  84. 84.

    WaterGirl

    @Gin & Tonic: Decades ago I returned home from work to find that my “helpful” neighbor had planted a bunch of lilies of the valley in my round bed out front. On top of all my tulips, so of course the tulips never came up again and the lilies of the valley took over the entire bed and then moved into the grass.

    The scent is lovely for the week or so that they bloom, and then it ruined the bed for the other 7 or 8 months when other stuff could have been blooming.

    About 7 years ago, I finally paid someone to dig up every last one of them.

  86. 86.

    StringOnAStick

    @Sab: He’s not a troll, he just writes the way he hears his cohort talk; doesn’t bother we because I grew up with a D worked around that accent my whole life. I like what he writes a d in going to miss him now that his friendliness has been met with hate and derision. I thought this place was more welcoming than that.

  87. 87.

    WaterGirl

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Why would you do that? It’s inexplicable. Why would you do that IN SOMEONE ELSE’S YARD? Maddening. And she did it to be nice, so I had to say thank you. grrr

  88. 88.

    ola azul

    @Steeplejack

    Will say it’s interesting that you act like Major Sanderson.

    (Apparently I’m to conform to your chickenshit criteria or wither under your hypocritical glare.)

  90. 90.

    MomSense

    @NotMax:

    I don’t grow them, but there are lots of them in the wooded areas all around Maine. In the woods near my house I have seen white, pink, and yellow ones.

    They are very poisonous so I think it’s best to appreciate them in the wild.

  91. 91.

    tybee

    the style of writing doesn’t make the text flow well and does seem contrived but generally the information is worth reading.

  92. 92.

    Immanentize

    @NotMax: I have Lilly of the Valley in my yard/garden. It was on a pebbly slope that was shaded by a white pine and a hemlock. They thrived and we’re thick and beautiful. I had to take those two trees down and the LoV burnt up. So last year I moved a bunch of the culms to a shadier spot and moved the volunteer roses I dug up to the sunny slope. Results will be reported in two – three months.

  94. 94.

    Steeplejack

    @debbie, @zhena gogolia:

    I still remember when they changed the bars of Dial soap to be “blanks.” Must’ve been sometime in the ’80s. They used to have “Dial” etched on one side and a dial logo etched on the other. Bugged me unreasonably when they changed. LOL.

  95. 95.

    debbie

    @Steeplejack:

    Have you noticed that now they make the bottom of the bar concave, so you’re really getting less? That’s the kind of changing that I hate.

  96. 96.

    scav

    @Gin & Tonic: Those are the lilies I’ve helped manage in two gardens. Was a bigger plot in the other one, where they could properly express themselves and their tenacious nature.
    First Siberian Squill bloomed here yesterday (coastal upper left).

  98. 98.

    Immanentize

    Report from Texas +- Nice and warm 70s/80s. But kinda grey and spitting. The In-laws say it was wet the whole winter. But they never had a hard freeze, which is good because they have a couple of very cool bamboos.

    The Immp, ever helpful and working off some teenage energy, took a hoe to the many large fire ant mounds around the yard. Today, we will do it again, but this time add Andro. Those bastids never die completely, but you can maintain the wire line.

  99. 99.

    Gin & Tonic

    @ola azul: Not to “conform to chickenshit criteria.” It’s a simple matter that, even though you clearly can write well in “standard” American English, you choose not to, for whatever reasons. People here have told you they don’t like to read what you write and skip over it (as I generally do) or pie you. Some people have risen to your defense. Whatever. You’ve obviously decided that you don’t want to reach everyone, and to actively annoy some. Speaking only for myself, the minute I see that affected “jargon” I move on. There may be, as tybee says, something worthwhile there, but I’m not going to dig for it. That’s all.

  107. 107.

    Daniel'sBob

    @Gin & Tonic: Yup. I love it when it’s isolated in its own bed…tends to choke out other desirable plants otherwise. Unfortunately it can’t always choke out quackgrass and silver maple seedlings and I have an abundance of both.

  109. 109.

    schrodingers_cat

    @zhena gogolia: Its pretty easy to do that. There is smaller box under the comment box, that says Pie filter, in it you type the name that you want to put in the filter and then click on the Add button.

    ETA: I don’t pie people on my laptop but have several nervous and negative Nellies pied on my phone, as I don’t want to read their lamentations the first thing in the morning about how we are all doomed.

  110. 110.

    ola azul

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Sometimes I do write proper, and sometimes I don’t. And sometimes I mix proper with improper. Cuz it pleases me. If I “actively annoy” some, then ain’t that what the pie filter is for? Or must you be out-fucking-landishly *performative* in yer outrage?

    I find it astounding that it matters so much to so many to make me conform to your chickenshit expectations, but there it is.

    To the extent the chickenshit dogpile will cease, and persons like yourself do not affectedly come forth to expound, at length and in great detail, why I ain’t worth reading, then yes, Gin & Tonic, it’d be great if you held your piece.

    If you can’t, then we’ll tangle, that’s all.

    Because: I make a point of not picking through your, or anyone’s, droppings, which are not uniformly perfect, and sometimes even stink, perhaps much to your astonishment.

  111. 111.

    Steeplejack

    @ola azul:

    You don’ have to conform to nuttin’, pardner. You do you. Nobody’s censoring you or telling you to go away. You’re just experiencing feedback on your chosen rhetorical style. Which you seem to jettison when you really want to make a point.

  112. 112.

    The Pale Scot

    Idris Elba as;

    While working at his lab located above a Tory Burch, Dr. Bruce Banner was hit with gamma radiation in a failed experiment — causing him to transform into an emboldened white lady whenever he is provoked. He is The Impossible Hulk,” the narrator said.

  114. 114.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @debbie: I haven’t pied anyone. I just move past. I figure it’s also good practice for real life.

    @zhena gogolia:
    Yup, an increasing number of people I just ignore these days. And primary season has barely begun!

  116. 116.

    RAVEN

    @ola azul: We have people who seem to do nothing but post links all the time. Some people talk about musical instruments like they are family and some people have specific things they are interested in. Who gives a fuck? Do what you like.

  121. 121.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I try to leave politics out of the garden threads– even though I find it really bizarre that a political blog pretty much never has a political thread on Sunday mornings when there is pretty much always an avalanche of political news but I should GMOFB– but this is such a chef’s kiss of both “bipartisanship/my good Republican friend” and “mavericky Republicans”

    Dave Weigel @ daveweigel
    Beto O’Rourke famously didn’t help out Will Hurd’s opponent in 2018. Hurd famously separated himself from Trump.

    And so, on CNN today, Hurd said he’d vote for Trump for president over Beto.

  123. 123.

    SiubhanDuinne

    On a somber note: I’m hearing that pretty much the entire Canadian delegation to the UN Environment/Climate Conference in Nairobi were among the victims on that Ethiopian Air crash.

    Looking at the mix of nationalities on board, I’m guessing several countries have lost some of their finest scientific minds and policy professionals. It’s a huge human tragedy, of course, but it’s also a huge blow to the planet, the loss of so much brainpower.

    ETA:

    The airline said Flight 302 was carrying passengers from at least 35 countries. The dead included 32 Kenyans, 18 Canadians, nine Ethiopians, eight each from the United States, China and Italy, and seven each from France and Britain, the airline said.

  125. 125.

    CarolDuhart2

    @Ohio Mom: I was looking at a now revised extended forecast, which is why they call it weather, not prophecy. In any event, I see a 71 on Thursday! Damp, but I’ll take it, and hopefully I can put away my heavy coat for good now. I have other coats, a trench with lining, and a barn coat. And last night I wore my Land’s End jacket with the hoodie without any problems besides the rain.

    I’m going through an organizing frenzy-ordering little boxes, trying to get rid of wornout furniture, getting a new furnace/air conditioner, and so much more.

  127. 127.

    TomatoQueen

    re: cat litter: Luca Who Will Have Your Hand Off at the Shoulder likes Naturally Fresh, made from walnut shells; it is pretty much dustless unlike others that pretend to be so and aren’t, but it does one very weird thing, which is leave enough of a residue on his fur so that he leaves a noticeable brown stain on any light-colored fabric, especially his blankie.
    re: Lily of the Valley: in spite of their lovely fragrance, they don’t bloom long enough to be worth the effort and need shade, otherwise the remaining leaves burn up in summer, and can’t compete against English ivy for spreading. I hate English ivy.

  128. 128.

    MomSense

    @RAVEN:

    Last night notmax pointed me to tubi – a free channel on roku. They are showing The Rolling Stones docu-concert Sweet Summer Sun – Live From Hyde Park. It’s really good and I think you will enjoy it. Mick Taylor joins them for a few songs and Bobby Keyes plays so well. It’s also fun to see all the fans of all ages having fun together. There are commercials but it’s worth watching.

  131. 131.

    MomSense

    @schrodingers_cat:

    I don’t think Beto believes the Republicans will ever play nice just like I don’t think Obama ever thought they would, either. Voters still believe that zombie lie so politicians will keep saying it to get elected. The villagers still both sides everything so Democratic politicians will keep saying they want to work with their Republican colleagues to get elected.

  132. 132.

    Kay

    Australia’s former foreign minister Julie Bishop says she was mistaken for the spouse of a politician by US First Lady Melania Trump, in her latest comments on the subordinate role of women in conservative politics

    @lourdesgnavarro
    Follow Follow @lourdesgnavarro
    “Melania, standing by, assumed David was the foreign minister and she said to me: ‘Julie, will you be coming to my ladies’ lunch tomorrow?,”
    “And I said ‘No, David’s going to the partners’ lunch’.
    “So this went on until the president explained that I was the foreign minister.”

    So David’s going to the “ladies lunch”.

  135. 135.

    J R in WV

    @ola azul:

    I actually think your comments are interesting and not usually terribly trollish, but your country boy put on accent is so terrible, and I say this as a person who had neighbors who spoke Elizabethan English because they nor their parents nor grandparents ever left their holler, I can’t bear to endure it.

    Plus it rubs me the wrong way as it does not seem like you grew up with it, but are putting it on for some strange purpose. You would have time for twice as much interesting commentary if you quit and went back to common speech.

  136. 136.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @MomSense: Voters still believe that zombie lie so politicians will keep saying it to get elected.

    Yup, I try to just take deep breaths when I hear (I think it was Gillibrand?) a Dem say “I passed a bill with Ted Cruz! I can work with anybody!” And polls tend to show its our side who want goo-goo buzzwords– civility, cooperation– more than theirs

  137. 137.

    Steeplejack

    @J R in WV:

    My friend in Las Vegas uses Feline Pine for her three cats and swears by it, but I’m not sure how the housecat would like it. She was leery of the Yesterday’s News pellets (similar in size to Feline Pine).

    Cats are weird. ?

    ETA: Man, that’s a fugly cat emoticon. Looks like some little rat-dog. And not what appeared on my edit screen.

  138. 138.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @schrodingers_cat: he should have helped Hurd’s D opponent.

    Yup, “Will Hurd is a friend of mine, Will Hurd is a great patriot, but Paul Ryan and Kevin McCarthy have enabled President Trump’s worst excesses and the tax bill that….”

  139. 139.

    Kay

    Pretty crocus, Ozark. I don’t plant them because I can’t bear the short stem and delicate foliage with the heavy flower. I would like them if they were a little flower. I must have symmetry :)

  140. 140.

    Just One More Canuck

    @Steeplejack: I can’t believe I’m in a discussion about cat litter
    I find Costco’s house brand (Qualicat?) works pretty well – it’s unscented and scoops up easily. We tried one of those recycled newspaper litters once and I wanted to go buy a new litter box rather than deal with the mess

  142. 142.

    Steeplejack

    @Just One More Canuck:

    Hey, it was a slow thread and I provided a topic. Win-win!

    Thanks for the input. My impression of the Yesterday’s News pellets was sort of the same. It didn’t seem as absorbent, urine was collecting at the bottom, and I had to change the box completely more often.

  144. 144.

    debbie

    @Gin & Tonic:

    It’s got nothing to do with any so-called chicken shit criteria. It’s broadcasting (one-way) vs. communication (two-way). Twitter seems more appropriate for broadcasting, where everyone talks past each other, not to each other.

  146. 146.

    Steeplejack

    @schrodingers_cat:

    I know that emojis appear differently on different devices, but some of the differences are huge. I was mortified when the sort of hipster (I thought) wolf face I used texting on my Android phone with a friend a few times came back in a screen capture (from her iPhone) as a clownish joke. Major self-pwn.

  147. 147.

    Sab

    @Kay: I hired goats to trim my yard, They were fucking awesomely adorable.

    Now I have to figure out if any of my perrenials survivied the goat clearing. They were awesomely cute, but they ate everything.

  149. 149.

    Ohio Mom

    @CarolDuhart2: 71! That sounds lovely, doesn’t it?

    The closest I’m getting to cleaning and organizing at the moment is reading “The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning.”

    It’s roughly the Scandinavian version of Marie Kondo, though with an emphasis on “Don’t leave this work for your grieving loved ones,” and “Who could use this item?” rather than “Does this spark joy?”

    Eventually I hope to be inspired enough to do what you are doing .

  150. 150.

    MahdaInBlack

    @ola azul:
    Not the least roubled by your “writing style of the day”
    More troubled by un-necessary nitpicking over it.

  151. 151.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Ohio Mom: It’s roughly the Scandinavian version of Marie Kondo, though with an emphasis on “Don’t leave this work for your grieving loved ones,” and “Who could use this item?” rather than “Does this spark joy?”

    LOL. Much more suited to my personality, but then I would start thinking, “the little ingrates are getting my house, is too much to ask that they clean it out before they sell it?” I’ve been trying to get an early start on spring cleaning all weekend. Not succeeding.

  153. 153.

    sgrAstar

    @Sab: I can’t believe you’re restarting the pileup on poleaxed/ola azul. Not one of BJ’s finest moments, in my opinion. At this point it’s more about you than about him.

  154. 154.

    LivinginExile

    I ran a shelter for a few years. 25 litter boxes to clean twice a day. We were always short on money and litter is expensive. I started using chicken feed for litter. Main ingredient was corn, it smelled good, and would clump the urine. It was in small pellet forrm, 11 dollars for a 50 lb bag.

  155. 155.

    Aleta

    @Gin & Tonic: They look like what my mother called mayapples when she saw them in the woods in early spring. Wiki says mayapples are Podophyllum.

  157. 157.

    Gin & Tonic

    @WaterGirl: As I said above, everything I read convinced me that these were, in fact, Anemone nemorosa. But thanks to all who chimed in.

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