Friday afternoon found me re-reading Stephen King’s tome: ‘On Writing’; at the local café. It’s a weighty book, and last week I may have written the previous sentence differently by including the word: ‘insightful’. It would have read: ‘found me re-reading Stephen King’s insightful tome’, except I now realise the errors of my ways, and hope the author’s pet killer clowns don’t come and get me.
The late afternoon air was cold, but indoors I was sweltering. Removing the woollen jumper made the warm cappuccino easier to knock back. Visitors to the area were no doubts startled to see a person wearing a t-shirt, but this fine distinction is how the casual observer determines who is a long term local. Occasionally an adventurous townie will spot the errant hillbilly, and say for all to hear: ‘It’s so cold. It’s freezing up here!’ The braver folks will sometimes disrupt the enjoyable activity of reading. That lot receive the reply: ‘Is it cold? Doesn’t feel like it!’ A small chunk of cheesecake smooths the ruffled feathers.
Alas, nobody that day was poking me (had to stop myself from adding the word ‘unwisely’ to the sentence). The book was excellent, the food and drink were going down a treat. And in the background, music from my childhood was playing over the speaker. At such moments, deep philosophical questions come to the fore. Like: ‘why does my brain perfectly recall the lyrics and melody from the 1983 song Flashdance’? I didn’t even like the song, the film was forgettable. And yet, the song stuck as an earworm. What has my life become?
Leaving the cafe, the full import of the disaster had not yet struck home. It was only a short drive to that place. Upon arrival, the computer was flicked on, and the information super highway provided the details. Right. Sung by Irene Cara. Melody written by none other than the grandfather of the discotheque, Georgio Moroder. Some other dude wrote the lyrics. What a wonderful use of the advanced technology, for now I know whom to blame!
The song has been pestering me for days. Probably something to do with the ol’ caveman brain having to consider how to implement the goobermints new PayDay super legislation with all of the clients. Watching a webinar earlier in the week, the nice folks at the taxing authority suggested that the new initiative would be ‘easier’. The word was used on several occasions. And yet, the cynic in me wondered how an activity which was done four times a year, could be ‘easier’ when it is now required to be done twenty six, or even fifty two times per year? There is mystery there. Probably time I sent the goobers-of-the-mint a bill for the time spent on this rubbish which not everyone is happy about. When faced with complaints, I’ve said: ‘Don’t blame me, I didn’t vote for them!’ Sends a strong message.
Anywhoo, it’s doubtful that Georgio Moroder has anything to do with this other earlier in the week bureaucratic mess. Had lunch with friends the day afterwards. It was a very pleasant meal, and we spoke of many things, one of which was a comparison between now and two decades ago. It’s not an activity which a person is generally encouraged to do, lest the view revealed is somewhat unflattering. I’d prepared for the chat with a small cheat sheet of relevant statistics, which the interweb had barfed up earlier that morning. It is useful for providing quick statistics, but are they correct? What meaning is there in an average national house price for 2006? For the record, it was AU$299,000, and two decades later is just shy of one million bucks. Serious people in the media suggest that inflation is under control, but I don’t take such claims seriously.
The song disease continued throughout the lunch and friendly discussion. 2006 was a good year for materialists. There was a lot of meat to talk about. I’d learned about the theory of Peak Oil only the year beforehand whilst writing for the hippy press. In a bizarre Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde moment, back then I used to work as a CFO earning some decent mad cash. That news surprised a friend, although the fall from grace was very real. He may not have been aware that from 2008, and for three years, the professional accounting body limited my business revenue to a maximum of $20,000 (before costs). All because I wanted to hang out my shingle and offer services to the general public. Nothing quite says: ‘You can do this, but we’ll make you earn the license the hard way.’ Which I did. A lot has changed since those days, some not for the better.
The dreaded song! Those lyrics: ‘I am rhythm’, what does that even mean? Sounds like a big call. Far out! Wanting to clear the head of the trash, I decided to head out the following day and smash up some boulders. Nothing quite calms the mind like hard work. Just above the courtyard I set out to break up a very large rock. That didn’t work, and neither did my best efforts on another one nearby. Perhaps the song has sucked my mojo this week, yeah maybe it has! And so why not? Let’s blame old Georgio! There, I feel much better now.
The days have been quite murky this week, occasionally the sun will shine with some weak strength. Morning fog has hung over the valley below the farm. Quite pretty really, and gives the sensitive person an appreciation as to what the area would look like if sea level rose 600m / 1,980ft.
In between rainy days, work has continued on rodent proofing of the house. Concerned readers will be happy to know that there has been no activity inside the house for about three weeks now. The outer defences are working. We’ve just got a bunch of materials to relocate so as to get the job finished. And the inch or less diameter rocks piled up around the house and dog enclosure, have to go. But where?
The best use for all of that material is in the long line of steel rock gabion cages, which just happens to be close to the same area in the above photo. That is how it came to be that we were considering the future fate of the two large boulders.
On the slope up above the courtyard where the two rather large boulders are located. How hard could it be breaking them up, I thought. Plenty hard is the answer. On both rocks, we took off a few chunks, but that stone is some of the hardest variety of granite around here, and just like icebergs, there’s a lot more of them underground than appears.
We did recover many large rocks, but the two big boulders defeated us.
I can change tack and take a new direction. On the second boulder the drill holes were deeper and more closely spaced. Didn’t make any difference, the chunks did not yield.
A section was removed from the boulder next to Ollie, and it was used to shore up the much larger Moby (body) rock. I’m not too worried about the boulders rolling down hill. Both remained in place during the 5.9 earthquake all those years ago, but it does pay to be careful and consider the unthinkable.
Observant readers will note that the herb Colts Foot likes growing near to the rocks. The Moby defeat is no big deal, and it has solidified plans for that area. All of the rocks recovered from that work were rolled down the slope and installed on the edge of the garden bed.
The plan is to add steel rock gabion cages in a third row (the first and second rows of cages can be seen in the photo). Above the cages, we’ll add in rock crazy paving and firm up the surface using crushed rock with lime in the gaps. There is a minor risk those two boulders will roll down the hill, so it is best to reduce the possibility of that happening. At least the work cleared my brain of that song.
Earlier in the week, a disused solar panel stand in the paddock was dismantled and the materials were recovered.
An electric jackhammer was used to smash up the concrete base, and those chunks were used as fill behind the long line of rock gabion cages. Another gabion cage was sewn shut this week.
We’re hoping for a frost soon so that the kiwi fruit can be harvested. The owls turned up at the right time earlier this year and ate all of the well fed possums. Those marsupials would have otherwise consumed every single fruit.
Citrus continue to produce during the winter months, and there are plenty of lemons:
The Pomello’s (a cold tolerant grapefruit) were hail damaged earlier in the year as can be seen on the leaves and fruit (next photo). However, the fruit has thick rind and will be fine and ready to eat in a month or so – when they’re yellow.
We also seem to have replanted winter greens at the right time, and should have plenty to get through the coldest months of the year.
Onto the flowers:
The temperature outside now at about 11am is 7’C (44’F). So far for this year there has been 400.8mm (15.8 inches) which is up from last weeks total of 379.8mm (15.0 inches)
Comments
42 responses to “Flashrock”
Yo, Chris – So What’s wrong with the word “insightful”? Or, “unwisely,” for that matter. Not that I’m going to argue with the master storyteller, Mr. King. I’d guess he’d probably said to watch hitting adjectives and adverbs, too hard. Or, too often.
Here, it’s not so much t-shirts as umbrellas. Nothing screams “I’m not from here!” as much as umbrellas.
Well, Dick, I’d give it a nine. It’s got a good beat and you can dance to it. 🙂
You mean your Goobers didn’t claim that they had had overwhelming requests for this new bit of nonsense? Easy? Sure, if you’re willing to check out your brain, and put the financial future of your customers, in the hands of some a. I .
Not happening on your watch.
Ah, yes. Best not look back to those halcyon golden days. Just for poops and giggles, I shock the youngsters by reminiscing about a gallon of gas and a pack of smokes, costing the same. A quarter. Of course, minimum hourly wage was $1.25.
Solar panel stand, we hardly knew ye.
The gabion cages look like your first line of defense, against a landslide wiping out your spiffed up cantina, and the new wood shed. Stuff dirt in those rock holes, and plant something in them.
I’m suffering from chard envy. Mine are showing a little growth, but when will they take off?
I think that’s one of the reasons I like fall so much. The leaf change. The colors, the colors. Having a bit of a flashback, there. 🙂
The roses are real troopers. They hang on as long as they can. Lew
Hi Pam,
A person can get by using such machines with basic knowledge, and thus why I chucked in so many points in only a few paragraphs. But when things go wrong, those machines have a lot of moving parts, all of which operate within certain tolerances. What the heck does a person do then?
It’s fortunate for us mere mortals, that there are a few folks out there with deep interests in this stuff, who want to share all of what they’ve learned.
Fortunately I’m no purist, but have been put in a situation where I’ve had to sit through hours and hours of utoob explanations with all of this tech. A kind of crash course on small farm machines. Truly I miss the old farm machine repair dude, although that is what outsourcing ones brain looks like! 🙂 I miss the chats too.
Oh well, they do tell me that learning begins with but the first step!
Hope the sunshine is continuing for you? The rain and wind is filthy here today. We cleaned up the greenhouse garden beds, gave them a good feed and spread out the chilli plants. It’s not an ideal time of the year to do such work, but is there a good time to uproot seedlings? The rain on the roof of the greenhouse sounded nice. The dogs ran around for hours until the rain forced them indoors.
Cheers
Chris
Back in the 1880s hard rock was split by filling the drill holes with water and waiting for cold weather to freeze the water. As the water turned to ice the pressure caused by expansion in turn fractured the rock. Maybe research this method of rock splitting.
Hi Lewis,
There is a lovely word to describe such presenters: Charming. It literally means what the word says – to exert the function of charm. As someone who resides in a culture which exists in the mid-point between that of the UK and the US, the comparison is quite stark. Still, history has much to say upon the matter, and I’d have been more comfortable as say theoretically a soldier under the command of the US, than that of the UK. Less charming, but also less wasteful of the individuals. It’s complex, but you’re absolutely right, the English have a capacity to produce people with really delightful mannerisms and words.
Thanks for the fascinating article and history on Cowboy Coffee. Absolutely I would drink that, and there was a mention that the beverage would become part of the morning and evening ritual at the end of a day upon the trail. I totally get that, and had not realised we were even replicating such long traditions.
Incidentally, parcel tracking does have some uses, and the new boiler has been packed and is at the remote post office. It’ll take a few more days to get here though, but in the meantime we have a Bialetti stove top coffee maker (the so called Moka Express) and that design has been in production for almost a century.
Well, yeah, coffee beans can be chewed for similar effects! 🙂 There is a European candy which has a coffee bean at it’s core, and those things are zingy.
Yes, your temperatures are climbing towards summer, and 72’F sounds wonderful to me. There’s been a ‘bomb low’ tracking through the Southern Ocean, and tonight the rain is feral, although it’s not really wintry cold. Bombing low hammers southwest WA as fierce winds worsen. This evening the monster storm has tracked closer to here. There was a strong north westerly wind warning issued which specifically mentioned this mountain range, but being on the southern side may shield us a bit from the worst of that.
I liked season two of that series as well. It was a lot of fun. 🙂 Exploding heads shocked my impressionable teenage brain with the Scanners movie. Fun stuff, with lots of splatter. I’ll bet they had fun making it. Michael Ironside as Revok was a memorable character. Good to see that the film has earned its cult status.
Ah yes, the linear trajectory is often a grandiose wish which never quite works. Still, I eagerly remain in a state of suspense on the off chance that this time will be different. One day dude, but perhaps not with this lot… 😉
The addition of the word ‘insightful’, or even that of ‘unwisely’, in that particular sentence, sounds a bit wishy washy apparently, and is the mark of the timid author. Truly, I’m a bit frightened now of the consequences with using such loose language! 😉 Hey, those killer clowns are scary! I am but the journeyman, and must sit at the foot of the masters and absorb whatever wisdom gets chucked my way. Fortunately I suck in language by way of osmosis, that part of my brain being somewhat porous. Most people follow that route, and it is a sad thing that the act of reading is in decline. Those tech bros, the cheeky scamps, are all rather naughty, and possibly should never have been let in the classroom. My old high school accounting teacher forced us to draw up the t-accounts, whilst banning calculators. Everything had to be calculated the old school way, on paper (except for the final state wide exam). We learn by doing, yes, learn, or learn not, there is no other way (said in best Yoda voice).
Hehe! Umbrellas! Thanks for the laughs.
Georgio Moroder knew his stuff. And I agree the song was catchy, and we need no other proof here, because my brain caught it. Here is what the master has to say about his history: Daft Punk – Giorgio by Moroder. The two minute introduction (and around the 5 minute mark) shows what was required to make that journey. The rest was Daft Punk music, the famous French band.
That claim wasn’t made by the goobermint folks, they just kept saying it would be easier. I don’t think so, but you could see their enjoyment at wafting the divine fiat upon all businesses in the land.
Hehe! A quarter, well ain’t that something else. 🙂 Hey, I remember when there were service station attendants who’d fill up the car for you, and check the oil, water and tyre pressure if desired. We’ve fallen a lot. The young lady at the servo counter today could barely get off her phone to process the transaction.
The smokes story down here is as bizarre and interesting as your Prohibition era policies – and about as effective. I do often wonder whether this form of krim (!) activity is tolerated as it is a better societal outcome than the more violent sorts.
Hehe! Yes, I too mourned the loss of the solar panel stand. There used to be six panels in that area, now there are sixteen. Still not enough to get through the winter months of June and July without occasionally grabbing the generator and battery charger. The fuel used is my annual electricity bill. Oh well, I really did try with this tech.
The gabion cages are quite strong looking, yeah. Vegetation on slopes has much to recommend it for that very reason you mentioned. It’s also a bit of a fire risk being too close to the sheds, thus why we’re investigating other methods.
🙂 The colours are lovely, and I can appreciate why the city folks escape their drab grey and come up to check out our style. I like the beauty of nature.
There is a 3’C morning in the forecast for maybe Saturday, so hopefully the kiwi fruit freeze, and the Roses continue with their delightful show. It’s complicated…
Cheers
Chris
Hi Robert,
Thanks, and that technique extends back as far as ancient Rome, and probably further. It works, except frosty days here are rare nowadays.
What the indigenous folks used to do, and the early gold miners, is to use fire to heat up a rock, and then once it was super hot, pour water on it so as to shatter the granite. Apparently it works, but I’ve not tried it. I’d imagine that a lot of firewood would be required to heat the rock in the first place.
Here’s a bloke, he sounds Canadian, doing the method: Fire-setting to break up Rock
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – I’ve heard stories that cowboy coffee could be filtered through a sock. A not necessarily clean sock. 🙂
I had a Bialetti, somewhere along the way. I was always afraid the thing would overheat and explode. Back in the 1950s, it seemed like Pyrex glass percolators, were everywhere. My grandma had one. I think I had one, somewhere along the way. And then there was the Chemex pour throughs. I’ve had a number of those. They were a beat / hip kind of a thing.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/chemex-pour-over-coffee-maker-review-ud_l_6997704fe4b0c988997fe874
From time to time I see chocolate dipped coffee beans. Pricey, but very tasty. Hmmm. I wonder if there are some in the Winco bins?
Our high yesterday was 70F (21.11C). Our overnight low was 41F (5C). Our forecast for today is 80F. And, 90F tomorrow. Then down again, and maybe even some rain by the weekend. Carl told me that he had frost at his place, yesterday morning. He lives out where I did, before.
May your forecast winds be gentle breezes.
Timid author or an author reaching for clarity? I suppose it’s a fine line.
Speaking of reading, I started reading what I think will be an interesting book. “Marilyn and Her Books: The Literary Life of Marilyn Monroe.” (Crowther, 2026). All of her stuff went to auction, so, we have a record of exactly what was on her bookshelves. She really did read widely, and deep. Although she moved many times, she always took her books along with her. There are many pictures of her reading. On movie sets, she read between takes. It being a hurry-up-and-wait kind of a business. Dare I say, I think this book is going to be a good read. 🙂
That was an interesting interview with Moroder. I also found one of the sidebars interesting. Bronski Beat. I hadn’t thought of them, in decades. I had a friend, in Portland, who was quit a fan. I watched a couple of their music videos. I think they were a kind of British, REM. 🙂
The Master Gardeners were here, this morning. I had mounded up one of my potatoes, last night. I guess I did the right thing. There was some straw, available, so I packed that around the plant. Then I added a mix of compost, and soil.
I asked one why they didn’t use their fancy, new, electric wood chipper, to break down the pruning, left in the wheelbarrow. The answer? They didn’t know. 🙂 Well, that day was kind of fraught, for them. They had to get over to their headquarters, and weed out some beds, before some Lord High Poo-Bah showed up.
I noticed a “For Lease” sign, on my way over to the Club. I tipped off a couple of the movers and shakers, and they raced right over to have a look. I’ll eventually hear what they thought.
It’s interesting, that in that part of Chehalis, there are many empty commercial spaces. Old car dealerships, old fraternal lodges and even a mortuary or two. Lew
Hi, Chris!
I have never read any of Mr. King’s books. I know they would scare the heck out of me.
Amazing how a good cheesecake (sometimes very hard to find) can smooth the ruffled feathers.
Well, it is not what your life has become – it’s your brain. Too many cheesecakes? I remember after my younger son saw that movie he danced around for weeks.
Wouldn’t it be nice if you did not vote for someone then you would not have to follow the laws they voted “yes” on, especially ones involving taking your money without asking.
Why would any self-respecting media monkey repeat the lie that inflation is under control (in fact, maybe not even there)? They must have bubbles in their brains.
I don’t think I understand why a limit was set on your income. Possibly you were dealing with Bolsheviks?
I just figured it out. The song is going ’round in your head – but you are not dancing to it! That is how you exorcise that demon. You go out in the orchard and dance, just like in the movie. Hmm – or that might make it worse . . . Or they might even haul you away to the funny farm . . .
Yay! You will have a beachfront property!
The house perimeter looks so good. I can tell by that boulder’s face that he is an ugly costomer. He’s snarling in the photo. No wonder – ouch! That’s a nice lot of rocks anyway.
How nice that there are kiwi fruits left. Ask me if chipmunks are eating all my alpine strawberries. Amazing that the pomellos recovered enough to set fruit. And your greens do look mighty fine.
Thank you so much for the flowers and the leafies. They are all beautiful.
On my way home from town today on the little 2-lane highway I happened to glance at a side road, mostly because there was a man at the beginning of it who looked perturbed, as he might well be, as there was a motorcycle lying on its side 30 feet from him down the side road and it was on fire like a bonfire. There were no emergency vehicles there yet.
He was obviously guarding the road to make sure no-one pulled in there. I assume that he was the rider and that his motorcycle had starting smoking or had a bit of fire so he pulled in there. I asked my son later if it could have exploded. He said not likely if it was already engulfed in flames. That fellow was so close to it, he would have been a goner.
Pam
Hi Pam,
The Mr King’s books likewise scare me, and are responsible for many lost hours of sleep. In these circumstances the hours disappeared from wanting to find out just what happened to the characters? Glad to read that you at least know your limits and haven’t waded into the scary waters. I’ve got this thing about animal films really upsetting me, and so don’t watch them. Everyone knew that Watership Down was going to end badly, and Art Garfunkel’s song about Bright eyes was not uplifting. I interpreted it as a cautionary tale and went off and did something else instead of watching the film (or reading the book).
Yes, such cheesecake treats are hard to find, and you’d be amazed at the number of product substitutions which go on with those delights. My thinking on the matter is better small, well made and correctly priced, than large and of dubious cookery parentage. 😉
Pam, blessed are the theatre kids for they are here to entertain and charm us all! Dunno about you, but I’m not one for spontaneous bouts of song, let alone chunky dance moves, and can only salute those who were born into the groove. I do love and respect the different paths we all travel, even when for their own purposes, the bright lights burn the hardest. Sometimes it is our lot to be left behind in their wake and marvel, but that also means having been given the gift of their presence, which itself is a present.
Far out! I’d been reading Mr King’s take on dialogue, and recall the very first share house I moved into as a young and somewhat naive adult. There were five of us, and one had formerly been a dealer (if you know what I mean) and he could talk the leg off a chair. The gentle art of conversation is a skill, that’s for sure, and in those days I basked in the glow at the foot of a master of the form. Social situations are navigated with ease these days, but that was not always the case. He passed away during the health subject which dare not be named, a big guy, with an even bigger heart – probably not ideal, for it apparently stopped working. Life is tinged with tragedy, and our lot is to enjoy and appreciate the memories, plus the antics of the squirrels and other forest critters, even if they are eating the gardens clean.
Pam, I have this gut feeling that suggests the goobers-of-the-mint think that somehow we’re all getting away with mischief. It may be happening, but I ain’t seeing it. In less polite corners, I’d suggest that they are projecting the worst aspects of their own behaviours and personality onto us.
Bubbles for brains! Hehe! That’s funny, and thanks for the laughs.
The limit on my income was put in place because although already being a member of the professional body, I’d come from a business background. As in working with and for businesses. You’d think that would qualify me for working with small business as a public practitioner, but not from their perspective. They have a policy which preferences members from tax and audit backgrounds instead when providing public services (as in hanging out your shingle to many businesses). If a person has done their three years in that area, no worries. Tell you a not so funny story, I got into a lot of trouble a few years ago because someone in a business asked me why the boss bean person didn’t know how to do a task. Nobody likes candid disclosures, but I replied that the individual had come from an audit background, so knew what the task should look like, but had no idea how to go about implementing it. The resulting poop storm cost me dearly. Oh well, I’m just the grunt who gets things done.
If I did that dancing around in the orchard biz, the neighbours would be talking about the performance for decades. I might skip on the fine and amusing suggestion thanks very much. 🙂 Hehe!
Yeah, the boulders did not yield, but at least I now know that is the case, and can plan for the area differently. It is an ugly customer, yeah.
I picked two kiwi fruit today and brought them indoors – it is now June after all. Once they soften a bit they might be ready to eat, maybe. Might need a good frost though. Are the chipmunks really eating all of your alpine strawberries? The cheeky scamps.
Now you mention it, cleaning up the citrus fenced off enclosure is on the to-do list this week, or next, maybe. It’s rained a lot so far and may continue to do so until Friday. Thursday looks crazy with rain. I’m learning to take the good with the bad, but would like to spend some time outdoors this week! It’s not that much to ask for is it?
The flowers and leafies express their appreciation, and salute their fellows in your part of the world who are enjoying better sunshine.
Oh poop for the on the fire motorcycle. It’s actually pretty difficult to get one of those machines to burn and fuel tanks don’t generally explode (sorry to mention the Pinto – you know. Ook!) Hope it wasn’t electric with Lithium batteries that’d be a problem.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
What a thought, and the sock may provide for some tasty foot essences with the preparation of the cowboy coffee – if that was a person’s thing? 🙂 I did laugh at your additional dose of uncertainty as to the general cleanliness. Very funny!
Eagerly waiting upon the contents of the brew whilst it’s in action means – here at least – the process is observed in all its caffeinated action glory. Over heating is a remote possibility. But yes, these devices can burn the steel, make a mess and cause a monster stink, but they can release pressure so might not explode, maybe. How wishy washy is that answer? Cool! You sent me on a rabbit hole as to how to clean the thing your situation suggested, and the general consensus was bar keepers friend. Which you probably already knew! By the way, that stuff cleaned up the baked on organic gunk off the Pyrex dish, although I did feel that the material was polishing the glass at the same time. It’s good stuff, and a powerful cleaner.
I remember the pyrex percolators, and they may have been called down here a: ‘bodum’. Oh, they’re still made. You’ve piqued my curiosity, what the heck is a Chemex pour through? My first thought was that it sounds like an unusual coffee ground distillation process… Hang on… … Ooo, interesting, but the paper filter may absorb some of the essential pan oils from the coffee grounds. I’ve not seen or sampled one of these in action but may stick with the highly complicated (although I know my way around the device nowadays) espresso machine which pushes hot water at pressure through the compacted grounds. Extracts that last little bit of goodness which may be otherwise missed.
The machine we use is the Gaggia Classic Pro. It’s built like an old school truck, and ours is 16 years of daily use old. We broke the boiler through an act of overly zealous stupid cleaningness, which was no fault of the component. The external heating elements were never designed to be immersed in water. Who knew? Now we know.
That’s them, chocolate dipped coffee beans. They’re zingy! Caffeine makes the thought processes sharper, but doesn’t keep me awake at all. I can fall asleep straight after consuming a coffee, easy. Ah, it’s a subject with as many opinions as there are people on this planet. The closest answer which sounded sort of true was that caffeine doesn’t wake you up, it instead blocks the feelings of tiredness. I’d not thought of the stuff that way, and it may even be correct.
🙂 The beans however, would certainly be habit forming! There’d be a struggle coming off caffeine, but who knows what the future holds in store. There is always those tea camellia seeds, which now we’re discussing this subject, I better get started.
Man, your weather is perfect, if a person ignores the 90’F bit. Watch out for that one, as it’ll be a shock I reckon. It was 8’C / 46’F today and rained most of the day. The rest of the week looks rather wet too, with some relief by maybe late Friday-ish. We’re going with the flow, and took today off any and all work, and headed an hours drive north to pick up local apples and honey. It was a nice day.
Travelling through the bushfire affected town is a bit of sobering experience though. It’d be so much easier if people in that situation could just rebuild a house from a pre-approved plan book (with heaps of designs). How hard could that be, it is not as if there wasn’t a house there beforehand? The system as it stands with the application and permits is onerous and a form of punishment for people who just need to replace their destroyed house. We’d build a basic shed and live on site which would reduce that pressure. It’d be easier than renting with such crazy low vacancy rates, despite the continual reminder of what could happen – the blackened environment.
Thanks, and the winds weren’t too bad, although there were plenty of tree crews operating in the area. Presumably the worst of the storm hit the northern side of the mountain range.
Yikes, Carl enjoyed a very late frost there. Has he mentioned his Sequoia cuttings recently?
Yeah, writing is a fine line, and the flow of the words and narrative is important. Mr King has me considering dialogue, and the almost baroque language used by Mr Vance as dialogue in his works amuses me, but does not in fact reflect the way people speak to one another. Nobody talks like that, or has the bizarre, yet highly relevant philosophical discussions prior to some horrendous narrative circumstance. Those techniques make me laugh and are one of the reasons I enjoy the authors works, but for sure, it isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. My vocabulary is much larger than that which is on display here, or even used in day to day speech, and I’m in awe of Mr Vance’s ability to just drop in such technical details without coming across as pretentious. You can see that he’s having fun writing. And it’s a wonderful space to inhabit.
I like people who take books seriously, and had been unaware of Marilyn Monroe’s enjoyment of them. Hope the book was not written in academic prose. Are you enjoying the read so far? Any interesting finds?
🙂 A little bit more leaning into the electronic and dance elements than REM, in my opinion, but certainly around the same time. The band did a few memorable dance floor burner anthems.
Nice work with the mounding up of the potatoes and that’ll protect them from your cool change later in the week.
‘Don’t know’ is such a wonderfully honest reply! 🙂 Ooo, you’d have thought being a master gardener meant that they were at the top of their game, and had nobody to answer to. Turns out, I was wrong. Hope their dignitary visit went well, or at least not badly!
An ex-mortuary for the Club would certainly make locking up after closing interesting. Could be ghosts! You never know, although now you have me wondering, I suppose nobody actually passed away at the site – they were already dead. Maybe there’d be no ghosts there. What’s your view on that risk?
It’s still raining here, and Thursday sounds abysmal. Oh well, a person has to take the good with the bad.
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – The Chemex coffee pots came with a small wire triangle, that you’d put on a stove burner. It kept the coffee warm, without the glass having to come into contact with the actual coil. They were so cool with their wood grip, and leather tie, to hold it all together. Gave it a bit of a hand crafted air.
Our high yesterday was 79F (26.11C). Our overnight low was 46F (7.77C). Our forecast high for today is 91F. Tomorrow’s forecast high is 20F cooler.
Your ideas on building make perfect sense. So, of course, they won’t be enacted. Layers of lenocracy would be eliminated. Can’t have that.
Carl hasn’t mentioned his redwood cuttings. I hesitate to keep asking.
The “Marilyn and Her Books,” is pretty fascinating. It’s not an academic slog. It’s quit readable. The chapters pose interesting questions. What was in the collection? (The three volume set of the writings of Sigmund Freud). What is noted by absence? (No Dickens? How interesting.) Did Marilyn REALLY read those books, or were they for show? (She often annotated the margins, so, yes, she did read those books.) And why would you even ask such a question?
There were a lot of photos of Marilyn reading. The author noted, that even today, if some of those photos are posted on-line, it whips some men into a froth. How dare a woman read!
Marilyn once said, “Women want to be the equal of men. Which shows a lack of ambition.” 🙂
Mortuaries and morgues. Don’t seem to be particularly haunted, although they often figure in the starting point of a zombie apocalypse. 🙂 The old hospital, across the street from the Institution, is a four story brick building. It’s now a drug and alcohol treatment center. There are stories … The top floor was the surgical floor, and, according to rumor, it’s haunted.
I think I mentioned that about a month ago, I read a book on Mutton, the dog that was of a breed that the NW coast native people used for wool. I saw an article, yesterday, about that / those dogs.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/science/articles/mutton-indigenous-woolly-dog-died-142009844.html
The book was pretty interesting, though a bit on the academic side. But not overly so. A lot about native weaving, etc.. Lew
Chris:
What a lovely paragraph – thank you. I will put it here in case anybody missed it.
“Pam, blessed are the theatre kids for they are here to entertain and charm us all! Dunno about you, but I’m not one for spontaneous bouts of song, let alone chunky dance moves, and can only salute those who were born into the groove. I do love and respect the different paths we all travel, even when for their own purposes, the bright lights burn the hardest. Sometimes it is our lot to be left behind in their wake and marvel, but that also means having been given the gift of their presence, which itself is a present.”
I also appreciate the paragraph right after that. It does take all kinds and we are very fortunate to have met so many interesting and agreeable people.
I suspect that they had a teacher of the kind I occasionally had: If one person, just one, in a class acted up, the whole class had to miss recess. Where is the sense in that? Good way to teach resentment.
I guess it’s best to zip the lip sometimes.
Yes, the chipmunks nip the strawberries off near the stem, leaving just enough for me to know what I’ve missed. I used to at least get some half ripe ones, and learned to enjoy them. Now those are gone, too. I guess I should try netting, but something always gets caught in it.
Lots of sunshine, but very cool nights and early mornings. I had to wear a jacket in the garden this morning. It’s great! One of the seed companies that I buy from says that we can still plant some things for a late summer harvest, like more squash and beans, and things, so I am doing that as I pull out lettuces and cabbages and turnips.
I had one of those Pintos in the 70s (loved the little car – white body with red seats and dash). Luckily, it never exploded.
Pam
Chris,
UGG! Flashdance as your earworm! Double UGG. Here, try this one instead, featuring the great actor and musician Hugh Laurie. It was filmed in the Palmdale, California area. That was where my friend had his first teaching job.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rHKdaLfIew&list=RD5lJJz4qT1RQ&index=4
Or maybe you’ll prefer this one from Hugh. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-qv87vXQzo&list=RDhT2pL4FNlpI&index=7
I found the Las Cruces winter to be lacking, well, what I considered to be winter. Mostly. Likewise, one of the other students who came from Mullan, Idaho, not too far from Spokane. Both of us were observed walking around campus, outdoors in January, wearing short pants and tee shirts. It felt like March weather to us, not winter. A third student, from Erie, Pennsylvania, sometimes joined us. People thought we were crazy. Loco. Nuts. They also thought that we were Canadians because we didn’t talk like we were from southern New Mexico.
Seeing how tough that Moby Rock turned out to be, well, I’m not certain that even trying explosives would have worked. Attempting the Big Kaboom might have had a nasty result. Interestingly, and somewhat off topic…In a fight scene in Kill Bill between Uma Thurman’s character and one who had done her wrong, well, a box of breakfast cereal was featured. Kaboom! cereal. Why? Because when she was losing, the other character reached into the Kaboom! box and blew a hole out the other end of it with the pistol that was hidden within. Can’t say we weren’t given proper warning.
Interestingly, in the photo featuring Pouty Face #3, it appears that there is a small rocket attached to the rock, awaiting to be lit so that it could fly away. Are you trying to start you own space force there? 😉
And there it is again, next to Ollie the Bemused. I tells ya, that rock drill looks like a rocket.
Far out! That’s a wonderful new rock wall. I notice that Pouty Face #3 disappeared for that photo. It’s a better look without the Pouty Face. 🙂
That final photo of the roses? Those look remarkably like the roses growing at Young Neighbor’s house. Similar colors, even. Our roses are all red. Peak time for roses here.
Returning home from our walk today, Young Neighbor was outside working. It was a day off from her job. She was pruning brush and a maple tree to make room for some contractors who are coming this week. I grabbed water for the Dame and myself, as well as the extendable tree lopper/pruning saw. I performed the heavy duty and higher up work. It was actually an enjoyable two hours.
Meanwhile, on Thursday, Young Neighbor will be at my house for a work party. Yup, more trimming. Finish up pruning the crabapple tree and a few odds and ends. She’s also getting excited to see the current state of the veggies that she helped plant. First time doing a veggie garden for her. Excitement.
The soil that is in full sun and gets windblown is now back to its condition from before the storms last week. Dry and beyond. We’re getting another week before we head back to the 27C range of temperatures. But warm and dry and breezy nonetheless. But good weather for getting a lot of work done.
Also, the Princess got called back to Toppenish Saturday. Brother was having a reaction to something. Mostly fixed and all is improving. She was going to be there starting this coming Sunday for a few days, so will likely stay until after next week’s event. Too much travel gets hard.
DJSpo
Hi Pam,
Thank you for your lovely words, and we are so fortunate indeed to have encountered all the many delightful and interesting people that we have over the years. And here’s for the entertainers, who entertain us mere mortals. 🙂
That’s not right punishing the entire class for the acts of one miscreant, and I’ve not encountered that personality type, but could see how it may happen. Hmm. Presumably the cowardly teacher was hoping that the class administered rough justice? You’re right about the resentment, but it also brings the best of the kids, and even the average, down to the lowest common denominator. Hmm.
Hehe! Zip the lip indeed! I’ve heard salespeople describing that moment – years ago – as the act of shutting the suitcase during negotiations. Creates quite the impression, and sets a standard we could all aspire too. Dunno about you, but sometimes I’ve gone on that one sentence too long… Ook! Oh well, and see, this is why having a whole bunch of different personality types is a good thing.
Netting is a fine idea with strawberries, except for that day I discovered Sir Poopy stomping the netting flat and consuming the sun ripened berries through the gaps. The sensitive person may wonder if he used his natural rat cunning for the purposes of good? I’ve given up on strawberries, and even removed the alpine ones from the greenhouse the other day. Growing those tasty treats has been chucked in the too-hard basket.
But! Some alpine strawberry plants have escaped, and I do hope they spread through the orchards.
It’s awful removing critters stuck in netting, so I rarely use the stuff. A parrot managed to bash its way into the grape cage the other week, and was lucky that I noticed the bird’s plight, and let it out. And truly, visitors give me this knowing look and then declare that I should net the entire orchard, like that wouldn’t destroy the fluffdoms finances… I dunno what to say at such moments… You’ll notice I never make that suggestion to anybody else? 🙂
Yours sounds like delightful weather, and I too enjoy warm summer days with the cooler mountainous nights (despite the lower average temperatures being harder on annual plants). It is good, yeah! I tend to agree with the seed merchants, if only because it is early days in your growing season, and you have plenty of water. By the way, I’m in awe of your cabbages. Are you or DIL going to make any Kimchi?
I know! Pam, you got so lucky there with the Pinto, but for all we know, the fuel tank may have had the err, was it $10 rubber anti-pop device. Such is fate, isn’t it?
Rained again for most of the day, although bizarrely at lunchtime the sun shone strongly. In the cool damp air it was nice to feel the solar warmth. The house batteries got a nice charge too from that. Tomorrow’s weather sounds horrid, but we’ll see how it goes. We’ve got both kinds of winter weather: wet and windy.
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
Ah, many thanks for that, and Hugh Laurie was a wonderful aural palate cleanser. Man, you don’t know the brain pain I’ve endured for that dance art. I quite enjoyed Hugh, and the first film clip at the diner was amusing, and can’t say friends have ever dumped me in a remote spot, but it would send a strong message regarding overall behaviour and general demeanour possibly needing to be improved. Yup. At least the motel room looked clean too, and I’ve experienced some which looked like that years ago where, lets just say that I was dubious regarding the cleanliness. The odour of stale second hand smokes stuck to the soft furnishings and clinged to ones clothes. Candidly, I’d been in cleaner places in the third world where the owners kindly advised us to lock up food items lest the rats nab them.
The second Hugh track was a treat. He’s a great performer, and I loved the tempo changes and piano work.
Las Cruces would be too dry an environment for my preferences, but I see what you mean. Possibly worth mentioning that without that river, it’d be uninhabitable at the scale of today. Looking up the climate tables shows that mid winter days there can have mean daily maximum temperatures around 14’C and higher, which would be remarkably warm here. So yeah, shorts and t-shirt winter weather for sure! Today for example peaked at about 9’C, Brr!
But that’s the thing isn’t it? Aussies up in Queensland get used to the hot weather, and so feel that their winters are cold, when they aren’t really. If you took me up there today, I’d be sweltering, although the locals would be wearing jumpers, most probably.
And that’s a great point, your country does have a lot of regional accents, the PNW being closest to Canadian-lish but with no real fear of confusion. I can hear the difference. For some reason down here, the accent is fairly consistent across the entire continent.
Ha! Thanks for the fun reminder. Nobody wants to be on a revenge plot otherwise known as: ‘death list five’, held by a motivated and well trained protagonist. It was never going to end well, but makes for a great tale. One of my favourite series, Jack Vance’s ‘Demon Princes’ has that plot device at its core. And the in-joke with the cereal was rather good.
Man, you should have heard what the Editor had to say about ‘Pouty Face Number Three’, it was very unflattering whilst accompanied by much laughter. However! There’s a Moby Rock around here which we could have blown up long ago before the house was built, had a bloke willing and ready to do just that task (with the proper equipment), and cooler female heads prevailed. One thing that time does, is cool the emotions, and yet! And yet! In this particular rock situation, the Editor after much soul searching, and the passage of many years, would now absolutely blow that mother way up!
Very good to hear with your local roses, and they brush off super hot weather, with a fine aroma. On that note, we’re thinking about processing the rose hips for the big dog Ollie. It’s meant to be allegedly beneficial for arthritis and joint pain they tell me.
Is this a sign the universe is telling you to plant another type of rose here or there in the garden? Another of my climate tricks is to plant something in adverse weather, and limp it through the season in defiance. This of course has worked on numerous occasions, but did fail with the walnut trees. Those are hard to get established, and nothing I seem to do works. Probably not meant to grow here.
You go, and communal work with like minded folks is a very pleasant activity. Hope the Dame was on her best behaviour? And pole saws of any variety are most excellent tools – and necessary. I’m thinking about getting an extendable pole hedge trimmer, Stihl has a new battery powered one. Hmm. And we’ve already got the batteries and chargers, but also the manual old school blade ones trimmers, just in case. 😉
That’s good news, and yeah, annual vegies in good warm soil will grow fast enough to encourage most first time gardener people. Despite the dry, your climate would be good for vegetables – and you’ve got the water.
The forecast for tomorrow looks feral here, wet and windy. I’m not looking forward to that, and already two inches has fallen this week. It’s very wet out there.
27’C is pretty nice especially if the air cools at night. Your sandier soil would struggle holding water anyway, but it’d be down in the subsoil somewhere I’m guessing, maybe? How’s the new succulents going?
Oh poop, hope your lady’s brother is doing OK down in Yakima County, and that it doesn’t get too hot there?
With all of the rain this week, we’ve been doing paid work, although it was nice taking yesterday off work. Indoors again tomorrow, it happens. Hope your gardening day is fun.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Oh yeah, the Chemex coffee devices oozes cool design. Beautiful to look at. And you just reminded me too, the glass was some sort of borosilicate variety, and what the heck is that? Ah! It’s the technical name for the glass variety used in … … ta-da, Pyrex! 😉 With a melting point of 1,650 °C / 3,000 °F, that’s some tough stuff. And probably the same material as used on the wood stove here, which would never reach such temperatures. Have you ever looked side on into such glass panes? It’s got a slight pink / red hue, which doesn’t show when viewed front on. Normal glass has a green-ish hue. Ook! Which sent me on a rabbit hole… The toughened glazing used on the windows here has a much lower melting point at 650℃ / 1,200 °F. The sensitive person would hope not to experience such temperatures, it’d probably be all rather fatal and stuff. The Paradise fires spring to mind. I’ve seen images of bushfires melting alloy engine blocks, which is about that temperature. Oh well.
Man if I squint a tad, and pretend you hadn’t typed the 91’F bit, 79’F sounds very pleasant. 🙂 Stay cool, and also hope H does the same. And good to read that a cooler change is on its way for you. Like here, the sheer variability makes getting used to any one condition during the summer months, much harder than it would otherwise be. Take the weather, one day at a time don’t you reckon is the wiser path?
This week has been feral! It was another cold, wet and windy day, and yet, at lunchtime the sun shone and the solar panels sucked in the energy. Not enough to fully charge the batteries, but still a pretty decent result. Then the clouds moved back in and the rain continued to fall. But for a moment there, it wasn’t winter. We did paid work today, and may do so again tomorrow. The forecast looks like double feral plus. We’ll see, it may not be that bad, maybe…
Ooo! The coffee machine boiler turned up in the post today. And all was good with the world, we just have to dismantle the machine and install the new part.
I know, there are so many easier and cheaper ways to do what our society seems to want to do, but they’re busy pushing the pedal to the metal driving headlong down the road to debt. It’ll probably end up the same way as ‘the road to perdition’ but with a different cast of characters…
You’re right, and we only afford the layers we have, whilst it can be paid for. The former Soviets had a joke about: ‘We pretend to work, and you pretend to pay us!’ That’s one possible outcome, and the winds sure are changing out there. Sorry for the last cliché, it really is windy here tonight. That low pressure system I mentioned a day or so ago is now over Bass Strait tonight. Wouldn’t want to be on the ferry between the mainland and Tasmania. Nope. There are some rough seas in that long stretch of shallow water. Few ships can make friends with the occasional 56ft wave and remain comfortable.
Sorry about that, and I totally understand about Carl. As you may have guessed, I was one of those kids who asked a lot of questions… 😉 And was told to shut up by the more knowledgable adults. Books are a wonderful form of redirection of such natural curiosity, as you may also have noticed?
Thank gawds for that! When I noted that the author was from an academic background, I’d assumed the worst. I’ve been burned, put it that way. And here we shall cite the book on the history of recycling. Always nice to be surprised in such circumstances.
That’s a good question, and err, you already know, it being rhetorical, but some people bring others down, so as to lift themselves up. It happens. And I reckon it’d be the rare person who has a book collection just for show, especially if nobody ever recalls the same person reading. My nose is in a book as much as physically possible, even in, public! Oh the humanity! 🙂 I’d have imagined that Freud’s work would have given the lady some insights into the human experience, even it is just for interest, as distinct from the more relevant professional curiosity in that line of work. Being an actress and comprehending motivations would be an advantage, although general reputation suggests that Freud was a bit obsessive about the subject of sex. There’s probably some middle ground lost in that particular world view!
Ha! What a fine quote, and very clever indeed. Yes, why aim lower? I’d prefer to be challenged, that’s where growth begins.
Have you by sheer chance noticed any patterns whatsoever in the choice of books?
Continuing to re-read Mr King’s book ‘On Writing’, and the text reads lightly, but is remarkably dense with knowledge, much of which is a brief note here and there which may set the curious mind off on a rabbit hole. And be skipped by others. Over coffee this afternoon it was hard to ignore the mention of Robert Jordan. You know, I had to put that series down after a while. Dunno about you, but there is a little bit of me which feels bad and uncomfortable for having done that act (insert embarrassed guilty face which resembles a smile, but is more of an expression of discomfiture).
Oh yes, of course, the zombies rising again from the depths of the mortuary. I’m sure the Club members are up for tackling those pesky undead invading a meeting from the direction of the basement! A pre-inspection of the premises in that case is recommended before signing the lease, and please do strike out the relevant sections relating to former tenants goods. They have to take the bodies! Could be a problem right there. Hey, you might have some ‘Ash’ types ready and raring to go head to head with the unquiet souls! 🙂
Hope the search for the new digs goes well.
I can see that about the haunted top floor, and let’s just say that particular upright profession has an allegedly dark past which may have involved prisoners and orphans. Hmm.
Mutton is an impressive looking dog, or the artists depiction displays that. Looks to me like a massive Spitz family dog, which would have moved with, and also been traded along the northern part of the planet. I’d never considered dog hair as a source for textiles until you mentioned it a while ago, but it’s not like they don’t shed a lot. The howling is a dead give away that the canine is close to wild stock, just like Husky’s are. The article slightly grated on my reading ear when they over used the ‘We’ word. Oh well, must be a new fashion in the language which was lost on me.
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – I doubt it applies to heat resistant glass, but in the tat trade, any red / ruby or cranberry colored glass is an indication that gold was used in the process. So many admixtures of elements (and combinations) to get different colors of glass. As a lot of it was trade secrets, formulas were discovered, lost, and found again. The Venetians were particularly ruthless, in protecting their glass industry.
Yes, hard to acclimatize when the weather is yo-yoing all over the place. Our high yesterday was 88F (31.11C). It didn’t quit make it to 90F. Our overnight low was 57F (13.88C). Our forecast high for today is 71F. Dawg and I pretty much laid low, yesterday. Though the garden got watered, and in the evening, I picked another round of Chamomile blossoms. A bumble bee and I bumped along for awhile. There were fairy bees, about.
Prof. Mass has a post on the new movie “Pressure.” And a general discussion of D-Day weather.
Speaking of movies, I see there’s to be a remake of “Escape from New York.”
Ah, I see why there’s so many books on Monroe, coming out, right now. If she had lived, this year would have been her 100th birthday. I really haven’t detected any patterns, in Marilyn’s reading habits. Just general things. There was no science fiction or fantasy. Even though, during her life, Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury were quit popular. There are some receipts for books that are not in her library. Either she gifted them on, or, always a hazard, they were lent and never returned. I just happen to be reading the chapter, now, on books that may have related to her acting career. According to the book, actors are encouraged to read, as it helps with memory. Some of the books were up for film adaptations, and she wanted parts in those movies. Which she very seldom won, as Hollywood didn’t take her very seriously as an actress.
I never read any Robert Jordan. Given my lack of interest in fantasy. Mostly. Well, he did give you a few Conan books. 🙂
https://w.wiki/QbiW
Something jogged in my memory. Ah, yes. Stephen King was involved in the development of a series called “Kingdom Hospital.” I think I watched a few episodes, and it didn’t click.
https://w.wiki/Qbix
There’s a book or two out there, on knitting with dog hair.
We should get a food box, today. The other day, I received in the mail, the card that can only be used at farmer’s markets. I’ll save it for blueberry season. $80, same as last year. Haven’t these people heard of inflation? Might get me a flat and a half. Glad to get it, every little bit helps. Lew
Chris:
I was thinking: Sir Poopy liked strawberries?! Not that strange maybe. Our Rex loved blackberries (we only had wild ones then) and would walk along sampling them. I liked to do the same, eating as I went, but was never sure if he had gone before me without me knowing and just licked them. He was tall, Ollie’s size.
My son has a plan to plant a huge strawberry bed. Maybe then there will be enough for everyone? I am wondering how many of the supposed hundreds I will need to plant . . .
I picked the smallest – and first – garlic plant today. It was actually quite a large bulb, bigger than the biggest ones we’ve grown in the past. I may have to start eating my words about the black plastic, but I stll think that part of the good growth I have seen is from me watering constantly because I worry about how hot the garden gets with it (and I can’t tell how wet is stays under the plastic).
Net the entire orchard! What chaos there would be. If the nets are high, they catch birds. If on the ground, they catch snakes. Snakes are not friendly when you try to untangle them.
I am making lots of sauerkraut; that is the easiest and I like it a lot and eat it every day. I actually feel better when I eat it. I do love kimchi, though. I’ll just have to find time to gather the ingredients together. I wasn’t able to grow them all here. So far, my DIL hasn’t been interested in making any kimchi. It’s her recipe that I use.
Spend some time by the stove! I know the fluffies will . . .
Pam
@ DJSpo:
I thought you meant this Hugh Laurie:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAG8K31ldZc
I loved the climate of El Paso (neighbor to Las Cruces). Mild winters, sort of hot summers, but it was so dry that one could live without AC (maybe just a swamp cooler).
Pam
@ Pam,
I visited El Paso many times when I lived in Las Cruces. Although I missed winter, the remainder of the climate was spectacular. And some of the food was unforgettable.
Thanks for that link. I adored the Jeeves and Wooster show. Never missed an episode. Got the Princess hooked on them once when they were shown as reruns. Hugh Laurie could act in anything, couldn’t he?
The version of Swanee River that I linked to? It actually was part of a documentary. One of the executive producers was Stephen Fry. Yup, Jeeves and Wooster teamed up for a documentary about New Orleans Blues. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lJJz4qT1RQ&list=RD5lJJz4qT1RQ&start_radio=1
DJSpo
Chris,
Glad to be of service. I figured some blues featuring Hugh Laurie would be the ticket. Pam linked to the very beginning of an old tv series starring the very same Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry, based on the books by P. G. Wodehouse. The entire first episode can be found here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UR4mPv71SV8
When my friend was moving back to Spokane from Palmdale, I rode a bus to Bakersfield, near Palmdale. I’m pretty sure that we drove by that hotel at some point on that trip.
There was one time when I was in Las Cruces that there was a “Winter Storm Warning”, signaling a major snow event. In Spokane that meant at least 6 inches of snow. Maybe a lot more. I was excited. However, the next morning arrived with a mere 2 inches of snow. It had all melted by 11 a.m.
Of course, the student from Erie, Pennsylvania and I got in trouble on campus. We were throwing snowballs at people we knew as they neared the physics building. Somebody complained that two hooligans were attacking people at random. Ha! There was nothing random about it. 😉
People who know not winter. Back in 2004, my sister found out that the cousins were having a surprise party for our uncle in late May. We decided to attend, totally surprising uncle and auntie. That particular evening was 65 degrees, cloudy, light breeze. I sat outdoors in a short sleeved shirt and short pants. It was too warm inside. One of the cousins was shocked that I was comfortable in such “cold” weather. I replied that I was acclimated to something that they didn’t have in that part of California: winter.
Actually, the people in northern Minnesota sound a lot like Canadians to me. A part of Washington has one weird accent. Those born and raised in parts of the greater Seattle area tend to pronounce our state “WaRshington.” People on this side of the mountains used to refer to anyone who said “Warshington” as “Another bleeping foreigner!”
I can imagine what the Editor was saying about Pouty Face number 3. Some of my thoughts were probably similar to hers. I must admit to some laughter. Probably a good thing that the Princess is out of town. She and the Editor appear to be on the same page about a lot of things. Pouty Face Number 3 would be one of those.
More roses of different types? Nope. The Princess is very happy with the current variety.
Young Neighbor got new windows installed in her house today. I was on standby until she got home from work, the contractor having been instructed to check with me first regarding any problems. I was chatting with the contractors when they arrived, and they wanted to know if I wanted the old windows, or if I knew anybody who would. They really hated to discard them at the tip. I sent the new neighbors from next door to talk to them, as the new neighbors want to construct a greenhouse. At the end of the day, everybody was happy. Young Neighbor got new windows. New neighbors got free glass for their greenhouse. The contractor avoided a trip to the trash burner, saving him time and money. I’m happy knowing that good glass will be repurposed for something useful.
The new succulents are doing well. They’ve taken root and are getting established. A new variety that a neighbor gave me even has flowers already.
Believe it or not, the Princess and her brother actually got rained on briefly this morning. In Yakima County in the desert. Just a few sprinkles, but it was damp there for a few minutes. This time of year, Toppenish is running about 5F warmer than Spokane.
DJSpo
Chris,
Ooops. I linked to a different episode of Jeeves and Wooster. Here’s the first one. I hope.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4GeN700eu4
DJSpo
Hi Pam,
That’s exactly what the big fluff did with strawberries. The activity was unrelenting once Sir Poopy developed a taste for the yummy treats. Go Rex, and when harvesting produce, yours is of course the great unknown question. 🙂 Some people freak out about rainwater, but don’t seem to be all that concerned about what goes on in dams.
Hmm. An ambitious berry plan, and please do let me know how it rolls. A lot of them, is my thinking, but truly I’ve no idea.
Ooo, it would be getting up to that point in the season when those bulbs are ready to pick. Ha! I’ve never tried using the black plastic, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t heat up the soil and reduce plant competition from weeds. My grandfather used to use the stuff in his garden for both of those reasons and this was in the 1970’s.
We use heaps of plastic with growing as well, it’s called the greenhouse which has an outer coating of polycarbonate sheets. Tough stuff. Use whatcha got access to.
You could always lift a bit of the plastic and see what the soil moisture looks like?
I know, it’d be a constant drama rescuing stuck parrots from netting, and eventually they’d work out some way to break in anyway. On that note, I spotted a rodent hole inside the chicken run today. Hmm. Dumped an entire cartridge of silicone sealant into the tunnel, and then added some cement powder to where I reckon the mice may have dug their way in. There are concrete pavers under the main door and the mice had presumably scraped away the grout between two of the pavers. Cement will be a whole bunch stronger grout. Eventually the chickens will catch the mice, they always do.
Oh my! I’d not considered how to deal with a stuck angry snake in netting. Call the local snake catcher is perhaps what I’d do… Your lot are nice reptiles but with bad attitudes. The ones here are deadly poisonous, and want to be kept calm at all costs.
I like sauerkraut too, and it has a pleasant sharp taste – plus it would be good for you. Ah well, DIL may not enjoy kimchi? I used to know someone who travelled to Korea and who disliked garlic and chilli. Good luck with that, I thought to myself a the time.
Ollie now has his own blanket and woollen covering. He’ll be fine, maybe. It’s cold and wet here today. Brr! They say that there are blizzard conditions way up in the alpine parts of the state. Anywhoo, the big dog headed outdoors in the wind and rain to do his business, then promptly turned around and headed back indoors. Even the Kelpies were daunted.
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
Jeeves was always the brains behind the operation, and having worked for some exceptionally wealthy folks long ago, whilst Wodehouse stories were enjoyable, they just left me feeling a bit uncomfortable and the experience took away the shine. The situations were probably more enjoyable for Bertie than for Jeeves. I did love the dialogue between characters as it was fun, their concerns though, grated a little bit. The stories I’d love to recount from those days, but can’t, and shouldn’t.
🙂 The interior of the motel had been reproduced down here as well. The whole set had a real retro vibe to it. In the late 90’s we set off for six months in a small hatchback on a figure eight loop around the continent. Man, the sights! And to save mad cash we generally slept in a tent. At times a more thorough clean up was required, and we’d hit those motels and they do look exactly like that, maybe without the flashing lights and signage you saw on that trip, but yeah, same, same.
Ha! Exactly! Two inches of snow wasn’t much for you, but for the good folks there, it’d have been utter mayhem. Two inches of snow here would be the apocalypse! 🙂 You only know, what you know, and if you don’t know it, you won’t know it.
Jolly good shot with the snowballs! It’d only be random if you had missed. The charges were patently false, and you’d have never done such a thing! 😉 I can’t believe your peers dobbed you in rather than chucking snow balls right back at you both.
Well, yes, that’s the thing isn’t it? Southern California wouldn’t get all that cold, and if the folks were near to the ocean, that cinches the deal. People from Melbourne are kind of like that. Sure some extreme winter there days can get down to 12’C, and the nights will get cold to maybe 3’C at worst, but that just isn’t cold compared to elsewhere, like up here. And that’s just peanuts compared to a proper Spokane snow dump!
There are reports that up in the alpine areas of the state, there are blizzard conditions tonight. Brr! The snow folks will like that.
I can see how the ‘r’ slipped into the pronunciation, and regional differences with the language are fascinating. Down here, the same would be pronounced as wash-ing-tonne. A tonne being one thousand kilograms, which is easy to remember! Tonne is also pronounced at a slightly higher pitch (Tah-nne) than the word ‘ton’.
I know man! The Editor was however, not hanging off the control end of the jackhammer and thus could appreciate the amusement of the situation. 🙂 Her teeth were not being rattled, as was every joint and bone in my body. It’s a good machine, but one to be used in small amounts.
Of course, new colours of rose flowers may upset the overall composition of planting, and I respect that.
Well done you, and old windows are perfect for a greenhouse. Why buy new? That’s some fine work on your part, and the old timers did use to say: re-use; repair; and only then recycle. Why didn’t they mention the tip? 😉
That’s fast with the new succulent flowering. Conditions must be to their liking.
A bit of rain at this time of year for your lady’s brother area is a gift, and I can see that Yakima County would be warmer given it’s further south. The area looked dry in the photos.
It rained here again for most of the day. Although the sun shone again for about half an hour around lunchtime (great for the solar panels). But the wind! It’s arriving in gusty waves. Did paid work all day long and ran the wood heater to keep the place warm. It’s 7’C outside tonight, but that’d be due to the cloud cover. There may be some frost tomorrow morning with a 3’C start, but we’ll see.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Oh my! I’d not appreciated until reading about glass manufacture methods over the past few days, that so many different minerals and compounds get chucked into the mix. Gold was a new one, thanks! That red glow… Some of the materials are quit err, nasty customers, like cadmium. Yeah, the history looks like real alchemy in action. Let’s throw some of this mineral into the molten glass, and see what happens!
You weren’t wrong about the protection of trade secrets: divulge trade secrets outside of Venice. If a glass worker left the city without permission, he would be ordered to return. If he failed to return, his family would be imprisoned. If he still did not return, an assassin would be sent to kill him. From wikipedia, reproduced purely for educational purposes. That’s pretty extreme, but not all that different from how goober secrets are treated today. Best to not be involved, with any of that story. I also noted that long ago Venice commanded a strong navy, which would have been a drain on the treasury, but probably necessary because they had a treasury to protect in the first place. The Merchant of Venice indeed!
Probably for the best you dodging that round forecast number, and the overnight lows are perfect for cooling the buildings back down again. I see that they’ve been having heat waves in the UK. The numbers didn’t seem all that high to me, but it’s a relative thing. Wise to take it easy on hot days, and that’s how we all roll here as well. Up early, do what needs doing, be out of the afternoon sun by 2:30pm-ish. It’s got a nice natural feel to it that rhythm. Winter on the other hand is for resting up, and working indoors.
Ground dwelling solitary bees, like your fairy bees, also reside around these parts. Hope your chamomile smells nice as it dries? Thanks for the reminder, I should grow a patch of that most useful of plants. It’s done well here in the past, but then gets out-competed by the grasses.
There was an update on the health of the European honeybees on this continent, and it’s not good. Crop failure fears as deadly bee parasite wipes out hives and forces beekeepers to quit. It’s the little things you notice. On Tuesday whilst an hours drive up north from here, I spotted a household who’d kept bees for a number of years. The lids of five of their six hives were open to the air, and that’s not a good sign.
The Professor made some good points regarding the d-day landing weather forecast, and noted that both teams took a good predictive stab based on the data, but everyone also got very lucky. And maybe that was for the best. Perfect conditions would have had the Germans on high alert. Also the essay on the mirages was interesting.
What? The film is a classic. How could it be beaten? John Carpenter is a master of the art. OK, let’s check this trailer out… … Ah, yet to be written or cast. Alas, let’s hope that they don’t mess it up, although I noted that John Carpenter was involved in production. It was a fun dark dystopian action tale that one. We’ll have to wait and see. Thanks for spotting it.
A century is an enviable achievement, and few of us ever leave much of a trace. I had wondered if any sci-fi or fantasy books were part of the collection so appreciate you guessing my interest! Respect. Some of the works from that era were brilliant, and Alfred Bester’s: The Stars My Destination, left quite the impression on me as a kid. A classic action revenge tale, with a major twist, so no shortage of great material in that genre at the time. I enjoyed Bradbury better than Asimov, but such are literary preferences.
Borrowing a book, and not returning it, is an evil deed. In my more naive days I’d loaned books to friends, only to discover with horror, that they were unwilling to return them. Some when pressed, for I have worked in debt collection, even made the claim that the book was always theirs. Shameful behaviour, and it’s baffling to me that this may have taken place with a famous person.
I’d imagine that the act of reading, would also improve an actors breadth of the understanding of their fellow humans? It is possible that the industry shoe-horned the actress, the lady would have be en type cast, and we’ve discussed the issue of staying (or being forced to) in ones lane in the past. And hey, there’s plain old envy too, that’s a sickness.
With Conan, I’ll stick with Howard thanks. It’s awful to say, but Mr Jordan’s writing made a poor impression. The story he’s most well known for, just went nowhere after a few books. I genuinely felt bad about putting that series down too.
A spooky haunted hospital tale has a lot going for it. Film and television are difficult mediums.
Inflation, err, happens… 🙂 It doesn’t help any of us though, does it? Yours is a good use for the card, and who knows, the blueberry flats might be the same price this year? You seem to be getting plenty of rain at the right time for the berries. I know, every bit does help. Better that, than having to break out of New York if it were a dystopian prison!
Gave Ollie a woollen blanket to sleep under today. It feels cold here, and the wind has been feral at times, but gusty. Rain on, rain off. What do you do? We did paid work all day. The goobers are givin’ me headaches man. 🙂 Oh well, lights on, and food on the table are good things to celebrate. My experience during the 90’s as young adult unable to move back home during the recession was salient. A person discovers what is needful.
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – Throw cobalt in a batch of glass and you get blue. 🙂 When Louis XIV built the Hall of Mirrors, at Versailles, it was with French made mirror glass. He had managed to break the Venice stranglehold. He had smuggled Venetian glassmakers out of Venice, and installed them in a factory, in France. Assassins were sent to kill them, and at least two died. But not before they imparted the secret of large mirror glass, to the French.
Our high yesterday was 66F (18.88C). Our overnight low was 52F (11.11C). Our forecast high for today is 70F. I’ve been hearing about the heat wave, in Britain. I remember when for the first time in recorded times, the temperature hit 100 (37.77C). That was back in 2003. Due to a warm period, the Romans grew grapes, in Britain. Then came a long cold run. No grapes. Now, grapes are coming back to Ol’ Blighty.
My garden? Paint me … disgusted. When I walked the dog, last night, I noticed one of my tomatoes in my raised bed was flat on the ground. Looked like someone had stepped on it, though there were no tracks. This is a plant that’s over a foot tall, with a 1/4 inch stem. I wondered if I could save it. So, this morning I did some more investigating. The other tomato plant, about a meter away, shows signs of gnawing around the base. It’s the d…d wood lice, again. I pounded in a t-post, tied the flopped over tomato to it, and piled up some good garden dirt around the bottom.
Speaking of the t-post, I don’t know if it will stay upright, or not. I couldn’t get it very far in, even with a hammer. I need to ask the two longest working Master Gardeners, if they were around when that raised bed was constructed. It’s one of the oldest. I wonder if whoever built it, placed down rock “for drainage.” Well, thanks for that. I can’t even shove a tomato cage, all the way down, in that bed. In the strawberry bed, which is of a similar vintage, I’ve occasionally pulled up a good sized chunk of what looks like sandstone. Anyway, I had another one of those “I’m throwing in the towel on gardening moments.” They usually pass. 🙂
My German chamomile has come back, every year on its own. When small, they’re easy to move, if in an inconvenient spot. They do tend to flop, as I think they will also root from branches on the ground. But I keep them upright in a tomato cage. One more harvest of blossoms, and I’ll pull them out and plant something else there.
That’s terrible about the bees. The price of honey will really go up. Soon to be only a luxury item. I noticed one of the “experts” thought the mite would also decimate “feral” populations. I thought they’d maybe be more resilient, or, at least out of the way.
There was a banner ad, on that article, for something called “Restoration Australia.” As the presenter was standing in front of an old building, I presume it’s about restoring old properties. Have you ever checked it out?
If I had a nickel for every movie that didn’t get made … 🙂 . Projects morph and languish for years. “There’s many a slip ‘twixt the cup and the lip.” A saying that goes back in England, to the 16th century. But there are Greek and Roman templates back to the second century. BCE or ACE? Come on guys, a little clarity here! 🙂
It wasn’t my guess, it was the author of “Marilyn and Her Books,” that pointed that out. About the lack of sci-fi. So, I read the chapter about what an actor might read, last night. 1.) Books that deal with acting technique. 2.) Biographies (auto or otherwise), of actors or people in the industry. 3.) Film scripts. 4.) Plays. Great for developing dialogue. And,vocabulary. All four areas were well represented, among Marilyn’s books.
We got our food box, yesterday. The most pleasant surprise? A one pound clamshell of blueberries. Organic, non-GMO and product of the U.S.. One pound each of frozen ground beef and pork. The usual 2 pound brick of what passes for cheese. Also, a one pound package of pretty good sharp cheddar. Though I’ve mentioned before, that it needs to be used fast, as it goes moldy. 2 boxes of rice cereal and two quarts of shelf stable milk. 1/2 gallon of apple juice. 6 individual yoghurts. 10 individually wrapped small sandwiches or deserts (dumpster). One doz. eggs. A pound of butter. 4 bottles of old people’s nutritional drink. A jar of peanut butter. a one pound bag of white rice.
Veg and fruit. A clamshell with four lettuce hearts, different varieties. A head of broccoli. 2 large baking potatoes. 2 Yellow onions. 4 good-sized carrots. And, mysteries. 6, what looked like green mini bananas. And, something long and green that is either a courgette, or a cucumber.
Tins: 3 tins of 12 oz. tuna. 2 tins each of diced tomatoes, kidney beans, peaches and green beans. One tin of pears.
Not a bad lot. I also swung past the dollar + store and picked up a few things. So, I had five bags to take in to the Club, for the pantry. Looking pretty good, at least last night.
I’ll probably swing past, on my way to Winco. My monthly expedition. 🙂 See how it’s going. Lew
@ DJSpo:
What a lot of great music. Thanks! I kept wondering where Stephen Fry came in – not till the credits, as Executive Producer.
Pam
Chris:
Your grandfather seemed to be a knowledgeable gardener, so maybe black plastic is not the scourge that I thought it was. It’s put down pretty tight, with metal pins. I can feel around the plants for moisture, but not elsewhere under the plastic.
My goodness, those mice were very determined to get into the chook palace. I would think the cement
would discourage them, but you never know. There’s the answer to your rodent problems: Get an army of chickens together and let them roam at will everywhere, except that a)They will also eat whatever produce they come across b) Then something would eat them. Maybe a Great Pyrenees to guard them? Ollie wouldn’t like that.
Yes, I can handle the snakes here. I would never want to try it where you live.
I am glad that I am not in the cold and wet, with blizzards in some places, yet. It is getting hotter every day here, but I think there will be a change over the weekend.
I have meant to ask you for awhile if you have ever heard of this perennial green – Garden Sorrel, Rumex Acetosa? I thought I would have bought some seeds by now, but kept forgetting.
https://backyardlarder.co.uk/plants/garden-sorrel/
Pam
Chris:
In your comment to DJSpo about Jeeves & Wooster: My husband felt like you do and wouldn’t watch it either.
Pam
@ Pam,
Glad you enjoyed the music. I really enjoy that program.
DJSpo
Chris,
I can imagine some of the stories. I can think of several dozen reasons why the stories don’t get repeated. Especially when I read the Wodehouse books, even the first time through, I would think about the utter uselessness of Bertie and many of his peers. Amusing? Yes, but…
It wasn’t peers that turned us in. Our peers threw snowballs back at us. Twas some unknown person. All that happened was that the head secretary wandered to where we were and asked to talk to me, suggesting that we stop due to complaints. She and I had an understanding. Later, we found out that her husband was a cousin of my aunt, the wife of my dad’s brother. Family.
I remember when we lived in Southern California. We were inland just enough that we would get a light frost once every few years. Snow? No. Just the occasional light frost. I also remember that we wore our heaviest coats if the temperatures dropped much below 50F. Now at 50F and lower, the Princess has to remind me to add an additional layer to my sweatshirt because I’ve gotten “not young”.
Blizzard conditions? Yikes! Snow. Wind. Blowing snow. Sideways snow. At least it’s in the mountains. That’s where blizzards belong.
Language is interesting. I pronounce Washington as wash-ing-ton. Yet I typically pronounce Edmonton as ed-mon-un. No “t” sound. Drove my sister totally batty. I have no idea how I learned that pronunciation.
Our roses used to be hybrids of many different colors. One winter had some horridly cold temperatures. The grafted on parts died, but the roots didn’t. So now we have the underlying red roses from the roots.
Toppenish officially got a “trace”. We got 0.01 inches overnight. Just enough to barely get the streets wet.
Today was a work day in our yard with Young Neighbor. Finished pruning and trimming the crabapple tree. It is really opened up now. It has had fungus problems on leaves for years. Being opened up should mitigate that over time. We also got some other things trimmed. We’re getting a lot done. It’s good to have energetic help now and then.
DJSpo
Hi Pam,
What do you do? I really wanted to enjoy Wodehouse, and the words are sublime whilst the dialogue is amusing. I get where your husband was at though. In some ways Jeeves had it easy, his number one job was keeping Bertie out of trouble. It would be impolite to name names, but I had the financial side of that equation also and had to manage a team of ten or so accounts folks as well. It was too much for any one person, and the day I cracked it and quit, was all about that fricken key (the coveted milk jug plot bothered me deeply). The situation was straight out of Wodehouse’s mind. Best not to be involved and enjoy from afar… 😉
My granddad grew up on his grandmothers farm during The Great Depression. The drought at the time was equally bad down under. Things must have been horrendous for his parents to have dumped him on one of their parents to raise. But I don’t recall him ever complaining about it, or even rarely discussing the matter. As an early adult he headed off to WWII in the European theatre. Sometimes trauma runs through generations and I get why my mum was a bit off.
All the same, in later years the old bloke effortlessly managed a vegetable garden which was as large as a tennis court (which it once was)in his backyard. And absolutely he used black plastic. It was my job to run around on Sunday mornings and gather up all of the broken chunks – which we used to burn off in a cinder block incinerator. Those were the days! 🙂
The ultraviolet radiation from the sun breaks the plastic down, and it becomes brittle and falls apart. But absolutely the stuff works. There is UV stable plastic out there, but whether your lot is that, who knows? It might be, and some plastics here which are UV stable are super hardy. It might be an Australian thing to produce the plastic that way. The hole in the ozone layer down here is a thing, and sometimes extends over this part of the continent, so we’ve had to adapt.
I’ve been checking to see what happened to the mice, but yesterday did squeeze an entire tube of silicone into the hole. They won’t like that, and hopefully were not in there at the time. Also the cement poured yesterday has not been touched today. Dunno. That one is a mystery.
I like your thinking with the chickens! But as you note, can they be house trained? Ollie is a gentleman and the activities of all of the birds are beneath his dignity to notice.
Respect, and truly, I envy you your more relaxed reptiles. The lot here produce a low level of anxiety, but that also means I don’t mess with them.
Hope your cool change brings some rain? Just between you and I, I get more outside work done in the summer months. For some odd reason, I used to believe that it was the other way around, but no. Winter is the time for rest and recuperation. Did a sourcing day today, and headed to the nearby big outer urban town to pick up needed supplies. And had a Bahn Mi for lunch. One must occasionally make sacrifices, don’t you reckon? 🙂
Yeah, I’ve grown a Sorrel variety here which is remarkably similar. Do I need to consume such acidic leaves? Probably not. The website suggested a sour taste, but to my palate, they’re very bitter. There are easier heat hardy plants like Swiss chard, or Perennial Wall Rocket. Neither of which will upset the guts and they taste better. Dunno. Give it a go for yourself and see what you reckon?
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
Man, I so wanted to bask in the glory of the Wodehouse stories given the hype and love for the author. Code of the Woosters was funny and the text and dialogue were sublime. But in the real world when working as a CFO, the day I quit, was all about some stupid fricken key. I’d had enough and cracked it! That moment was a step too far. Was the key close to the much desired milk jug in the story, yeah. We talked about it afterwards, and sure I got the full story, but did I want to inhabit that world? No. Mr Wodehouse took me back there. How he knew what went on in such circles, was a mystery to me. And Jeeves was clearly less encumbered by other onerous responsibilities as I had to deal with. It was simply too much. People at that level need a fixer.
Ah! As a side note, the finer points of etiquette in relation to snowball fights are lost on me for good climactic reasons – it snows here maybe one day per year now, and sometimes not at all. I appreciate the explanation as to how it all played out, and nice one, you could pull on strings. It pays to know folks in high places! 😉
The unknown person complaint is a horrid thing to be on the wrong end of. The utoob channel a couple of years ago, or was it last year, I now forget, had that issue. All complaints are accepted, and you could see the process in action in the statistics. It was brutal. Given the mad cash in that arena, some fighters there play dirty.
Melbourne has a similar climate to what you described with southern California, but maybe about twice as wet as LA. 50’F isn’t cold, and I’m with you about that. If there is no wind, it’s positively temperate feeling. And that is also for our caveman benefit in that the more level headed ladies, remind us of our follies. 🙂
Hang on, here are some photos from the Alpine areas of the state. Snowfalls breathe life into 2026 Australian ski season. Those photos might get you itchy and reaching for the ski gear? 🙂
It only rained a little bit overnight, under a millimetre. But it was cold today, and partly sunny. The solar panels soaked up some nice sun juice. Not enough to fully charge the batteries, but way more than we used. Took the day off work and did a sourcing day. Sthil is doing a 3 for the price of 2 saw chains, so why not stock up? Plus chicken grains, dog kibbles, some other stuff and a Bahn Mi. Yum!
I’ve never seen a blizzard here, and would have a monster freak out if it ever happened. Trust me, you’d hear me whingeing about the conditions! Have you ever been caught in one? What’s it like?
Interesting, did you notice that with Wash-ing-ton, that the syllables go up the scale? But with Ed-mon-ton, they go down? Sorry, but I’d pronounce the ‘t’ which your sister would approve of. 😉 It’s funny where we pick up language, and who knows what interaction in the past caused you to pronounce the word that way?
Ah! Yes that can happen with the rootstock and glad that the rose plants produce nice flowers. We’ve had some fruit trees where the graft has died and the rootstock has taken over. Occasionally the parent tree has been useful, or provided much needed shade and so has been left to grow. Go far enough into the future, and hardy, local and proven rootstock will be valuable.
Ha! Not that it is a competition, but we got 0.015″ or 0.4mm overnight! 😉 The rain would be far more useful in your part of the world though. Sometimes, dew dripping off the leaves is all that the trees have to survive on for weeks and weeks during dry summers. Pretty scary stuff. Hope you get some more rain, and soon.
Good stuff, and the sunlight is a wonderful sterilising agent, as is the additional airflow in the crab apple tree. I’ll bet new branches form pretty quickly? I’m still learning about pruning and am at the just past book knowledge stage. Please do let me know how the tree goes over the next few weeks and months?
It is indeed, and glad to hear that you’re handing on some practical skills. It’s an issue which I wonder about.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
I’d forgotten, but yeah, the land of stuff porcelain generally has blue motifs. Of course, additions of Cobalt would have provided the colour. I’d not thought of that. Interestingly, some of the mineral is necessary, but a little bit too much is not good at all. There were some small parts of South Australia and New Zealand where the mineral was lacking in the soil, and that lead to health issues in sheep. And in other parts of the world the stuff was added to beer, as some may do. Hmm. Probably not ideal.
It’s an interesting material Cobalt, and is added to some very hardy drill bits I use. The lithium batteries with that mineral (not all have that like the large ones used here) have some err, exciting properties.
Napoleon stomped on the glass making industry in that city too. Having captured the town in conquest would have made the job easier to temporally put them out of business. Presumably the assassins made a couple of very public examples over the years, but I don’t see how they could have gotten every glass master who upped sticks to better remunerated shores. It’d make for a nervous existence though, and memories and grudges would perhaps be long.
The growing of grapes in Ol’ Blighty is quite the recent change. Some parts of those islands are very green even where average rainfall is low, because the temperatures are mild. Things can change on that front, yup. The transition from the Medieval Warm Period to the Little Ice Age, sent me on a rabbit hole reading about the Norse in Greenland. Not a pretty story.
Oh no, that’s hard! The fricken wood lice struck your tomatoes. I’ve never experienced that, and your lot are voracious little critters. Piling up the dirt around the righted plant is a good idea, you can bury the stems, and the plant may produce some new and higher roots. Fingers crossed it works out with those two.
What goes on under the soil can be a mystery. Buried rocks is one explanation, but it could be a pipe, or old chunk of building material etc. You never know. Stay strong 🙂 , and maybe the raised bed is a mystery? It’s not too early in the growing season to dig the bed up and see what is under there, but that is a job for the master gardeners.
It’s funny you encountered this, but when cleaning up the most recently made garden bed in the greenhouse on Monday, the soil lower down was septic. What a stink! We’d placed the raised bed over the crushed rock with lime base, and hadn’t thought there’d be a problem. That was wrong. Working over the potent stench, I rammed the six foot steel wrecking bar into the ground repeatedly until I got through to clay. Then went further down and mixed the clay in with the soil. At one point I was feeling a bit woozy and head spinney and had to head out for some fresh air. I’d hate to think what gases I was breathing in that day, but I was quick about the job, put it that way. The plants weren’t doing all that great in the bed, so hopefully this helps them. The soil smells better now and also looks drier.
Thanks, and I’d not realised the chamomile would come back every year. That’s my understanding too, the plants will work their way across the ground doing the flop trick.
You know, I have a gut feeling that the honey may end up being sold as honey, when it’ll contain a lot of sugar syrup to make up the difference. Most people wouldn’t notice the swap, and I only worked this out years ago when we made mead. Some batches turned out like sugar wine, because that was what they were. Hmm. I’ve read about this matter since then. The product cost will actually go down if sugar syrup is substituted so costs may stay the same as honey production decreases.
But I agree, the wild populations of bees will be initially hit pretty hard by the mites. I expect a wipe out in the 90+% range, then they’ll slowly adapt to the mites and recover over decades – but the bees will never be the same again.
Hehe! I saw that link to Restoration Australia as well, and the building was lovely, and huge! A bit scary really.
Had a sourcing day today. Stihl has a 3 for 2 chain dealing going on, so why not? Stocked up as those babies are good, but expensive. Picked up bulk supplies of chicken grains, dog kibbles, went to the big box store hardware, and most importantly! Had a Bahn Mi for lunch. The weather was cold, but sunny so the house batteries enjoyed some decent sunshine. Let the sunshine… Oooo, sounds like my brain slipped into a musical ear worm mode eight overdrive, that one about hair and hippies. 😉 Catchy little disease that.
Ah, I see, and the proverb has another meaning too. I tend to prefer the more recent: Don’t count your chickens until they’re hatched. But haven’t heard that line used in years, and have never heard the one you mentioned. It’s all about instant gratification these days, you know. I’m not into that.
Hey, by the way I chance encountered an article on council rates, which you’d describe as ‘property taxes’. In this state I believe that about 11% of households are in arrears, which is slightly over one in ten houses. I couldn’t believe it. Talk about a disaster waiting to happen. My mind was blown. It’s the things which can’t be seen…
The author of the book has a sharp mind, and it was the exact question I was wondering. Did Marilyn read pulp books? Back in the day, big corporates had their own libraries and librarians, but I do wonder how the actress discovered what to read. I can’t imagine that the studios pushed certain books on their performers? Was that matter discussed yet?
The blueberries are an awesome find, and the origin sounds good to me. I’ve heard of some stories of land of stuff frozen berries over the years. The Editor and I spoke about the subject of cheese going off, and we tend to cut away the mouldy bits and feed the remnants to the dogs. The off notes get into the entire block for some weird reason. Now if I were starving… 🙂 The dumpster comes in handy on such occasions as what you described. By the way, those mini bananas are quite tasty, but I found them to go goopy and mooshy rather quickly. I still see that banana fungus from time to time. Hmm.
Probably a cucumber. Did you cut it open?
Good stuff, and respect for stocking up the pantry. Such a good thing to do.
🙂 Beware those coffee bean candies on the Winco run!
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – Cobalt also makes some nasty bombs. Apocalyptic stuff. Speaking of which, I finished season two of a series called “Fallout.” I hadn’t realized that it’s based on a very popular video game. I quit liked it and am looking forward to season three.
https://w.wiki/9k9F
Families of Venetian glassblowers would want to work on staying on very good terms. If the glass worker did a runner, well, …
If the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (that’s a mouthful), slows or stops, Northwest Europe, including Britain, go right back in the ice box. It is acting up, due to the influx of fresh water, from Greenland and the ice cap.
Our high yesterday was 68F (20C). Our overnight low was 50F (10C). Our forecast high for today is 62F. Ohhhh. All whole numbers, again. I won’t have to water today or tomorrow. Rain is a pretty sure thing. When H and I went out for our morning walk, it was trying hard to rain. We got a bit damp, but not much. Prof. Mass is all excited about an atmospheric river, coming in. Sort of unusual, for this time of the year.
Another thing I’m going to try with the tomatoes, as suggested by The Font of All Wisdom, is a collar around the stem. About a year ago, vinegar started coming in much flimsier plastic bottles. They can be cut with scissors.
That greenhouse stink sounds ghastly. I wonder what caused it? The two half barrels I use for pumpkins and asparagus used to have two palms in them. Had been there for years. Well, they started to die. I dug them out, which was quit the job. And, they stank to high heaven. Once I was done with the job, I had to toss the gloves I had worn.
The chamomile seems to self seed. I think three or four came up, in that bed, this spring. If they don’t make an appearance, I think I’d plant some blossoms, from my tea canister. Left to their own devices, I think they could become quit invasive.
It was also a sourcing evening, for me. I headed to the Winco. I spent $130. But, about $15 of it was for the Club pantry. Anything for less than $1, that I think might be appealing. Tuna, pork and beans, four boxes of the muffin mix, and a good brand of Mac & cheese. Not the stuff I buy for myself 🙂 . Tinned Mandarine oranges.
Prices in general, seemed a bit down. The Mac & cheese I buy, was bumping up against $5. If it had gone over, I would have not bought it. But, it was down to just under $4. I bought a two pound + jar of peanut butter, that was $7.88. A one pound brick of Swiss cheese was $4.78. A two pound brick of Mozzarella was $6.68. Organic rolled oats were $1.42 a pound. Did they have chocolate covered coffee beans? Yes, they did. dark chocolate covered. In the bulk section, Winco has small bags, and large bags. I got a small bag of the coffee beans. But I can’t tell you how much they were. I think they were $8+ a pound. But looking at my receipt, either the checker misread the bin number, or the bin number was wrong. I was charged for almond flour, which was considerably less.
Oh, well. I stopped at the gas station, on the way to Winco, which offset any savings. $5.90 for a US gallon of regular gas.
That is a rather startling figure for property taxes in arrears. Here, property taxes can either be paid, in full, once a year. Or, there’s the option of two payments, a few months apart. If the property taxes are in arrears, for a certain amount of time (I don’t know how long), the property can be sold, at auction, “from the courthouse steps.”
Actor’s agents often suggested books to read, on acting. There were acting workshops. Acting coaches. And, maybe in some of those actor biographies, Marilyn read. I suppose actors also suggested useful texts, to one another.
The chapter I read last night, was about what other actors were reading, about the same time as Ms. Monroe. James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor, and Brando. It’s interesting how gender and class, had a lot to do with how the public perceived the ability of certain actors to read … or not.
Cheese molds spread through rootlike structures. Like mushroom mycelium.
I haven’t checked out the possible cucumber, yet.
I saw an interesting article about the shitification of everything, yesterday.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/jun/04/us-consumer-rage-prices-economy
If you can’t see it, you might be able to find it, by title. “Why are US consumers so angry?”
I’m also reading a chapter or two of a new book by David Sedaris. “The Land and Its People.” I do mostly like his books. He can be quit funny. And, he’s a curmudgeon … just like me. :-). Lew
Chris:
I think one reason that I enjoy dipping into Wodehouse is because it is a vacation for me: To be the idle rich and have no financial worries, just social ones, though in real life, I find some of the social interactions more frightening and exhausting than being anxious about money. And I enjoy Wodehouse’s clever – and humorous – dialogue. Of course, I have never been in the position you were in. Ook.
The same thing happened to my father. He was dumped on his grandmother and aunt on a farm during the Depression. In his case, it was because his mother ran off with a Hollywood talent scout and his father could in no way care for him (he was 4), especially once he was drafted.
Only time will tell about my black plastic. I console myself with: “Yeah, it will probably all break down by next year . . .”
Unfortunately, the weather gurus are now saying that after a couple of cooler days, it will get even hotter. I wish they’d make up their minds.
Sacrifices – by the tail of my Great Aunt Regret who won the Derby. You may perhaps remember that from “Francis the Talking Mule”?
If I don’t forget about it, I’ll give the sorrel a try because it’s a perennial. I forgot to give you another kind of sorrel’s name :
“Rumex acetosa is sometimes called French sorrel but this name more commonly refers to Rumex scutatus, buckler-leaved sorrel, a species with smaller leaves but often considered to have a finer flavour and particularly popular in French cooking.”
I like endive and it is bitter, so I may like sorrel.
Yesterday some calves in charge of a neighbor who is a farmer, though these were not his own calves, broke through a wood fence and ran out onto Hwy 20, the little 2-lane highway into town. That can be a very busy road. This occurred because they had been moved to a new pasture to wean them from their mothers; what a bunch of feisty babies. I’ll bet the actual instigators were bull calves. Anyway, it took most of yesterday to round them all up. I wish I’d seen that.
Pam
Chris,
Code of the Woosters with the cat creamer was probably the best of the books. I couldn’t quit laughing. Wodehouse was good with dialogue and knew how to turn a phrase. It was equally obvious to me that the job of the valet was to be a fixer. As you said, people at that level need a fixer.
But looking back on Medieval European history, wasn’t it always that way? The upper classes were basically idle. Boredom would set in and they’d be off raiding their neighbors or something. Or plotting something nefarious against an unliked relative. Or how to steal the beautiful daughter from your other neighbor before your brother can marry her. Things like that. So perhaps snake in the grassing until purloining the cow creamer is a bit less disruptive to us mortals of the working classes.
Ah, yes, knowing people in high places. The main floor of the physics building had a few classrooms and the offices of most of the graduate students. Second story was mostly classrooms. The third? That was where the main office was. So, yes, you could say that my distant cousin was a friend in a high place. At least higher than where than where my office was.
I pulled off some mischief back in those days. There was the time one of the senior undergrads, who treated most people with utter contempt, well, he had really pushed me too far. A few weeks later, he somehow had to take care of a baby for an hour. Poor baby never stopped drying. I bought the student a birthday congratulation card and anonymously put it in his student mailbox. He was not amused and went ballistic, trying to pin the blame on several people, most notably the head secretary, my rellie! After he had graduated and I was still there during summer term, cousin stated, “I know that card for Phil was from you. Nobody else thinks that way. Thanks. He had it coming.”
Toward the end of summer term, in the discussion before a physics lab session that I was teaching, I lit and threw a firecracker. I figured it was a decent enough example of energy leading to disorder eventually. Entropy. It also happened to wake up my least favorite student, who naturally complained to the office about the firecracker.
A few minutes later, my office phone rang. “DJ, you need to come see me,” said my cousin. Up the stairs I went. “Did you really light a firecracker in your class today? They’re illegal on campus, you know.” I said that I had, and that the firecracker was a demonstration of entropy. “Oh”, said cousin, laughingly, “if it was related to your class then it’s okay. Just don’t do it again.”
There were a few other shenanigans for which I was responsible. I know as a fact that the department chairman was happy to see me leave and not return. Cousin, however, had a different view. A few months after returning to Spokane, cousin called me. “It’s too quiet here without you.” That was the first thing she said. Then she told me that the best friend I had there, well, his wife had died suddenly. She broke several university rules and probably stretched a law or two to give me my friend’s new phone number.
Friend was happy to hear from me. It turns out that his wife collapsed near the southwest corner of the Santa Fe’s old town square in early July and was rushed to hospital via ambulance. Turns out, my sister and I were just leaving Santa Fe’s old town square via the southwest corner at that very time and saw the ambulance but not my friend.
Cool! Snow. Thanks for the article and photos.
I’ve driven during windy conditions with heavy snow, but not in an official blizzard. Not good to be travelling during those. They don’t happen here very often. We had a giant blizzard in January of 1969. That was one crazy winter with tremendous snowfall from late December until the middle of February. I think the total for the season was 94 inches, just shy of the record that we shattered in the 2008-2009 winter. Over 85 inches fell in those 6 or 7 weeks.
Oh, the blizzard. School started at 9 am. They sent us home about 10:15 a.m. because of the incoming blizzard. The temperature dropped from about -1C to -15C in less than two hours. At the same time it was extremely windy and snowing. Snow was blowing off of roofs and trees and roads, too. Visibility was almost zero at times. It was difficult to see across the street.
Wash-ing-ton. The pitch of the third syllable is the lowest here.
I think a day or three ago you mentioned that photos of Yakima County looked like the area was rather dry. Yup. Part of the desert. Rainfall varies between 7 and 10 inches throughout the central Washington desert. This very same desert stretches from Penticton, Canada through Washington and Oregon and is connected to the deserts in southern Idaho, Nevada, Arizona, and into California and Mexico and New Mexico, etc. That’s really just one enormous desert, although it has been given many local and regional names.
Sure. I’ll keep you updated on that crabapple tree. It will be interesting to watch it after the good pruning.
DJSpo
Hi Pam,
Wodehouse is brilliant, the dialogue is sublime, and agreed, nothing bad ever happens in one of those novels. My favourite author fills a similar purpose (escape), and although bad things happen, the protagonist has to grow and rise up to the challenge. Probably says a lot about my mindset, but I so get your enjoyment. If I’d never risen that high in the profession and experienced the heady airs, my view of the future would probably be brighter.
No way! Times were tough during the Great Depression. Banking collapses, extreme drought, crazy unemployment. Then conscription during WWII, people forget their history and the command to present themselves at their nearest military assessment centre, or else. Tell ya what, people can be pretty weird about what the meaning of ‘family’ entails, but truly we’re a remarkably adaptable species on that front.
Pam, I wouldn’t worry about the black plastic. use what ya got, is my thinking. And experiment with growing arrangements. We spent most of the day partially cleaning up (chopping and dropping) the huge garden bed on the uphill side of the house. Blackberries had gotten in there and were threatening to take over the world. A hard day of work… Burnt the stabby berry canes off. That’ll learn ’em! 😉
Oh poop! I’m so with you in relation to the weather. A bit of middle ground would be nice.
Thank you for the introduction to Francis, and what fun it would be to have a talking mule as your writing muse. Now Mr Ed the talking horse, why not? Horses may have many interesting things to say.
Now that was the sorrel I’ve grown, and truly Pam, it’s a touch weedy, so you’ll love it. For Mr Gangle-chunks biscuits this week, we added turmeric (which grows here in the greenhouse), cumin and rose hips. He’s a feeling the cold this year, but loved the new version spicy biscuits!
Endive is fine with me as well. It’s just that people freak out over greens which are mildly bitter.
Hehe! Cattle and sheep are the ultimate escape artists. There is truth in the old saying that the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. I spotted some dorper sheep doing that trick in a nearby paddock. The owners had not realised that they’d over stocked. Oh well…
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
Code of the Woosters was pretty funny, and the dialogue was witty with sublime narrative. Most importantly, nothing bad ever happens, other than upsetting aunts with connections, and thus losing social leverage. Jeeves had just one job, he was the fixer and did what it took, including outing fascists in the garden!
The cow creamer was a clever device, but man, I had that key which took on the same mojo, and for me it was the last in a long list of such things. It was hard enough to do the senior job, without the bizarre random plot twists. 😉
That’s true, and the old timers used to have a saying which suggested that: Idle hands are the d’els workshop. Fortunately you and I are not indolent. If I may add as a judgement upon present conditions, those folks are hardly a united front, and in fact may be involved in rivalry of the worst sort. And yes, it would be nice if they left us alone. Nobody wants to be involved in such schemes.
Physically higher within the physics department, suggests good things! This is known.
I didn’t quite comprehend the import with the anonymous birthday card, but no matter, uptight and reactionary people are easy to upset even under ideal conditions. They need to chill out. Man, I once upset someone like that by telling to their face to ‘relax!’ Of course I’d intended the person to get further upset by saying that, but their heated emotions over a whole bunch of nothing, were really quite silly.
Oh my! The firecracker is a new one, and to think the graduates I dealt with got bopped in the head with chocolate. Nothing wakes up a team like that. It’d probably be banned nowadays, and firecrackers would be the whole next level… Ook! All the cameras floating around these days put a stomp on such activities. It is nice that we’ve seen such things, isn’t it?
Things were a bit more loose in those days on a confidentiality front. It’s probably gone a bit over the top nowadays. The ‘going out on a ledge’ was for a good cause though, and it’d be a nice thing for you to have got in touch at that dismal time for your friend. And what’s the chances of seeing the ambulance… July in Santa Fe would be consistently hot, but you’d see the occasional hotter day where you are – as would I down here. Sometimes, life can be random. And when I was a kid, people used to literally drop dead going about their daily activities, there just wasn’t the institutionalising of it that there is today.
There was only that really creepy time when as a young bloke I sat in a conveniently placed chair in the kitchen where my other grandfather had died a few days beforehand. It was nice of everyone to let me know of the significance beforehand. Family… Hmm…
The weather this week has been feral and wet, but today was calm, cloudy and cool at 11’C (which is quite pleasant). We cleaned up the massive garden bed up behind the house. The rats and mice have to expect that there will be some consequences for the recent house invasion. Might plant a nice Japanese maple up in the space, it’ll look great and provide some nice summer shade. The images of the snow up in the Alpine areas of the state looked pretty cool.
Whoa! Wind and heavy snow would be a nightmare experience, and I’d pull over and wait it out if possible – which would not be the case in your part of the world. The extreme heavy rain the other day had the Editor driving at 60km/h on the freeway, which was what most people were doing, except some apparently over-confident folks.
85 or 94 inches of snow, is so much that my brain hurts even thinking about what would be required to survive.
Far out, -15’C with snow and extreme wind is the sort of conditions bodies get found in the aftermath only metres from their front door. Thanks for that.
Ah, I see, yes, we pronounce the ‘ton’ as ‘tun’ and I’d not realised that until you mentioned that it was lower in the scale. See, lots of differences with accents.
The centre of your continent has quite the big true desert. 7 to 10 inches of rain annually will only support the most hardy of trees, if at all. The centre of the continent here has some deserts, but most is arid country. And rainfall can be all over the shop due to the lack of big mountain ranges, particularly once away from the east cost.
I spotted an interesting article on the centre of this country and people getting lost: Life and death in the outback: Why Australians are still dying in the bush. There is often not much margin for error.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Good to hear that the Fallout series makes for entertaining viewing. I’d actually never played the game, but am aware of it. have you ever read ‘ A Canticle for Leibowitz ‘, the late 50’s sci-fi?
Man, that’s what I thought too about the relationship between their families and the master glass makers. Don’t p..s them off would be a good starting point, especially given the consequences and almost certain visit by the assassins in the aftermath. And you’d hope that the authoritas didn’t get the wrong family in error. I’ll bet they did from time to time.
The big warm ocean water conveyor belt stopping might be a problem for that part of the world. Those folks won’t enjoy the sudden change, but that ocean current will be taking away excess energy too from that part of the world, so things can get pretty weird. It’s bizarre that they’d have droughts on Greenland what with all that ice. And yeah, it’s melting.
Today here was lovely, and the first day with no rain for almost a week. As you’d imagine, at 52’F we headed outdoors, as did the dogs. Cleaned up the garden bed in the slope immediately up above the house. A lot of blackberry had become established and the rats were using the jungle as the perfect place to hide. Did about, hmm, maybe two thirds of the total clean up job. To please Roger the Shrubber of Monty Python fame, we may put a path in up there. A path! A path! 🙂
It’s a bit cooler in your part of the world now. Yeah, when the moons align, strange things can happen. Although I must say, the full moon crazy-super-plus thesis is always officially denied and statistics are pulled out to support the claim. I don’t think so, the full moon does weird things to susceptible peoples brain. Consider the werewolf…
Glad that you both mostly dodged the rain. I hear you about that ‘a bit damp’ claim after this wet week.
We get atmospheric rivers in summer, in fact they’re more likely to occur at that time of year. Is that unusual for your part of the world? Oh wow, even Eastern Washington is in the firing line for this atmospheric river. Great news for the plants and dams.
The collar is probably not a bad idea given those dastardly wood lice. Presumably they won’t be able to get between the collar and the tomato trunk? I’ve noticed that with the vinegar bottles as well. Hmm.
Possibly the smell from the soil was caused by Hydrogen Sulphide gas (H₂S) AKA rotten egg gas. Not ideal is it, but a lot more air is now in that soil. The perils of raised garden beds. And I remember your experience with those palms. Yes, the stench gets into the gloves. Nasty. Turns out it was wise to do that job in a well ventilated area, and quickly. What a stinker.
Invasive weeds which are useful plants, are natures gift.
A nice choice of items to head down to the Club pantry. There is cheap when it comes to Mac and Cheese, and then there is the gourmet stuff, probably worth the extra coin. 😉 Thanks for the laughs. Whoa! I’ve never seen tinned citrus. What ever will they think of next?
Picked a ripe citrus from one of the trees this morning. I’m guessing it was a mandarin, but am not entirely sure.
Man, I’m struggling to get a handle on prices as well. I don’t know how this is possible, but fuel costs went down last week. A true mystery, but popularity with the goobers in this country is waning due to their recent tax innovations which have further disadvantaged young folks. They ain’t buying it, but by and large, they did vote for that lot.
Fuel in gallons converted to US$ is cheaper here now at US$4.78 a gallon. How is this possible? It’d be a shock to see in your country those prices. The cynic in me wonders if blue states pay more on average now? Dunno.
The property tax story is bizarre, and yes what you said actually happens. It reminds me of what went on in the early 90’s.
Me crashing after a very hard day of work today.
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – I ran across a funny, the other day. “Why haven’t aliens visited earth? Bad reviews. We only have one star.” 🙂
I read “Canticle” decades ago. I think I tackled it twice. If memory serves (always a dicey proposition), it didn’t read near as clearly as the plot synopsis on Whiki-poopia. Pretty darned opaque. And the sequel was worse. Any-who, that’s what I remember.
Our high yesterday was 61F (16.11C). Our overnight low was 48F (8.88C). Our forecast high for today was 59F. I maybe should have watered, yesterday. That little bit of dampening was it, for the day. Although the sky look promising. But, it looks like it rained overnight. A bit.
Now Chris. Repeat after me. “We admitted we were powerless over paths, and that our lives had become unmanageable.” There. Don’t you feel better? There’s probably a 12 Step Program. 🙂 Your flights of steps sure are impressive, and, always serve a need.
I’ve worked in enough public places, that I’m a firm believer in full moon craziness. There’s always low level, episodic craziness. But it just seems concentrated during full moons.
Tinned tangerines and Mandarin oranges have been around a long time. Back to when I was a kid. Speaking of food, I forgot to mention that I also picked up some pecans at Winco. $8.48 a pound. Halves were about $2 more. I just got the pieces.
You may wonder, why. We got a bag of shelled pecans, a while back, that was kicking around my pantry. I got to wondering which was more nutritious, walnuts or pecans.
Both have their pluses, and differ in, I think, good ways from one another. So, as my after lunch snack, I’ve decided to rotate through dark chocolate, walnuts and pecans.
https://foodstruct.com/nutrition-comparison-text/pecan-vs-walnut
Yes, I’d say, in general, blue states pay more on average, for gas. Here’s a recent article …
https://www.chronline.com/stories/washington-state-gop-leader-again-urges-governor-to-pause-cca-for-gas-relief,403617?
Lets see. What else? I noticed one of my potato plants is beginning to flower. And, I looked into those what might be, bananas in our last food box. There is a Nino, or Baby Banana. But if mine are that, they aren’t ripe and I’ll give them a couple more days. Lew
Hi Lewis,
Thanks for the laughs at the classic dad joke / groaner! If I may, Douglas Adams suggested that real furry creatures from Alpha Centauri, are real furry creatures from Alpha Centauri, but the real reason was that system is rated as three stars. More aliens drop by, although only two planets (so far) have been detected. Three stars is probably a bit warm…
Oh poop! The premise of the book sounded pretty good, and I appreciate your real world review. I prefer a narrative which grips the imagination. By the way, the scariest horror stories of all, was in Mr King’s: ‘On Writing’ book with the chapter: On Living: A postscript. The words ‘Marzes-bars’ will now never leave the synapses – all of them. Man, we’re only ever one moment away from, the beyond. It’s amazing we’ve all gotten to the age we have. By the way, I spotted an article on Australia’s oldest lady (and thought you may enjoy it):
Australia’s oldest woman Lorna Henstridge celebrates 112th birthday
We’re tracking pretty close weather wise to you. I see your 61’F and raise you a max of 52’F today, no rain and calm winds. Quite pleasant really, although my feet ended up wet for most of the day, and by 4pm, that felt chilly. Grabbed the brush cutter early this morning and zipped up the grass around all of the many citrus trees. My boots ended up very damp from that activity. Anywhoo. Some of the weeds grew taller than the trees! It was feral in there. 🙂 But no longer. Order has been restored! This is so weird, but I may have to mow in that enclosure, in June. That’s not unseasonable, it’s unprecedented.
A little bit of overnight rain will be just what the doctor ordered for your plants. With the sunshine and winter warmth, I’m having to water the plants in the greenhouse. The soil temperature in there was 62’F which is a bit nuts for June. The chilli plants relocated earlier in the week are growing, with new leaves…
Lewis, I’m powerless to prevent more steps and paths being created in the garden, but! They do make my life more manageable. 😉 As a now old fella, breaking up the garden beds into smaller chunks of land, does make managing them easier.
The paths and concrete steps throughout the garden do perform a number of other vital services, and the place gets more productive and easier to clean up with the extra infrastructure and smaller growing spaces. I can forsee a day where I can sit back, then maintain and enjoy what we’ve created. Before then a 12 step program might curb the worst of my excesses! We admit that we are powerless… I so get that.
It’s weird how that is officially denied, and yet, anyone who has to work with the public on the full moon, they know. I’m with you, the effects are concentrated at that time.
That’s blown my mind! Up north of this state which is dissected by the Murray River that rises in the Alpine areas before then flowing through vast arid lands, orchards of citrus trees flourish. The conditions are often perfect for those trees. So a lack of fresh citrus, especially during the winter months, is a situation which I’ve not ever experienced. I’ve never seen them canned. Even today when cleaning up the citrus orchard, I picked the fruit off the youngest trees to add to breakfasts. Of course the tags are now lost to time, but I’m guessing it was some sort of tasty mandarin, maybe.
Go the pecan nuts, and they’d do really well down here too. Big trees, like really huge monsters. That’s a decent price, and tree nuts down here are pricey as well. Chestnuts are what you’d usually see for sale, then walnuts at a smaller scale.
What a fascinating link regarding the two nuts, and now all is clear as to why the walnut trees may have not enjoyed the conditions here (look at the phosphate difference just for starters), yet the pecan thrived. Nothing quite says, not the best soils for walnut trees matey, like the charts displaying which nut had better stuff. Hmm. I might try and track down a pecan tree or three. Can’t hurt. Hope you are keeping up your nut consumption?
Far out! Like seriously, far out! The reality is, if your state takes extra mad cash and pushes up prices for energy, and other states don’t, then businesses and jobs will either close, ask for subsidies, or leave to cheaper jurisdictions. It’s the age old abuse of the commons thing. Take my example of driving in a little Suzuki Jimny Dirt Rat. The thing barely weighs two thousand pounds, but is a perceived better choice because it uses less energy and so produces less pollution. OK, sounds good so far. But gasoline goes off pretty quickly nowadays, so something has to be done with it, and there is more of that liquid energy relative to the stable, and greater in demand energy dense diesel. So I use less of the stuff, and someone driving a much biggerer vehicle theoretically does the rest, but if ever the behemoth smooshes into the Suzi-Rat because due to say, being distracted eating a Marzes-bar, things go very badly for me. The CCA appears stupid, because it creates a non level playing field, but sure, feeling virtuous is nice and all. Is the collected mad cash genuinely used to improve the environment, or does it end up in general revenue? These are important questions.
Go the potato flowers, and I do hope the plants set some seed – that happens here. Interesting, the baby bananas we bought were also sold unripe, but soon softened and were quite tasty. However, they quickly went softened too much, so there is a window of eating opportunity and the hand sold was too big. Anyway, I’ll be curious to read of your experience.
Made another rock gabion cage today. We’re going for the third layer up above the Cantina and new firewood sheds. The dogs ran around all day long, and are wiped out!
Cheers and better get writing!
Chris
Yo, Chris – I take it your referring to Mr. King’s brush with death? Gosh, you go out for a nice quiet walk … I always thought it was ironic that Mr. King gets his life in order, and is then nearly wiped out by a drunk driver. We almost lost our greatest living storyteller, there.
That was an interesting article about the oldster. She doesn’t look a day over 111. 🙂 I am always amused, when reporters ask for the “secret” of longevity. As if there’s some magic bullet. The answers are all there in the article. Keep moving, social connection. I’ll bet she doesn’t have any “bad” habits, either.
Our high yesterday was 59F (15C). Our overnight low was 45F (5C). Our forecast high for today is 65F. It was pretty wet, all things considered, yesterday. We get a break, today. Overcast, but no rain in the forecast. No worries. Back to the rain until Thursday.
Other than locomotion (want the ear worm?), I hadn’t thought about breaking up the beds into more manageable chunks. Makes sense.
That’s an interesting difference. Here, I never see chestnuts for sale, except around Christmas. Yes, a small saucer of nuts gets eaten, after lunch, two days out of three. I nuke them for 35 seconds. Gives them a little extra crunch.
Well, the governor of Montana has just issued an invitation to business, to up sticks and move there. We may also soon pass an income tax, on billionaires. I don’t know if it goes in the general fund, or not. I know a lot of it goes for mass transit.
Popcorn was consumed, last night. I watched “The Bride.” I thought it was engrossing. Although a few scenes could have been cut a bit. Still, I didn’t fast forward through a single moment. Most of the reviews that dinged the movie, objected to its feminist bend. It’s set in the 1930s. Women were getting a pretty raw deal, at the time. Still do. Lew