From diligent gardener & faithful correspondent Marvel:
We are finally seeing warm Spring weather here in the Willamette Valley. Sunny, clear, high-60s & low-70s — a perfect time to get out there and tempt every speck of pollen to do its worst. Me? Pegging 11 on the allergy scale today.
The ornamental gardens are doing well, with striking colors just waiting for a bit of sunlight to burst into flame. Cases in point: a monster-sized camellia out front has lately offered up its Big Red Bounty — tall enough to catch the evening rays that sneak over a nearby hill.
There’s another giant out back: a big rhody fence between our yard and our neighbor’s. The blooms atop this pink wall are briefly backlight by the climbing morning sun.
And by the front walk, a small, delicately-colored azalea shines bright outside the breakfast room.
The grafted pear tree we planted last year is in bloom (first up: Anjou) and looking healthy – yay.
Our small gated garden, built last year behind a veritable stockade (against the roving bands of deer hereabout), has undergone a difficult & unwanted rebirth: Last year, as I began reconditioning the soil for their first Fall planting, I found that the beds were totally root-bound after having produced only modest Summer crops. These roots, consuming nearly every square inch of soil therein, had nothing to do with what we planted and had not developed from flown/blown-in seeds during the brief (& row-covered) growing season. Apparently, the custom soil blend we ordered was faulty, likely a problem with compost that had not been properly “cooked.”We ended up removing & replacing all that soil a couple of weeks ago. Hope spring eternal, huh?
***********
An empty ‘tomb’, waiting for resurrection, seems theologically appropriate to the season and the holiday.
Here north of Boston, the white daffodils have sprung up very lush… but not floriferous, unfortunately. Think they need to be dug & divided, come Fall.
Finally got around to calling this year’s mail-order tomato list to my favorite mail-order supplier, who sounded a little harried. She said they’d been getting ‘at least four times as many orders’ this year as last, so I guess people are either panicked about supply lines or just expect to have more time around the yard this summer!
What’s going on in your garden (planning), this week?
NotMax
A slightly moderne take on the flowers of spring.
;)
OzarkHillbilly
An envy to the eye, Marvel.
NotMax
And an Easter tradition.
:)
JPL
Beautiful.
Baud
Very nice set of Easter pics.
OzarkHillbilly
Listening to Neil Young’s Harvest for the first time in decades. A little surprised that I still know the words to all the songs.
raven
@JPL: Big blow comin
imdb.com/title/tt0040506/mediaviewer/rm66614272?ft0=name&fv0=nm0351067&ft1=image_type&…
JPL
@raven: The stronger storms aren’t until overnight. I’m glad that the city is equipped with sirens, but hopefully they won’t be needed.
NotMax
@OzarkHilbilly
Did someone say Neil Young?
NotMax
@raven
Hunker in da bunker.
Hoping, weather willing, today get to tearing apart what remains of the little shed protecting the water heater behind the cottage now that all the prep work on the new materials is done. In my prime, could probably get the whole thing disassembled and properly rebuilt in one day. Now, expecting two or possibly three partial days, proceeding until arthritic hands or wonky knees and legs give out. When the bod says “Stop!” I listen.
satby
Beautiful as always Marvel! My rhododendron is just beginning to bloom in time for three days of overnight hard freezes ?
I have two Northern Lights azaleas that have struggled along for three years where I planted them. Debating moving them this year to a less shaded area, maybe over by the rhody bush instead because it’s doing a lot better than they are. I’ve never had luck with azaleas though I’ve seen beautiful specimens in the area.
NotMax
@satby
Ever considered mountain laurel? Might thrive in your clime. Parents’ house had a gigundo one in the front yard, torn out when the new property owners pulled down the house and built an exceedingly blah McMansion.
Nelle
We’re due some snow and high winds later today in Iowa. A chilly week approaching. Warmer weather on my big front porch last week gave me a nice break. We’ve been here a year now, but I don’t have a seasonal rhythm for the place. It’s only a three and a half hour drive from where we moved from but seems quite different.
Also, I have a contrapunto seasonal beat from my years in New Zealand, where Easter was an autumnal holiday. I totally missed putting in daffodils last October.
We have a little barren patch of backyard lawn, running into other barren backyards. I’m hoping to put in two, maybe three trees, and about five bushes (I’ll need to hire someone to wrangle purchasing and planting). I’m more resolved after a small hawk feasted on one of the finches at the feeder; there just isn’t enough cover for quick escape. Then I need space for iris and peonies. And zinnias.
satby
@NotMax: I will look at that, thanks!
Steeplejack
Hmm, the commenting pattern seems a little askew this morning. Usually people are primed for the open thread, but apparently not this morning. East Coasters playing slugabed? More action in the COVID-19 thread.
It’s gray and gloomy in Threadkill Lane this morning. Temp 46° but allegedly going up to 70° later. Fits my mood. I got into a bit of a diminuendo last night thinking about how the coronavirus is going to cause long-term changes in our society. But I’ll save that for a more appropriate thread.
For now, I’ll say that I have been enjoying the weather when I have been getting out in amateur Uber mode every day. Beautiful weather, even when it was cold and blustery earlier this week. Felt like the March weather we actually missed in March here in NoVA. And everything is in bloom!
ETA: And now I see that people have started to arrive here. Good morning, all! ?
NotMax
@satby
raven
@NotMax: I have a snake and tornado phobic person over here.
Steeplejack
Now I can’t get this song out of my head, so I will inflict it on everyone else: Spanky and Our Gang, “Sunday Will Never Be the Same.”
Chaser: “Like to Get to Know You.” Much more my favorite.
NotMax
@raven
Snakenado!
:)
satby
@NotMax: I see a pretty one that is a possibility, but the spot is too shady. I think that’s why the azaleas are struggling too, it’s the north side of the house and gets reasonable sun only for a couple of hours in high summer. Even the astilbe planted here aren’t thriving. Once the spring bulbs greenery has died back I may need to dig everything out and start over on that side.
satby
@Steeplejack: I prefer them in reverse order ☺
But I solved the problem of my local classical station being overrun with religious programming on weekends (7th Day Adventist college) by switching to this streaming online.
raven
@Steeplejack:” I’d like to get to know you” is mine but the Garbage Man is still awesome
Another Illinois gal BTW.
Steeplejack
@NotMax:
Tornaconda! has a nice ring to it. I’d watch that, especially if it had Tara Reid.
NotMax
@Steeplejack
That brings back mixed memories. Why not alternate earworms?
Will raise you an Icthykoo Park. With a chaser of Tee Set.
:)
Steeplejack
@satby:
“I prefer them in reverse order.”
I can’t tell if you’re agreeing with me or not. I’m listening to “Like to Get to Know You” now, and the arrangement is quite stunning, from the opening piano on.
Thanks for the streaming rec. Always looking for new sources.
@raven: Good one!
NotMax
@NotMax
Pfeh. Linky fix.
Will raise you an Icthykoo Park. With a chaser of Tee Set.
Kristine
I always feel envious of your flowers, @Marvel. Lovely as always.
I’ve spent part of the last two days digging up invasive species. Japanese honeysuckle and barberry and lesser celandine. The honeysuckle just blows in—the woods around here are full of it.
Spring is settling in fits and starts here in far NE Illinois. Temp hit close to 80F a few days ago. This coming week we’ll be dealing with a few nights in the 20s. I can cover some things, but the crabapples are on their own.
JeanneT
Just after I made an online order to my local nursery on Thursday the governor declared nurseries non-essential businesses and ordered them to close. But the store let me come and pick up my compost and a few lettuce and broccoli seedlings at curbside before putting up the shutters for at least the next two weeks.
I am late, but I am ready at least to start one garden bed and get some seedlings started; it’s late to get tomatoes going, but it’s going to be a better chance of getting plants than I will have otherwise…..
debbie
Just lovely. The earliest azaleas (lightish purple) are blooming, but still waiting on the other azaleas and all of the rhododendrons here. A very chilly week, maybe even snow flurries, is ahead. Yuck.
NotMax
@Steeplejack
From the title alone, would have guessed more Sybil Danning.
:)
NotMax
@NotMax
Some days I am beyond hopeless.
Itchykoo Park, not Icthykoo, which sounds suspiciously fishy.
OzarkHillbilly
Don’t expect a change in the mortality rate. Cover gives the raptors more directions to ambush from. Little Bro was sitting on his inner city front porch when he watched a Cooper’s Hawk fly thru six or seven covered porches before ambushing a flock of pigeons on the ground. The one it got never had a chance.
NotMax
@OzarkHillbilly
Among things never yet eaten is squab.
PAM Dirac
Nice colors! Here in MD we are a bit between. Cherry, serviceberry, Bradford pear, etc have finished flowering. Oaks and maples haven’t really leafed out yet. Daffodils are fading. Roses are sprouting out, but will be a while before flowers. The grape vines are doing very well. About 10% of the buds have already broken and the rest are not far behind. About a week and half earlier than last year, which was about a week and a half earlier than normal. Mid-week forecast has lows near freezing , which would be pretty bad, but if we get though that I think there will be no more freeze threats and things could be setting up for a very nice growing season. Like everything else at the moment, reason for some optimism, but things could crash very quickly. Here’s hoping that all of you stay safe and your spring gives you the growth you need.
Aleta
@Steeplejack: cheered up by this use of diminuendo
day 3 without power
.
JPL
@OzarkHillbilly: Recently there was one making a feast on finches and small snakes. Then the greedy bastard thought he saw something he wanted in my house and smacked against the door. It stunned him enough to leave and never return. Never might be to big a word since the hawk has only been gone a little over a week.
OzarkHillbilly
@NotMax: “Rats with feathers” as one old friend always referred to them.
Steeplejack
@NotMax:
Sybil Danning is (semi-)old-school. A cut above Syfy. Would require a pseudo-classical title like The Flying Serpent or Witch of the Wind.
Related: Why has El Rey disappeared from my cable lineup? Can’t tell if it’s gone or moved to some unknown channel. I miss the wall of ’70s-’80s kung fu movies on Sunday, especially with the Premier League out of action.
OzarkHillbilly
@JPL: For some reason they seem to prefer the blue jays on my place. As long as they don’t go after my chickens, I figure it’s all as Darwin decreed it to be.
Gvg
The mail order nurseries report business is way way up. I just got my order from Bluestone perennials. I don’t know how my preferred local shop is doing. This year I ordered a bunch of seeds long before the lockdown, and I just haven’t needed to go in. Lowe’s and Home Depot are open but I felt they were too crowded and don’t plan to go back for awhile. I was looking for masks, not plants but the garden center didn’t seem busy. Past years it’s been much busier as spring normally seems to infect people with a kind of plant fever who don’t actually do anything else except in spring. It seems to me that mailorder is going to be huge this year. If it’s done right workers can stay far apart.
we have had a dry spring. It might rain today and next week is supposed to be very wet.
The Thin Black Duke
@Steeplejack: How about this?
NotMax
@Steeplejack
Never subjected thineself to Howling II?
;)
The Thin Black Duke
And here’s a gentleman that nobody has heard of, sad to say. He was one of those immensely talented musicians lost in the margins.
stinger
What beautiful flowers! Love that top pic especially, such a Baba Yaga feel to it.
Immanentize
@The Thin Black Duke: or this:
The Hollies
Nicole
Good morning! Attempting to rally for a (socially distanced) run at 9:30. The 9-year-old awoke us at 6:30 to see if the Easter Bunny had found its way to our apartment in the age of Covid-19 (it did). ;)
I was really grateful for the front page post of the Willie Nelson Farm Aid livestream last night- I would have missed it otherwise and we enjoyed it- loved watching Willie play with his kids. My husband still lists the Willie Nelson concert his father DRAGGED him to about 20 years ago as one of the best shows he’s ever attended.
Gardening-wise, I’m limited to houseplants, but right now I’m taking great pride in having brought back the kid’s Venus Flytrap from the dead. He discovered it all brown just as we were a week into the school shutdown (among the stress we’d forgotten to water it regularly) and that was the event that finally really made him break down. I felt terrible. I poured in distilled water on what I thought was a dead plant, and in a few days was rewarded with a teeny, tiny green shoot, and now there are three. We’ve nicknamed the thing Lazarus.
This is his second Venus Flytrap. I killed the first one in a botched attempt to move it to a bigger pot. Ugh; for a predatory plant they’re kinda fragile.
NotMax
@NotMax
Actually pretty funny in its way is that they got her to rip open her leather top and fully expose her – um – assets for just one brief part of a scene.
And that snippet is run on a loop for most of the closing credits.
Steeplejack
@Aleta:
Heh, I got that from Vic Arpeggio on SCTV. Old-school sax player and private dick who peppered his dialogue with musical terms.
“What would you like to drink, Mr. Arpeggio?”
“Rum.”
“How would you like it?”
“Make it a cappella.”
Boy, can’t believe I found this.
How come no power?!
satby
@Gvg: we’re expecting a tiny sprinkle of rain in a few minutes and then nothing until this evening, when rain, high wind gusts, and cold will blow in over the next couple of days. Overnight lows in the mid-20s, so I’m hoping the flower buds just starting on the fruit trees aren’t ruined.
Of my replacement set of tomato seeds planted last Sunday all but 2 sprouted already, so they’re getting transplanted into bigger peat pots today. Then begonia tubers will be started in the remaining pots for the hanging baskets. That will keep me feeling like the gardening is making progress even though the weather is bad.
NotMax
@Steeplejack
Opportunities to say sforzando don’t arise nearly often enough.
The Thin Black Duke
@Immanentize: Gee. Thanks. Did we listen to the same radio stations?
satby
Of course, since it’s Easter, they’re playing Handel right now which lets me revisit this favorite.
Steeplejack
@NotMax:
True.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Here’s my sweetest Easter memory.
Tomorrow is my son’s birthday, but by this time the day before, I was already in labor. I was too stupid to realize it until my friend drove me to the doc, who said go home and pack.
There’d been a late snowstorm, and there were piles of snow along the curbs when Mr DAW drove me to the hospital. But two days late, when our son and I came home, spring had come. The snow was gone, and it was in the 70s.
He was born on a Tuesday. The next Sunday was Easter. Neighbors came over bringing little baby gifts. Everyone on our Detroit city block was out because we always had a neighborhood Easter egg hunt. By the next Easter, I have a picture of my son at the hunt, riding on the hip of the teenager up the street who babysat for us sometimes.
It all felt like something magical had happened.
Immanentize
@The Thin Black Duke: We may have! That song sums up my pre-pubescent ideas of romance. This one captured my later romantic quests:
(I’d Go the) Whole Wide World
Only two chords! I love Wreckkess Eric.
Immanentize
@Dorothy A. Winsor: The Immp was born on the 20th, just the week after Easter. I was allowed to only wield the cooling towel while my wife did all the work. Still I was rewarded with a half hour in the birthing room, holding him in my arms wondering what the hell would happen in our lives. It’s been a hell of an adventure so far!
Steeplejack
@The Thin Black Duke:
Nice one! It’s getting to be that season.
@Immanentize:
Love the Hollies. Underrated. Here’s an alternate take of a favorite, “Yes, I Will,” with a great guitar solo.
Kristine
@OzarkHillbilly:
Yup. I saw one settle on my backyard fence gate and wait as sparrows hid in one of the holly bushes located about 2 feet from the house. A couple finally made a break for it, and the Cooper’s took off, banked around the rear of the bush–bringing in within inches of the house–and nabbed one.
Cooper’s are known for hunting around feeders. They’re good at it.
WaterGirl
Happy Easter to those who celebrate, and Happy Sunday Stuck Inside to those who don’t.
My eyes can’t take flashy stuff, so i traded out the gif for a screen capture.
Steeplejack
@satby:
Hilarious!
WaterGirl
Breakfast: I tried the NotMax beer bread recipe, only i added swirls of cinnamon sugar instead of the garlic powder. The one on the right got a little butter and extra cinnamon sugar. Taste test coming up.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Immanentize:
I have a picture of us with our son at maybe 6 months old propped up between us on the couch. I look at Mr DAW and me and wonder who in the world let those people take that baby home. They so clearly didn’t know what they were doing.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@WaterGirl:
I hope that tasted as good as it looks because it looks amazing.
Immanentize
@Steeplejack: That is a great solo. Nice and low.
OK. One more — makes it so clear these groups got their start in college a capella:
Along Comes Mary
My older brother, as we used to say, “had all their records.”
WaterGirl
@Dorothy A. Winsor: It’s pretty yummy!
The texture is reminiscent of a cross between an english muffin and a Panera cinnamon crunch bagel.
I cut the loaf into thirds, froze two (separately) and the final third is breakfast today (and a few more days).
Aleta
Some early springs a large number of cormorants show up and sit in the trees on one small island in the river for a couple of days. Never on shore. They don’t stick around so I don’t think they are nesting. Last year I was watching a local pair of hawks circling in their usual spot, the air space on shore (not above or too near the dinosaurics) when the cormorants began to leave their perches to go after the hawks, working in small formations that took turns since they’re not great flyers. The coordination of the formations in the air, and the rhythm as individuals flew in and out to spell each other without breaking the harassment, were surprising to watch. The hawks were at ease with their different type of strength, for a while. The cormorants prevailed.
Immanentize
@Dorothy A. Winsor: There is a similar picture of me and my wife at the Immp’s christening and somehow the camera caught both our joy and terror at what we had done. It was such a perfect capture.
Nobody is ready for what happens.
Aleta
@Dorothy A. Winsor: beautiful story
Aleta
@Immanentize: @Immanentize:
Elizabelle
Happy Sunday and Bunny Day, peeps.
@ NotMax: Now I’ve got Itchykoo Park as an earworm!
satby
@Steeplejack: at least 7 years old, some of those high school kids probably have kids now. I’m still impressed with how creative that was.
Steeplejack
@Immanentize:
I was probably your older brother.
“When vague desire is the fire in the eyes of chicks whose sickness is the games they play.”
I don’t know what’s more appalling—the lyrics or the fact that I still know them from memory. LOL.
Also: best (maybe only) use of flaccid in a pop song.
Which always makes me think of Jackie DeShannon and nonchalant: “When You Walk in the Room.”
OzarkHillbilly
If they knew, they wouldn’t go there.
Elizabelle
No WaPost peeps diorama contest for 3 years now and — as a WaPost reader wrote in — we have the time to do it this year.
Won’t need as many peeps, since they will all be socially distancing …
Aleta
@The Thin Black Duke: that’s a great song
The Hollies with a more upbeat My Back Pages
Steeplejack
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Great story. The image of your son on the babysitter’s hip gets me.
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: I think many would, but when Ann Landers asked in the 70s she got a surprise.
Kristine
@Immanentize: The Association. Spanky and Our Gang. The Cowsills.
Thanks for dredging up all those old 60s variety show memories.
Elizabelle
Here is 10 years of winning peeps diorama entries from the WaPost.
Ended in 2016, and the last “winner” was Donald Fucking Trump peep (and remember, this contest took place earlier in the year).
Among other things, DFTrump killed the peeps contest.
Bring back the peeps contest! We all have time on our hands this year. We can make those tiny, tiny masks.
debbie
@satby:
Sweet!
satby
@Elizabelle: earlier this week I made Kodiak brand high protein brownies. I knew I hit my quarantine nadir when I sandwiched a Peep between two skinny dry brownie slices. Do not recommend.
debbie
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Sounds like photos of my mother with the three kids she had in five years. She was still in her early 20s, but looked exhausted.
debbie
@Elizabelle:
If I ever get back to my job, I will need to check in on my package of peeps. They’re about 5 years old and hard as rocks. I’m curious to see how long they’ll last. They sit beneath two small plastic bags of fossilized cotton candy, both probably close to 7 years old, also hard as rocks.
At long last, the scientist in me has emerged.
Steeplejack
@Aleta:
Love that song. The version that is seared in my brain now is from the Dylan anniversary concert in Madison Square Garden. Not one but two great guitar solos. How do you follow Clapton?!
TS (the original)
@satby:
I had always said – I wouldn’t give her up – but if I had my time over – I wouldn’t have a child ……
And then I became a grandmother. The most wonderful marvellous, delightful, fantastic reward for raising a child. I changed my mind.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@debbie:
Your frozen peeps and cotton candy are at work?
Peeps are vile.
WaterGirl
I ordered this azalea last year, on Easter, and planted it in May. I had such high hopes, but it still looks pretty much like dead sticks. Is that normal for central Illinois on April 12?
MagdaInBlack
@The Thin Black Duke:
Wow ?
Thank you
OzarkHillbilly
@TS (the original): Grandchildren are a parents revenge.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: I certainly would.
MomSense
Beautiful garden photos, Marvel. I can’t wait for the snow to melt so I can get in my garden.
Kristine
@WaterGirl: Not an azalea expert, but some of my other shrubs didn’t look like much of anything until the second or third year. The first year is spent building its root system.
I also wonder about soil pH and wind/sun exposure with azaleas and rhods. I haven’t had much luck with them. (Not much luck with mail order, either, to tell the truth ? )
I have a fragrant sumac that I swore was a goner after the first year, but I left it. The second year, it exploded.
debbie
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Yeah, alongside a gingerbread man with a bite out of its head and a Snickers bar labeled “Cranky.” I need distractions.
satby
@TS (the original): I liked having kids enough that I took on other people’s even though fairly large stretches of my life could be described as financially precarious. One of my sons has announced he and my DiL don’t intend to have children at all. The younger son is a stepfather and would like a child of his own but is as likely to adopt as procreate. Only about 1/2 the foster and exchange kids decided to have kids. The trend is definitely heading toward less people having kids if they have the means to control that. If I had had grandchildren earlier I might have enjoyed that, but now I’m secretly relieved because I see my patience reducing as my age increases.
WaterGirl
Is anyone making a special meal for today?
I’m making roast chicken breasts, my mom’s stuffing, cheesy green beans, corn, and pumpkin pie with real whipped cream for dessert.
I will share some chicken with the kitties, green beans with the pups (tucker is allergic to chicken) and everybody gets whipped cream! My sweet Willow is very picky about snacks, and whipped cream is her favorite food in the whole world.
* when I say today, I obviously mean today and the next several days.
Steeplejack
@The Thin Black Duke:
Great song! I love that style.
Elizabelle
@debbie: Have never eaten a Peep, ever. My sisters loved them.
Never liked Lucky Charms cereal either.
Elizabelle
@WaterGirl: Ambitious! Sounds delish, and know you and the pets will enjoy the feast.
Aleta
@Steeplejack:
oh my … I never heard of Vic Arpeggio … what a gas : )
12″ of heavy snow and strong wind a few days ago. Lots of people still w/o electricity and heat.
+ “Shelter in place” so people can’t go warm up with friends with heat or decamp to the 20-hour breakfast/liquor/spaghetti parlour (open every day since 1919 and former speakeasy) that until now was the town’s favorite emergency shelter.
WaterGirl
@Kristine: We amended the soil when we planted, put pecan shells on top (supposed to be very good for azaleas) and it’s tucked in a corner with a fence, so we’re good on all that, I think.
It’s in a sunny spot, but not blistering sun, so I’m not as sure about that. Thanks for the reminder to be patient in year 1.
Steeplejack
@Aleta:
Whereabouts are you? (If it doesn’t compromise your operational security.)
satby
@WaterGirl: was going to sous vide a boneless leg of lamb, but it hadn’t thawed in time. I’ll start it today but probably just have frozen pizza. Easter isn’t a holiday I’ve cared about since my kids grew out of getting Easter baskets. Was only cooking the lamb because it and fish are all that’s left in the freezer as main dish type stuff.
WaterGirl
@Elizabelle: I know, I felt kind of tired after I re-read what I had just written! The stuffing is the only part that takes much effort, and my mom’s stuffing is in my top 3 comfort foods, so it’s probably worth it:
– stuffing
– macaroni & cheese
– au gratin potatoes
I might have chosen au gratin potatoes instead, but I used my potatoes to weight down the net for my cherry tree on Friday, as I was trying to throw the net over the top of the tree.
If I had video, it would likely be the saddest, most hysterical video ever.
satby
Ok, off to transplant seedlings! Everyone have a lovely day.
Steeplejack
@The Thin Black Duke, @Steeplejack:
The last chord of that Terry Callier song was driving me crazy, because it reminded of something else that I couldn’t remember. But then I got it: Marcela, “Os Grilos.”
Aleta
@Steeplejack: This is good too, guitarists’ run-through of that song for 30th anniv. show —
youtube.com/watch?v=F-mtEml1coo
WaterGirl
@satby: It was quite nice of you to take in the homeless leg of lamb!
I have probably shared the story of how spaghetti & meatballs became the classic Easter meal at my house, but my frozen ground beef didn’t thaw in time, so I had to revert to the classic Thanksgiving and Christmas meal.
Story: After my mom died, my dad came to my house for Easter every year. He claimed that it was for Easter, but he also came for the tulips.
That first year, I asked what he wanted for Easter dinner, uncertain whether he would want lamb (our Easter classic because my mom was Greek) or the classic turkey and stuffing for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Dad: ” spaghetti & meatballs”
Me: “We can’t have spaghetti & meatballs for Easter!
Dad: “okay, meatloaf”
Me: “spaghetti & meatballs it is”
And so it was, for the next 10 years with my dad, and ever since.
OzarkHillbilly
@WaterGirl: Spaghetti and meatballs is our traditional Thanksgiving Day meal.
JPL
@Elizabelle: I loved the peeps and agree that it is time to bring them back.
Anya
One of the things this pandemic has disrupted is my plan for acquiring house plants that absorb CO2 at night. I was in the middle of buying these plants when the shutdown happened. Any advice on how to take care of indoor potted plants? I must admit, for some reason, I tend to kill plants. I either over water or under water and I am never sure if I should change the soil or not.
Steeplejack
@Aleta:
Nice!
JPL
@WaterGirl: That is so sweet.
scav
The, well, we’ll call him the easter bunny, is delivering a second Claire Austin rose on Thursday to join the first one — so the wall of Cecile (Brunner) will someday be matched by the wall of Claire. Some coral bells are blooming and we moved back in two solid chunks of rhubarb from the patch we gifted the neighbor more than a decade ago.
debbie
@Anya:
Good luck with that. I’ve long been overattentive to houseplants and seem to have started killing them with my watery kindness. I’ve switched to succulents and a watering calendar.
oldgold
After the Gold Specks’ Skype pleas for a butterfly garden and the Motherlode’s edict that it shall be done “or else.” I was as committed to gardening today as a god fearing Christian is to his hand when holding 4 aces in a game of stud poker. Awakened early, got on my bib overalls, put on my work boots (purchased in Truman era still look like new), sheathed my hands in my Handy Andy gloves, placed my green Pioneer Seed cap on my old bean and confidently strode towards the toolshed. Then the weather hit.
Like the corpse at an atheist’s funeral, I was all dressed up and no where to go.
Aleta
@The Thin Black Duke: Thanks for this.
Time to warm up
eta And power just came back on !!
O. Felix Culpa
@satby:
Urgh.
Aleta
@Steeplejack: Maine. Much of the state was hit by the storm Thursday, lots of big trees down. As of last night there were still live wires down, in this town and in my cousins’ yard in another town.
Steeplejack
@oldgold:
Where are you?
Aleta
@Steeplejack: nice together
Barbara
@TS (the original): You know, the real problem with that survey isn’t that the people responding were not being utterly honest, it’s that it falls within what I call the paradox of unhappiness — that unhappy people use up a lot more oxygen trying to understand and communicate their unhappiness. Happy people don’t look for explanations, they might not even identify as happy. But unhappy people need to convey their feelings and they need to explain their feelings. People who would have done things differently were far more likely to go to the trouble of responding. This is why, for instance, chat boards for adopted children are far more likely to include kids who feel like they never fit in or who attribute their difficulties in their life to adoption. We want a narrative for our unhappiness. Whether it’s true or not is almost beside the point, so long as it makes sense to us.
schrodingers_cat
We are getting 10 flowering trees from Arbor Day foundation, has anybody had any experience with them.
The deal was 10 trees for $10, our neighbor who has kinda become our gardening guru suggested it.
WaterGirl
@OzarkHillbilly: For real? Happy to know that.
WaterGirl
@Aleta: Yay!
Light and heat in our homes… highly unappreciated until we don’t have it. This is a good reminder for all of us.
Barbara
@schrodingers_cat: I have a small yard at home so I wouldn’t know what to do with 10 trees, but if you have room the main thing is to know how fast they grow and their mature size, and to plant them where you would like shade and/or where you would rather see a tree than what you see now. Also, don’t plant them too close to the house or in a location where their roots are going to interfere with your drainage or septic system. Although that’s usually only after they have grown up for a few decades.
oldgold
@Steeplejack: Where are you?
It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man’s fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call the Twilight Zone (A/K/A Iowa).
WaterGirl
@schrodingers_cat: Sounds like your neighbor would be the perfect person to ask.
When I moved into my house decades ago, I had the clippers out and was getting ready to cut down this ugly straw plant that was 6-feet tall and dead. Right outside the main window in the front of the house.
My neighbor came over and told me that was a beautiful flowering grass and suggested that I really did not want to cut that down. He was right!
Good neighbors are a gold mine of information.
Anya
@debbie: I start off with water kindness and then starvation. The only plants that seem to survive me are Begonia and Peace Lily.
satby
@schrodingers_cat: I have gotten them multiple times when I’ve moved to a new place. They’ll be tiny sticks color coded with paint. I’ve had very good luck with them, the majority have survived and grown well, but you have to protect them or it can be easy to overlook them when mowing or weed-whacking. I bought 10 of these 12 years ago, and still have five that I used for new trees here. I highly recommend them for the little trees you get from Arbor day. They really improve the survival rate of young trees, and can be reused once the trees are a bit older for new plantings.
The Thin Black Duke
@Steeplejack: Whoa. Very nice. Thank you.
stinger
@WaterGirl: That looks like Northern Lights azelea, which I also have. I went out just now to look at mine! Mine (in east central Iowa) is bare sticks with brown buds at the tip of each; none has opened yet. It has leafed out and bloomed reliably for 5-6 years now. Good luck with yours!
Immanentize
I just realized, I should put up my favorite ever by a far stretch Easter Week song by Johnny Cash and the Carter Family. It really send chills ever time I hear it. And that has nothing to do with religion….
Were you there?
Including mandolin and the most sorrowful yodel ever.
satby
@oldgold: ???
scav
The death of Tim Brooke-Taylor is hitting harder than I would have expected. I’m Sorry I haven’t a Clue must be lodged deeper than I ever knew.
stinger
@scav: Cecile and Claire — how great! And practically anagrams! Japanese beetles swarm in about July 1, here, so I am seriously thinking about giving up all repeat or everblooming roses for spring-only bloomers.
Barbara
@stinger: If you live in a state that is south of the Mason Dixon line, the early bloomers will often have a second round of blooms in the early fall. Some people will also intertwine climbing roses with clematis to get multiple flower displays. Japanese beetles are definitely hard on roses. Around here, black spot is also a scourge and it gets in the ground so it travels from plant to plant.
WaterGirl
@stinger: That gives me hope, thank you. :: pause ::
I just went out to look close-up, and I do have buds on nearly all of the sticks!
schrodingers_cat
@satby: Thanks.
raven
@Anya:
She had rings on her fingers and bells on her shoes
And I knew without askin’ she was into the blues
She wore scarlet begonias tucked into her curls
I knew right away she was not like other girls, other girl
youtube.com/watch?v=Kj_kK1j3CV0
laura
Marvel’s flower photos are always beautiful and welcome sights.
Steeplejack (phone)
@oldgold:
As I have said repeatedly, I am in NoVA (Falls Church, specifically—doxxers take note).
My point is that people’s local anecdotes lose a lot of their coherence when they don’t give any clue to the location. Is that weather apocalyptic or just a little out of the ordinary? Who knows? But now that you’ve risked your security by pinpointing your location within 50,000 square miles at least we’ve got a little context. Thank you!
Steeplejack (phone)
@Immanentize:
Dude, you gave us the association again. ?
Kristine
@WaterGirl: I was so disappointed the first time I planted cardinal flowers–nothing but a small round mat of leaves formed. Learned later that’s what they do Year 1. They don’t flower until Year 2.
zhena gogolia
@Aleta:
Oh, good!
WaterGirl
@Kristine: Poppies are like that, too. I just didn’t expect it somehow, with the azalea. But who knows? With several buds, maybe I will be pleasantly surprised.
As I think about it, I guess I’m surprised to see buds where there is no green yet.
J R in WV
The other day, er, night, not long after we went to bed I realized I was hearing the emergency generator running off in the distance. It’s out in front of the house, and our bedroom is way in back, so it was a distant sound mostly overwhelmed by the classical music on the stereo.
When I woke up at 4 am to visit the bathroom, it was still running away — it’s a Generac connected to the gas main and starts automatically when the electrical grid fails. Then, when I woke up for the last time, it was silent, not a sound. My email had 3 notifications that the power was off, don’t know why they send those, as if everyone’s internet works just fine with the power off, and then 3 notifications that the power was back on.
Three notices because we have three meters spread out across the farm. Turned out a tree was against a main line, and 1800+ people wer eout of electric overnight.
We got the Generac installed after the derecho came through and the power was off for weeks… also saw a neighbor getting one installed, told him to tell his installer to come up to our house, they come around each year, clean and change the oil and filters… so far it has never failed since once shortly after it was installed, it leaked oil and knew not to run that way, they found a standard issue problem with manufacturing using a brittle sealer which they always had to replace with a flexible sticky sealer, done and done.
All handled by former coal miners, who can usually maintain and operate anything they encounter, as you have to be resourceful down underground, or even on a surface mine miles from nowhere, as they are inclined to be. All good guys.