Category: Gardening

Watched this crazy documentary on Netflix the other night about a story of a family that was involved with a man who kidnapped their daughter. Twice. The real nutty part was that the dude was having sex with the mother and the father, but neither knew about it, all in a ploy to get to the daughter. The last L&O:SVU episode took a part of that story and incorporated into the episode a bit. Needless to say, if you ask me, the parents weren’t too swift to allow all that to happen the way it did. The documentary incase you’re interested is called Abducted in Plain Sight, and let me tell you, it’s a doozy. Just another reason why I much prefer factual things over fiction, since I find most of the times, the factual stuff is even crazier than anyone could dream up. And speaking of factual readings, that book about the women who ran the “Jane” service that I’m just about ready to finish is fascinating. And to think that parts of the country might have to go back to all of that? That’s insane. I heartily recommend the book.

Caught the end of the Celtics Bucks Game 5 last night. God, that was painful to watch in the last seconds.

I think I’m going to participate in the Annual Spring Bike Ride in Cambridge. I haven’t done it in a couple of years so maybe that’ll be a fun thing to do on a Saturday morning upcoming, although I’m probably pretty rusty and really haven’t ridden the bikes in quite a while. We also booked my second covid booster shot for a couple weeks out.

In the late afternoon I finished mowing the front and back lawns, which if you’ve ever been here know that that’s quite a bit. I wanted to get it done though before the real hot weather starts hitting our way tomorrow. As I do every year I dodged the random buttercups that grow in the middle of the back lawn. I don’t care if they’re considered a weed, I like them. Once they’re done blooming I’ll go over them but for now they stay and as a plus provide some nutrients for some local bees and other critters, so it’s ecologically sound. I also transplanted some of the lavender seedings into pots that LD had previously prepared. I still need to do some edging but I’ll try to get to that tomorrow sometime.

Bring us back to this scene, please. I did obtain the Tut tickets, and we’ll be attending in the middle of July, so I’m looking forward to that. I sowed some leftover cosmos seeds in one of the patio pots. Hopefully, they will sprout soon.

The next-door neighbors should not have a cat. When we woke up this morning and looked out the window, we discovered that they essentially leash it to some clothesline setup they have out back so it can walk around outside, but only so long as it stays inside the bounds of the clothesline, do you know what I mean? Anyway, one issue with this setup, which I believe has many, is that when another neighborhood outside cat swings by, things could turn ugly. Kiki, a local cat, came over, and the little leashed cat was not in a pleasant mood, as cats are. Cats are strange creatures, being so territorial and all.

Anyways I think Kiki was more curious that anything. They essentially just stared eachother down, their faces almost touching. There was definitely some tension brewing there. The “owners” of the leashed cat eventually came out and asked whether it was our animal. I went outside to see if I could scare Kiki away, but I couldn’t since there was a fence in the way. Anyway, I informed them that our cat remains indoors, and that the orange cat was named Kiki, and that he resides at a house to the south. Incidentally, we mentioned to them before that our cat stays inside when they asked us if we were missing a cat because one had been living in their basement, for about a month! Uhmmm,, what???! A story for another day, these people are a little whacked. Anyways, the neighbor lady claimed that one of their cats (Kiki’s owners) was killed by a coyote. Even more incentive to keep your cat inside! I see Kiki outside all the time since he’s a tough cookie. He appears to be older than I believe he is. His face reminds me of an old soul, but he’s not a mean or feral cat. He just likes to be outside, shaking his butt on bushes and marking that he’d been there. All of this is to say, and I’ll reiterate, these people should not have a cat. Or any pet for that matter. There was also another story with a dog that they had but I’ll save that for another time.

In the early evening, more commotion over at the same neighbors. Guess one of their daughters was going to her senior prom tonight as she came out in a gown and got picked up by a boy in a tux! They had some family there to taking some pictures. We watched.

And thanks Boston.com for featuring my photo for today!

What better way to celebrate Earth Day than than spending it outside? Because the weather was so wonderful today, we were able to finish off some spring cleaning activities as we prepare for the season’s approaching events. The most important task was to clean the patio, and we were learning as we went. It came out looking really well, in my opinion. I also retrieved the grill from storage, moved a few items, and cleaned the table and chairs. LD went out and bought some more phlox for an area near the fences. The idea was that it would eventually provide a lovely cover, similar to what it had done over the front of the house. The tulips, as well as a bunch of hyacinths, which you can see in the shot, are starting to bloom now, and there are also some small grape hyacinths springing up all over.

Today was spent getting things ready for spring and taking advantage of the opportunity to get things organized.

Vacuumed and assisted with the better arrangement, cleaning, and organization of the sun room – getting there – measured the top of the old toy chest we bought at a yard sale years ago to see if we could purchase some sort of pillow/cushion for the top to turn it into a seat with storage underneath.

I then planted the tubers I dug up last year into one of the raised beds – got them in there before it started drizzling rain outside. Also planted some lily tubers and some other seedlings in a new area out back which is going to be something of a “prairie” type area. LD planted some pansies and hyacinths out front.

Loaded up the car with some crap I hope to dispose of over at Earth-1 next week. Also returning the Big Pencil back to my “Hall of Trophy’s” over there.

Later in the afternoon, we drove to the hardware store and purchased a wrap for the outdoor hose, which I intend to install tomorrow. I’ll be working on LD’s website as well, getting it ready for prime time, over the next week.

It was a wild weather day as today had a little bit of everything, sun, wind, rain, clouds, even a rainbow.

As I began to clean out some of the pots from various detritus and dead plants from last season, a tiny rabbit leapt out of one of the pots and onto the deck! LD attempted to pick him up with the intention of returning him to the pot, but it leaped off the deck, into another pot below, and then scurried out and under the deck. We felt terrible for disturbing it; what if the baby isn’t ready to go out in the wild just yet? On a side note, I believe there was a second bunny in the pot, but it remained concealed. We ran out and got some lettuce just in case they or the mama gets hungry and maybe she can find him and put him back, although I’m not sure if that will happen. The Plight of the baby bunny! I feel horrible for disrupting the nest, but on the bright side, the bunny was well-developed and would have departed on its own in a day or two if I hadn’t intervened I’m thinking.

The photo above is from some flowers I picked up for LD a little while ago. I like having flowers around every now and again, I feel it brightens the place up. I can’t always get the kind of flowers I’d really like to get because they can be poisonous to the pet, but that’s the breaks.

Did a lot of stuff around the house today, even made trips out to some stores to get things to assist in these endeavors. Spring cleaning and all.

Boy oh boy, is it just me, or did the morning appear to be coming at a faster pace today since the time change? Well, no matter, I’m all for extending the daylight hours.

I went ahead and sorted the wood from the demolished old shelves from the basement which was done to make room for the sump pump. The objective is to burn the wood in the fire pit. I’m planning on doing a burn later this week, mainly to get rid of the wood, but also because it’s been a while since we’ve had a fire and I’ve been itching to have one.

I had some time earlier today to relax in the sun and clear off some old dead vegetation. It’s encouraging to see new greenery sprouting from the earth!

Woke up depressed, but later in the afternoon decided to take a walk on the beach and saw this scene, this particular rock just sitting there as is. Figured it make make a good picture. Ups and downs in life. By the afternoon I was feeling much better. It’s not always sun and roses these days but I try to make the best of it and move on. We had a nice late lunch at Sung Harbor before heading back as the sun was beginning to set. Memories to cherish for sure.

And yes, now we have jumped on the Wordle bandwagon. I think the fact that I’ve done thousands of crossword puzzles makes me pretty good at this game.

I got my replacement sprout for the hydroponic garden to replace the one that didn’t take. All the other 5 varieties are growing super fast now, I’m going to have to prune them soon, maybe even eat some!

Met a new dog on shift today. Her name was Lucy and she is just 4 months old but wants to become a therapy dog when she gets older. You wouldn’t believe the number of times people will walk up to me and just start talking, but it’s cool. I get to meet all these local people and I get to be more social. There’s also this younger woman that comes by and always tries to joke with me (and I’m thinking in my head, uhmmm, okay….)

I had a weird dream last night where I saw my grandparents. I rarely seem to have dreams about them. Anyways in this dream I’m with my grandmother in the house I grew up in and were just hanging out and heading into another room. My grandfather is in the other room, with no shirt on, old, and looking like he was going to hit my grandmother with a stick or something. But he stops himself in time. He looks like I remember him toward the end of his life. He appears to be a little demented which I think he was becoming toward the end of his life. I step into the room and he looks like he’s going to hit me with the stick but in an instant there seems to be some recognition of me as his eyes widen, smiles, and appears to come out of the demented state. Then he falls backwards flat on his back and whacks his head solidly on the floor and looks knocked out. I ask my grandmother if we should do something but she says no, it happens all the time and he’ll be fine, seemingly not really caring in the least. He then gets up like nothing happens and heads over to a table that somehow appeared in the room. I look at him, bare-chested and all and tell him that I am worried about him. He tells me he’s ok and there’s nothing to worry about. I must have placed my eyes downward for a second because when I looked back up at him he was young, like when he was in his early twenties that I had seen in old photographs. I tell him again I’m worried about him but he just smiles, and says everything’s ok and then he starts wise cracking, like I imagine he did when he was that age. I then woke up out of the dream with some tears rolling down my face. What this dream could mean I have no idea, but I felt it was worthy of writing down because it was weird, it was of my grandparents, and it made me feel something. So I want to remember it.

Might add more to this post later tonight.. check back ..

I was playing around with taking some photos of some flowers that had raindrops on them and the result of one of them is the photo above. Raindrops on things, especially plant life, always seem to make a good picture, don’t you think so? Also please continue to vote for my other photo, you can do it once a day, and it would mean a lot to me personally. (You have to scroll to the bottom of the page).

Started today by watching some old ST:TNG episodes, some good ones too, like the one where Picard lives a whole lifetime as someone else, and the one where he gets taken prisoner by the Cardassians and they try to break him by making him believe there are 5 lights instead of 4. Classics. I’ve seen them bunches of times. Maybe I should try to watch that new Picard show that came out a year or so ago.

Later in the afternoon I finally got around to mowing the backyard, refilling the bird feeder, making hummingbird water, grilling hot dogs, steak tips and veggies, I ended up eating three of the dogs for lunch, I was so hungry. Usually the most I can eat is 2. If I try to have more I end up feeling sick for whatever reason, but today I had 3, and so far all is good. Must have been all that work I did mowing and such, worked up quite an appetite.

We dropped off some produce at the Sanctuary for the animals but made it back for the late afternoon festivities of having some friends over for S’mores over the firepit visit. That was fun, and lasted about 3 hours, although it didn’t feel that long, time flies when you’re having fun as they say, so not so bad.

Unfortunely earlier in the day I kind of ripped my healing thumb again–owwwww! Is this thing ever going to heal!? Not if I keep ripping it open, right?